Description
Berghahn Books Diasporic Generations Memory Politics and Nation among Cubans in Spain 2011 Edition by Mette Louise Berg
Interpretations of the background to the Cuban diaspora - a political revolution and the subsequent radical transformation of the society and economy towards socialism - are politicised and highly contested. The Miami-based Cuban diaspora has had extraordinary success in putting its case high on the US political agenda and in capturing world media attention, but in the process the multiplicity of experiences within the diaspora has been overshadowed. This book gives voice to diasporic Cubans living in Spain, the former colonial ruler of Cuba. By focusing on their lived experiences of displacement, the book brings to light imaginative, narrative re-creations of the nation from afar. Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, the book argues that the Cuban diaspora in Spain consists of three diasporic generations, generated through distinct migratory experiences. This constitutes an important step forward in understanding the dynamics of memory-making and social differentiation within diasporas, and in appreciating why people within the same diaspora engage in different modes of transnational practices and homeland relations. Table of contents :- Introduction: The Changing Contours of a Contested Island Writing Cuba and Its DiasporaCubans in SpainPost-colonial Subjects and Metropolitan Romance: Racialising CubannessEncounters in CadizOutline of the BookChapter 1. Ethnography and the Politics of FieldworkDoing Research in a Politicised Field Chapter 2. Diasporic GenerationsConceptualising GenerationCuba's Contested PastDecolonisation, Independence and Spanish Migration to CubaFrom Republic to RevolutionThe Creation of a Cuban Diaspora post-1959Emigration from Cuba after 1959Conclusion Chapter 3. The Exiles: Bitterness and Nostalgia for a Lost Havana The Centro Cubano, the Circulo Catolico and the Pena: Geographies of LongingExilic Time-Spaces and Longing for CubaIsabel and the Politicisation of Everyday LifeFractured Families: MarianitoRicardo: Conflicts Between New and Old CubaSergio: 'A Right-wing Dictatorship is not the Same as a Left-wing Dictatorship'Conclusion Chapter 4. The Children of the Revolution: Creating a Post-Cuban Space Cuba's Hombre NuevoEncuentro de la Cultura CubanaOn Labelling and Name CallingBecaming and Feeling like a 'Traidor': Ivan and MaidaCounter-Discourses of Cosmopolitanism Conclusion Chapter 5. The Migrants: Minimal Homelands Marriage MigrationCommodified CubannessLucy: 'In Spain I Have More Freedom'Cesar and the Elusive Abundance of 'El Capitalismo'Oscar: 'I Had to Start from Zero'Puente Familiar con Cuba: a New Politics of Memory and HomelandMirta and the Ambiguities of DistanceConclusion Chapter 6. Gender, Diaspora, and the Body Time-Spaces, Memory and ForgettingThe 'Pain of Cuba': Emotional Landscapes of BelongingTemporal and Spatial AlienationThe 'Fluids of Destiny:' Beyond Trench ThinkingGenderLife-stages and life-crisesIdentity Discourses Chapter 7. The Memory of Politics and the Politics of Memory Glossary of Spanish wordsReferences citedNotes