Abstract
The Cuban experience in Miami has always been characterized by periods of unspoken distancing between exoduses of Cubans from Cuba and Cuban-Americans. Cubans began to massively migrate to the U.S. in the early sixties. The first big clash between Cuban exoduses took place in 1980, twenty years after Fidel Castro took power in the island nation. Twenty years of separation from the homeland allowed Cubans in Miami to assimilate to the American culture and become Americanized while Cubans in the island had been exposed to a Marxist-Leninist system, Castro’s style. This last exodus, still taking place, has created a new cultural, political and moral clash among Cubans in Miami. The newly arrived men and women are hardly recognizable to Cubans and Cuban-Americans who came over more than twenty, thirty, forty, fifty and sixty years ago. The way newly arrived Cubans think, act and perform cubanness differs from the always held ideal of what a Cuban is and should be, based on father Varela’s early writings on Cuban identity, Jose de la Luz y Caballero’s ideas on education and Cuban apostle Jose Marti’s articulations on Cuban patriots. The ideal of a classic Cuban has led the first waves of exiles to adhere to their own sense of cubanidad despite their forced separation from the homeland. By using interviews, social media and published articles, this study delves into the dynamics of such differences, the consequences they have in the short run and how they could be reconciled in the future.
Presenters
Jorge Morejon BenitezLecturer, Department of Vocal Performance, University of Miami, Florida, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Vectors of Society and Culture
KEYWORDS
Exodus, Exile, Cubanness, Migration, Displacement
