Miami’s Forgotten Cubans: Race, Racialization, and the Miami Afro-Cuban Experience PDF
Preview Miami’s Forgotten Cubans: Race, Racialization, and the Miami Afro-Cuban Experience
Alan A. Aja MIAMI’S FF OO RR GG OO TT TT EE NN CUBANS Race, Racialization and the Miami Afro-Cuban Experience Afro-Latin@ Diasporas The Afro-Latin@ Diasporas Book Series publishes scholarly and cre- ative writing on the African diasporic experience in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. The Series includes books which address all aspects of Afro-Latin@ life and cultural expression throughout the hemisphere, with a strong focus on Afro-Latin@s in the United States. This Series is the fi rst-of-its-kind to combine such a broad range of topics, including religion, race, transnational identity, history, literature, music and the arts, social and cultural theory, biography, class and economic relations, gender, sexuality, sociology, politics, and migration. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14759 Alan A . Aja Miami’s Forgotten Cubans Race, Racialization, and the Miami Afro-Cuban Experience Alan A. Aja Brooklyn College, CUNY Brooklyn, New York, USA Afro-Latin@ Diasporas ISBN 978-1-137-57523-4 ISBN 978-1-137-57045-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-57045-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016946177 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2 016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover image © Keystone Pictures USA / Alamy Stock Photo Series logo inspired by “Le Marron Inconnu” by Haitian sculptor Albert Mangones Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Nature America Inc. New York Series Dedication The 2016 publications in the Afro-Latin@ Diasporas Book Series are in loving memory of Juan Flores, teacher, mentor, scholar, and friend. Author’s Dedication For Wendy and Liam, mis queridos. For the Abuelos; Joaquín, Cubita (Ana), Elena, and Antonio, and mi Abuela Kiki (Blanca Rodríguez Aja), who now rest in peace. For my parents Loyda and Tony and mi familia in Brooklyn, Santa Fe, Loveland, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Louisville, and Miami. For those who nurtured my life trajectory and provided unconditional support, from London to Austin to Boston to Buenos Aires to La Habana, with specifi c dedication to my Afro-Cuban herman@s. And for my former professor and scholarly ally for racial justice, Juan Flores—1945–2014. Rest in Power. F OREWORD The American Ideal of Racial Progress Is Viewed by How Fast I Become White,” James Baldwin, T he Cross of Redemption Of strange coincidence, on August 13 (of 2014), the same day my father, a 1967 arrival from L a Habana , Cuba, was born, I fi nished my fi rst prelimi- nary draft of this book. 1 It is also the same day that Fidel Castro Ruz was born (in 1926), the revolutionary fi gure that for so many Cuban Americans is vilifi ed and blamed for the supposed struggle we have endured since our entry into “e l exilio .” That the contrary is more true, that Cuban exiles and their children, especially “white” Cubans like my family members, live better in the USA if not the same as we did in Cuba, is a profound understatement. In Miami, born and raised amid the occasional palm tree, small mani- cured lawns, and Cuban-owned t ienditas (little stores) of Little Havana, then following the paths of “spatial assimilation” into the expanding strip malls beyond G uecheste (Westchester) and into the West Kendall suburban developments, it was this mythology to which we clung. 2 In one of the more critical books on the Cuban exilic experience, L a Lucha for Cuba: Religion and Politics on the Streets of Miami , religious scholar Miguel de la Torre (2003) argues that the supposed “struggle” we have endured in Miami, the heart of the Diaspora, is best symbolized through the religious expression L a Lucha (the struggle). This expression, embedded in the con- tours of an ethno-nationalism and a transplanted m achismo designed to reinforce intersectional structures of gender, race and class serves as means to justify the power and privilege exiles and their children have accumu- lated over time in South Florida. This “struggle” essentially undergirded ix
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