ABSTRACT
Tito's insistence on being called "The Cuban Missile Crisis of Burlesque" gestures toward the fact that his "missile" is attempting to replace the military missiles that have characterized Cuban exile masculinity since the 1960s. His "missile" causes a crisis in the sexuality of some individual audience members, and in the collective appeal to hetero-masculinity held by the Cuban exile community. Tito's relationship to the categories of "Cubanidad," "Americanness," "masculinity," and "femininity" are the result of not only his personal upbringing, but also the larger context of Cuban-American relations in the 20th and 21st centuries. Tito emerges furtively from the dark, playing a tiny bongo and holding a small American flag. He wears a white guayabera, khaki pants, and flip flops—identifiable as typical Cuban male gear. Tito uses his classically masculine gender presentation—particularly when he hosts shows in suit and tie—to gain audience trust.
