The Historical Articulation of

653 Pages·2017·32.25 MB·English

by  Sara Garcia

The Historical Articulation of ‘the People’
in Revolutionary Cuba.
Media Discourses of Unity in
Times of National Debate (1990-2012)

By:

Sara García Santamaría

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

The University of Sheffield
Faculty of Social Sciences
Department of Journalism Studies

Submission Date
9 February 2017
Table of Content
Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................... 1
Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 4
Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5
Analytical and Methodological Rationale ................................................................................ 6
The Roots of Cuban Revolutionary Discourse ......................................................................... 9
Contextualising the IV and VI Congresses of the Communist Party of Cuba .......................... 13
Current Debates in a Post-Fidel Cuba .................................................................................... 17
The Challenge of Researching a Divided Cuba ...................................................................... 18
Cuba in the Field of Latin American Studies ......................................................................... 19
Thesis Structure .................................................................................................................... 21
Chapter 1: The Origins of Cuban Populism ............................................................................... 23
1.1 - The ‘Universal’ Clusters of Populism ............................................................................ 23
1.1.1 - Constructing ‘the People’ of Populism .................................................................... 25
1.1.2 - ‘The Enemy’ in Populist Discourse ......................................................................... 30
1.1.3 - Populism and Charismatic Leadership .................................................................... 33
1.1.4 - The Historical Articulation of the Nation ................................................................ 37
1.2 - Media and Populism in Cuba ......................................................................................... 41
1.2.1 - The Roots of the Revolutionary Media System ....................................................... 43
1.2.2 - Towards a Conceptualisation of Cuban Media ........................................................ 48
1.2.3 - Ideological Fluctuation and the Cuban Media ......................................................... 51
1.2.4 - Cuban Media in the 21st Century ............................................................................ 53
Final Remarks ....................................................................................................................... 55
Chapter 2: Literature Review .................................................................................................... 57
2.1 - What is Populism? ........................................................................................................ 57
2.1.1 - Populism and Democracy ....................................................................................... 60
2.2 - Conceptual Approaches to Populism ............................................................................. 64
2.2.1 - Structural Approaches to Populism ......................................................................... 64
2.2.2 - Economic Approaches to Populism......................................................................... 65
2.2.3 - Ideational Conceptualisations of Populism .............................................................. 66
2.2.4 - Discursive Conceptualisations of Populism ............................................................. 69
2.3 - The Discourse Theoretical Approach to Populism ......................................................... 70
2.3.1 - The Logic of Articulation ....................................................................................... 72
2.3.2 - The Logic of Disarticulation ................................................................................... 74
2.3.3 - Alternative Approaches to Laclau’s Discourse Theory ............................................ 75
2.4 - The Study of Populism through Media Discourse .......................................................... 77
2.4.1 - Can the Media promote Populism? ......................................................................... 79
2.5 - Media and Populism in Latin America ........................................................................... 84
2.5.1 - From Populist Discourse to Populism as a Communicational Strategy..................... 87
2.5.2 - From Populist Discourse to Populist Media Systems ............................................... 92
2.5.3 - The Media, ‘the People’ and the Cuban Experience ............................................... 97
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 100
Chapter 3: Methodology ......................................................................................................... 102
3.1 - Case Study .................................................................................................................. 102
3.1.1 - Periodisation ........................................................................................................ 103
3.1.2 - Newspaper and Interviewee Selection ................................................................... 106
3.2 - Analytical Framework ................................................................................................. 109
3.2.1 - Discourse Theoretical Analysis (DTA) ................................................................. 110
3.2.2 - Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) ................................................................. 111
3.3 - Mixed Methods Approach ........................................................................................... 113
3.3.1 - Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) ....................................................................... 113
3.3.2 - Content Analysis .................................................................................................. 114
3.3.3 - Interviews ............................................................................................................ 116
3.4 - Methodological Rationale ........................................................................................... 117
3.5 - Sampling and Data Analysis ........................................................................................ 121
3.6 - Positionality ................................................................................................................ 125
Final Remarks ..................................................................................................................... 128
Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion I. The Articulation of Unity in Periods of National Debate 129
4.1 - Who are ‘the Cuban People’? The Articulation of Collective Identity .......................... 130
4.1.1 - The Heroic People ................................................................................................ 131
4.1.2 – The Working Class .............................................................................................. 133
4.1.3 - The Young People ................................................................................................ 134
4.1.4 - Other Categories of ‘the People’ ........................................................................... 136
4.2 - The Roles and Values of ‘the Cuban People’ ............................................................... 137
4.3 - Articulating ‘the Enemy’: The Frontiers of Collective Belonging................................. 142
4.3.1 - The Internal Enemy .............................................................................................. 142
4.3.2 - The External Threat .............................................................................................. 145
4.3.3 - Internalisation versus Externalisation .................................................................... 150
4.4 - The Roles and Values of ‘the Enemy’.......................................................................... 151
4.4.1 - Historical and Geographical Equivalence .............................................................. 153
4.6 - The Unifying Power of History ................................................................................... 155
4.7 - The Discursive Articulation of Unity ........................................................................... 162
4.7.1 - The Single Party as an Embodiment of Unity ........................................................ 163
4.7.2 - The Leader as the Embodiment of Unity ............................................................... 166
4.7.3 - Collective Emotions as Unity ............................................................................... 168
4.7.4 - Individual Difference as Unity .............................................................................. 170
4.8 - Discussion: The Articulation of Collective Identity...................................................... 174
4.8.1 - Granma’s Construction of ‘the People’ ................................................................. 177
4.8.2 - The Collective Roles and Values of ‘the Cuban People’ ........................................ 182
Final Remarks ..................................................................................................................... 183
Chapter 5: Findings and Discussion II. The Disarticulation of Unity ........................................ 185
5.1 - The Hegemonic Construction of Debate ...................................................................... 185
5.2 - Discursive Changes ..................................................................................................... 188
5.2.1 - The ‘Special Period in Time of Peace’ .................................................................. 191
5.2.2 - ‘Updating’ Cuban Socialism ................................................................................. 195
5.3 - Official Limits to Debate ............................................................................................. 196
5.4 - The Role of the Media in the Debates .......................................................................... 201
5.5 - Discussion: The Disarticulation of Collective Identity ................................................. 205
5.5.1 - The Logic of Equivalence versus the Logic of Difference ..................................... 206
5.5.2 - Populism and the Establishment ........................................................................... 209
5.5.3 - The Exhaustion of Populist Discourse ................................................................... 211
5.5.4 - The Disinstitutionalisation of Public Debate ......................................................... 212
Final Remarks ..................................................................................................................... 214
Chapter 6: Findings III. Journalists’ Rearticulation of a People-Party Unity ............................. 216
6.1 - Journalists’ Rearticulation of Revolutionary Discourse ................................................ 217
6.1.1 - The Roots of Journalists’ Professional Demands ................................................... 218
6.2 - The Rearticulation of Journalists’ Belonging ............................................................... 221
6.2.1 - Back to ‘the People’: Journalism and Popular Empowerment ................................ 223
6.2.2 - Can ‘the Enemy’ be ‘Normalised’? ....................................................................... 226
6.3 - Sources of Resistance to Change ................................................................................. 231
6.3.1 - The Focus on Journalists’ Self-Rectification ......................................................... 232
6.3.2 - From Individual Struggle to Collective Action ...................................................... 235
6.4 - Sources of Change in Cuban Journalism ...................................................................... 236
6.4.1 - Digital Technologies ............................................................................................ 236
6.4.2 - The ‘Updating’ of the Cuban System .................................................................... 239
6.4.3 - The Leverage of Cuban Academia ........................................................................ 240
6.4.4 - The Focus on Political Will .................................................................................. 242
6.5 - Discussion: The Rearticulation of Collective Identity .................................................. 245
6.5.1 - The Rearticulation of Nodal Points ....................................................................... 245
6.5.2 - The ‘Updating’ of the Cuban Media...................................................................... 249
6.5.3 - Repackaging the Media in the Digital Age ............................................................ 251
6.5.4 - Towards the Rearticulation of the Media System .................................................. 254
Final Remarks ..................................................................................................................... 256
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 257
Reflections on the Rearticulation of Cuban Journalism ........................................................ 260
Current Debates in Cuba ..................................................................................................... 263
The ‘Normalisation’ of an Antagonistic Enemy ................................................................... 264
Limitations and Future Research ......................................................................................... 265
Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 267
Annexes .................................................................................................................................. 292
Annex I: Access to Thesis Form .......................................................................................... 292
Annex II: Content Analysis ................................................................................................. 293
Annex III: Evidence of Analysis in Atlas.ti.......................................................................... 306
Annex IV: List of Interviewees, Institutional Affiliation and Code....................................... 322
Annex V: Consent Forms .................................................................................................... 324
Annex VI: Informative Letter to Respondents...................................................................... 398
Annex VII: Transcription of Interviews ............................................................................... 401
Annex VIII: Newspaper Articles in Chronological Order ..................................................... 616
Acknowledgements
Over the course of my research, I have had the privilege of meeting some leading Cuban scholars
whose knowledge of 19th-century history helped me to better understand the historical roots of
Cuban revolutionary discourse. In a country like Cuba, where bookstore shelves are often sparse,
and reeditions of reference books are scarce, these individuals helped me immensely by lending
me old copies of manuscripts, and even making ‘special calls’ so that I could access special
editions. I would like to thank Fernando Martínez Heredia, Hilda Saladrigas (Faculty of
Communication) and Aylinn Torres (Instituto Juan Marinello) for sharing their passion and their
knowledge with me. The historical nuances that I learnt from our intellectual debates are
invaluable. It is in their tiny offices and living rooms, inundated by stacks of books shooting up
from the floor, piled high on coffee tables, spilling out of cardboard boxes, which formed a rustic
skyline, where I spent some of the most enjoyable moments of my research. I remember feeling
faint from the stifling heat while Fernando Martínez Heredia talked incessantly about the ruthless
Spanish management of the colony, and the way in which the Spanish intransigence became a key
element for unifying those who felt excluded by the colonial articulation of Cubanness.
I would like to send a special thank you to Orlando Pérez (University of Roehampton), who was
my first contact from Cuba. Despite not knowing me, he put me in touch with potential tutors at
the Faculty of Communication where he used to teach. While all Orlando’s help was priceless,
obtaining a student visa in Cuba would prove a trying task, full of bureaucratic obstacles. It was
only after months of unanswered emails, and overpriced long-distance phone calls placed in vain,
that I got in touch with Professor Rayza Portal. Rayza gladly agreed to be my tutor and
introduced me to the brightest people at the Faculty. Her sharp wit and dry humour had earned
her much respect among her colleagues which would help me get my first few interviews. She is
an incredibly honest, powerful, and talented person, and I very possibly could have drowned in a
bureaucratic swamp if not for her help.
This project also could not have been possible without the support of Raúl Garcés, Dean of the
Faculty of Communication in Havana. His confidence in research as a tool for societal change
would lead him to welcome a foreign student with an ambitious project, a project that he himself
admitted would not have been possible in Cuba a few years prior. I would like to thank the
Faculty of Communication at University of Havana for putting academic research above
everything, and for making me feel valued and respected as a professional.
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I am also very grateful to all the journalists and academics who accepted to participate in this
project. I am thankful to those who spoke from their heart, yet also very appreciative to those
who, despite the pressure of their position, still decided to take part.
The Hennessy Collection at the University of Nottingham offered me the opportunity to immerse
myself in Cuban culture while in the UK. I am very thankful to Tony Kapcia for making
Nottingham a meeting point for foreign researchers and Cuban scholars alike, and for
encouraging an environment for academic debate, and respect. It is partly due to Kapcia’s
‘fidelometre’ (the idea that trying to understand the Island by focusing on a single political leader
misses a great deal of the overall picture) that my work did not become another thesis on
Castroism.
This project benefited from the financial support of La Caixa Foundation (Funcació La Caixa),
who funded a great part of my postgraduate studies. I still remember the morning of the
interview, when a friend advised me to ‘put on a front’, and to sell myself. I did not, and obtained
the scholarship. Therefore, I thank La Caixa for choosing people who are genuine, and talented. I
am very thankful to the David Nicholls Memorial Trust (University of Oxford) and to the Latin
American Studies Association (LASA), who funded part of my fieldwork.
I would like to dedicate this thesis to those in my family who have not had the same opportunities
as myself. To my grandparents who, caught up in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, became
practitioners without a degree. Visiting their hometowns in summer, it has always dazzled me
how valued and respected they were in the community. I would like to thank my mother, who has
been the most inspiring person throughout my life. She sat by my side and learnt with me through
every stage of my education. Her hunger for learning led me to understand, from a very early age,
the importance of knowledge. I also have to thank my father for a great deal of my academic
success, as well. It was his obsession with history that motivated me to read book upon book,
sometimes with the secret goal of challenging his views, I have to admit. I would like to dedicate
this project to my sisters Paulina and Lola, and my brother Pepe who, because of the significant
age gap between us, grew up in another Spain, a Spain that did not offer them the same
opportunities I would have. I hope very much that my nephews Pepe, Chimo, Ana, Juan Carlos
and Paulova find some inspiration in my work, the same way I found it in that of my
grandparents.
I cannot thank my wonderful husband Jason enough for always nudging me to follow my dreams.
His boundless curiosity, his enthusiasm, and his encouragement have all helped to bring me joy in
my every day. I have very much enjoyed spending time with his family: Jenny, Iain, Sheryl, Joe
and Precious, who have all supported me throughout this process. They attended conferences with
me, and were always the loudest to applaud in the audience (I should mention that, Precious, their
Havanese puppy, even got to meet Noam Chomsky in New York).
I would like to express how fortunate I have been to know my host for a year, Ali Shankland. She
opened the doors of her gorgeous home in Sheffield to me at a critical time in my research. She
has become a second mother to me, showing me British customs, preparing me countless cups of
tea and always giving me a very much needed ‘well done’ after an exhausting day. She has also
made attempts to change my incorrigible American accent which I have to say comes out better
some days than others.
Throughout these past years, I have also had some very supportive and inspiring flatmates. I
would like to thank the two Lupitas and Guillermo for all those long chats in the kitchen around
Mexican meals that would always make my day. I loved our habit of exchanging books, and our
long walks in the Peak District. I am very thankful to my supervisors Jairo Lugo-Ocando and
John Steel for their wholehearted support. They have had faith in me and in my project from day
one, nurturing and guiding me with their experience and their talent. Their encouragement has
been essential at every step of the way, especially in the final months of my research.
A very special thank you goes to the London team of ATD, who always greeted me with a open
arms. I cannot express how much I grew as a person during my time there, and how I learned the
importance of being an active member of the community. I had a great year with Amanda,
Patricia, Emily, Veronique, Chiara, Naomi, Dann, Andy, Alain, Sumboon and all the activists.
I would like to thank all my colleagues at the Department of Journalism Studies at Sheffield. All
of you have set the bar very high. You have been supportive of every event and every project that
I have undertaken. Very special thanks goes to Ximena Orchard and Julieta Brambila, who were
my first friends in Sheffield. With them, I have travelled the world from conference to
conference, always thinking up a million projects that we want to undertake together.
I would like to end the acknowledgements segment with a quote from José Martí, the Cuban
independence leader, poet, and journalist: ‘Out of all the crafts, I prefer that of printing, because
it is the one that has best advanced human dignity’. It is this conviction what has guided my
journalistic career from the start and that, I am convinced, has motivated generations of people
around the world to become journalists, even under challenging circumstances.