Probable Causes and Consequences of Jineterismo
In 1994 while a student at Amherst College, I spent a semester at the University of Havana and lived in Old Havana. During my stay I became particularly interested in a prominent youth subculture called jineterismo and did research into what motivates 18-25 year-old males to become jineteros. Jinetero is the Spanish word for jockey, but an article in the newspaper Juventud Rebelde, "Flowers on Fifth Avenue" (January 20, 1994), provides a different definition. The article claimed that Mexicans gave the word its contemporary meaning: people who earn money in illegal or opportunistic ways. Jineteras are prostitutes; jineteros are young men in ostentatious clothing and jewelry who wait outside airports, hotels, and dance clubs hustling tourists and earning U.S.