ABSTRACT
The feeling of laissez-faire experienced in the fiestas included physical contact and sexual activities taking place in dark corners, in great contrast to the physical distance gays were obliged to keep when outside this space. The two different kinds of gay fiestas in Havana on weekends: the smaller parties at private homes and the big semi-public fiestas, usually staged in open spaces on the outskirts of town, such as those held in the Parque Lenin during the last years of the research period. Migel remembers the pre-Special Period fiestas de diez pesos and much prefers them as they are now. He sums up the role of the semi-public fiestas in maintaining Havana's gay scene. Havana has always been a party town for gays, and the gay fiestas were, the emblem of homosexual social life in Havana. Clothes with brand names and logos have dominated the attire of young Cuban gays in the fiestas since the late 1990s.
