Abstract
The formation of Cuban national identity has been shaped by influences exerted by external forces and the response of Cubans to these. In the nineteenth century, identity and consciousness of citizenship became inextricably linked with the struggle for independence from Spain. During the post-colonial period, the main determinant in the evolution of Cuban identity was the relationship with the United States. This was a complex interaction based upon political control, economic penetration, military domination and cultural assimilation. After the 1959 Revolution — despite other important relationships that Cuba found itself involved in — the major external presence continued to be the United States. As the foreign policy of the latter has been to deny the right of the Revolution to exist and to attempt to negate Cuba’s independence in the international arena, pride in national identity has assumed immense significance for those remaining on the island.
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Notes
L. A. Pérez Jr, On Becoming Cuban. Identity, Nationality and Culture (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), pp. 5 and 9.
G M. Joseph, ‘Close Encounters. Towards a New Cultural History of US-Latin American Relations’ in G M. Joseph, C. C. Legrand and R. D. Salvatore (eds). Close Encounters of Empire. Writing the Cultural History of US-Latin American Relations (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1998), p. 4.
C. Schmidt-Nowara, Empire and Antislavery. Spain, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, 1833–1874 (Pittsburgh, Pa: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999), p. 19.
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Jefferson, quoted in R. W. Van Alstyne, The Rising American Empire (Chicago: Quadrangle, 1960), p. 88 and Quincy Adams, quoted in P. Schwab, Cuba. Confronting the US Embargo (Basingstoke: Macmillan — now Palgrave Macmillan, 1999), vii.
B. Weinberg, Homage to Chiapas. The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico (London: Verso, 2000), p. 40.
Quoted in D. Deutschmann (ed.), Che Guevara Reader. Writings on Guerrilla Strategy, Politics and Revolution (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 1997), p. 19.
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C. D. Ameringer, The Cuban Democratic Experience. The Auténtico Years, 1944–1952 (Gainesville, Fla: University Press of Florida, 2000), p. 2.
A. Kapcia, Cuba: Island of Dreams (Oxford: Berg, 2000), p. 60. It was also an extremely unstable politics with Liberal rebellions in 1905 and 1917. Such instability was seen as justifying further US military incursions under the terms of Platt.
Morley, Imperial State, p. 31. Jorge Ibarra, Prologue to Revolution, Cuba, 1898–1958 (Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1998) offers a useful description of class structures, economic processes, differentiation by gender and ethnicity and rural-urban dichotomies during the period.
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Quoted by E. Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America. Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1973), p. 82.
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R. Schwartz, Pleasure Island. Tourism and Temptation in Cuba (Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1997), p. 21.
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An interesting account is given by G. Jacobs, ‘CuBop! Afro-Cuban Music and Mid-Twentieth Century American Music’ in L. Brock and D. Castañeda Fuertes (eds). Between Race and Empire. African-Americans and Cubans before the Cuban Revolution (Philadelphia, Pa: Temple University Press, 1998).
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This issue is discussed by R. Duharte Jiménez, ‘The 19th Century Black Fear’ in P. Pérez Sarduy and J. Stubbs (eds), AfroCuba. An Anthology of Cuban Writing on Race, Politics and Culture (Melbourne: Ocean Press, 1993).
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These linkages are discussed by R. Scott, Slave Emancipation in Cuba: the Transition to Free Labor, 1860–1899 (Pittsburgh, Pa: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000).
E. Dore, ‘Introduction’ in D. Rubiera Castillo, Reyita. The Life of a Black Cuban Woman in the Twentieth Century (London: Latin American Bureau, 2000), p. 5.
For an account of the evolution of santería see M. Barnet, ‘La Regla de Ocha. The Religious System of Santería’ in M. Fernández Olmos and L. Paravisini-Gebert (eds). Sacred Possessions. Vodou, Santería, Obeah and the Caribbean (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1999).
The concept of ‘the black public space’ is discussed by M. A. Neale, What the Music Said. Black Popular Music and Black Popular Culture (New York: Routledge, 1999).
See K. Kampwirth, Women and Guerrilla Movements. Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chiapas, Cuba (Pittsburgh, Pa: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002). Women largely managed the 26 July Movement whilst Castro and the other men were imprisoned on the Isle of Pines after Moncada. Espín worked alongside Frank País in Santiago de Cuba whilst Santamaría raised funds in Miami. Women were also prominent in the Movimiento Resistencia Civica (MRC, the Civic Resistance Movement), a broad front which provided money, medicine and supplies to the guerrillas.
M. C. García, Havana, USA: Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida, 1959–1994 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996), p. 94.
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© 2004 Geraldine Lievesley
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Lievesley, G. (2004). The Politics of National Identity. In: The Cuban Revolution. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403943972_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403943972_3
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