1. The term Cuban American, which refers to Cubans residing in the United States, is an artificial designation amalgamating "who they are" and "where they live." It is the name given to Cubans in the United States by the dominant culture, not a name they choose. Most simply refer to themselves as Cubans. The term attempts to reconcile two distinct cultures into one, creating within the Cuban a dichotomous existence. As "Cuban Americans" they are too Cuban to be accepted by this country and too Americanized to be accepted by their native compatriots. Because self-naming is a powerful and liberating praxis, in this book Cubans are defined as all individuals who were born in Cuba, regardless of where they live now, or all those who were born on foreign land but choose to identify culturally with being Cuban. Resident Cubans refers to those who inhabit the island of Cuba; Exilic Cubans refers to those in the diaspora who reside mainly within the United States, specifically in Miami, Florida. Because exile spans generations, Exilic Cubans also includes those who were neither born nor raised on the island yet whose identity was forged by their parents’ act of (re)membering Cuba from the social location of exile. Although Exilic Cubans are not a monolithic group, they are united, no matter how loosely, by the experience of being separated from the island that defines them.

2. Eunice Ponce and Elaine de Valle, "Mania over Elián Rising," Miami Herald, January 10, 2000.

3. Wilfredo Cancio Isla, "Los Reyes Mago a los pies de Elián," El Nuevo Herald, January 10, 2000.

4. Alejandra Matus, "El fevor religioso aumenta entre los manifestantes frente a la casa de Elián," El Nuevo Herald, April 22, 2000.

5. Joaquim Utset, "Devotos de la Virgen dicen ver una señal contra el regreso del niño," El Nuevo Herald, March 26, 2000.

6. Matus, "El fevor religioso."

7. Meg Laughlin, "Prayer Vigil Lifts Elián Fervor to New High," Miami Herald, March 31, 2000.

8. "Ceremony Set to Honor Elián's Mom," Miami Herald, May 14, 2000.

9. Amy Driscoll and Sandra Marquez-Garcia, "Thousand Join Glowing Prayer Vigil," Miami Herald, March 30, 2000.

10. D. Aileen Dodd, "Catholic Leaders Low-Profile," Miami Herald, April 15, 2000.

11. D. Aileen Dodd, "Elián a Bridge Linking Rival Faiths," Miami Herald, April 10, 2000.

12. Rui Ferreira, "Vigilia permanente en casa de Elián," El Nuevo Herald, April 5, 2000.

13. Dodd, "Elián a Bridge."

14. Joaquin Utset, "Miles de personas participan en virilia en Miami," El Nuevo Herald, April 11, 2000.

15. Laughlin, "Prayer Vigil."

16. Maria Travierso and Charles Cotayo, "Elián, un niño ‘milagroso’ hecho símbolo," El Nuevo Herald, March 6, 2000.

17. Edward Wasserman, "Elian, the Unifier?" Broward Daily Business Review, April 24, 2000.

18. Paul Brinkley-Rogers, "Protestors from Abroad Flock to Home," Miami Herald, April 19, 2000.

19. Daniel Shoer Roth, "Los cubanos se ven reflejados en el niño balsero," El Nuevo Herald, January 7, 2000.

20. "Elián's Lawyer: Why an Observant Jew Is Fighting to Keep Him Here," Chicago Jewish News, January 28, 2000.

21. Travierso and Cotayo, "Elián, un niño ‘milagroso.’ "

22. Travierso and Cotayo, "Elián, un niño ‘milagroso.’ "

23. Ponce and de Valle, "Mania over Elián."

24. J. Utset and R. Ferreira, "De la protesta cívica al júbilo popular," El Nuevo Herald, January 9, 2000.

25. Roth, "Los cubanos."

26. Karen Branch, "Adult Exiles Recall Cuban Childhoods," Miami Herald, April 15, 2000.

27. Roth, "Los cubanos."

28. Daniel A. Grech, "Pastors Join Criticism, but Appeal for Calm," Miami Herald, April 23, 2000.

29. Andrea Robinson, "A Community Looks to Heal," Miami Herald, April 24, 2000.

30. "Little Cousin's Dream Strengthens Exiles’ Faith Boy Will Stay in U.S.," Miami Herald, April 24, 2000.

31. Concilio Cubano is an umbrella organization representing numerous dissident factions that present the most significant political challenge to the Castro regime. It is interesting to note that they do not call for the overthrow of the government; rather, they are demanding freedom of expression, which remains a violation of the present penal code, punishable by up to seven years in prison.

32. Cuba has many competing dissident groups. Some advocate a free-market economy; others are socialist and are disenchanted with present conditions; some are religious groups; some are composed of independent journalists; still others are former prisoners of conscience, human right advocates, and unrecognized political party leaders. Probably the most critical challenge to Castro's political power is the Varela Project, spotlighted on the island during former president Jimmy Carter's 2002 visit. The Varela Project gathered 11,020 signatures for a petition requesting that the National Assembly (in accord with Articles 63 and 88 of the Cuban constitution) hold a referendum asking voters if they favor human rights, amnesty for political prisoners, the right to own a business, and electoral reforms.

33. It is important to note that criticizing the Exilic Cuban sociopolitical ethos does not automatically mean defending present Resident Cuban political structures. Existing intra-Cuban hostility rests on the fallacy of this dichotomy. Cubans are forced to choose between two options only: Miami's capitalism and La Habana's Fidelismo. Criticizing one side leads to the risk of being labeled a supporter of the other. Because the focus of this book is on the Miami Exilic community, little will be written about the present Resident Cuban position or any other Cuban position outside of Dade County.

34. I recognize that Christianity is not, nor should it be, the only model through which Cuban spirituality can be understood. As previously mentioned, religions like Santería, Judaism, and Islam are also practiced by many Cubans and are crucial in any understanding of cubanidad. This book concentrates on Christianity because it has remained the "official" religious expression of Exilic Cubans and, as such, has been most prone to influencing political views.

35. Fernando Ortiz was the first to use ajiaco as a metaphor for the Cuban experience. He used this term within the context of a Cuba composed of immigrants who, unlike those of the United States, reached the island on their way to someplace else. His usage of ajiaco did not indicate his belief that Cuban culture achieved complete integration; rather, the ajiaco is still simmering on the Caribbean stove and has not yet become fully blended (1940, 165–69). Rather than accenting the immigrants, I use this term to refer to the distinctive nexus of the Cuban's heredity, specifically their Amerindian, African, Spaniard, Asian, and Euroamerican roots. While I portray the ajiaco metaphor as positive, Ortiz included a racist element in his ethnology. This is evident when he described the negative aspects of the ajiaco. He wrote:

The white race influenced the Cuban underworld through European vices, modified and aggravated under certain aspects by the social factor of the children of the ambient. The black race provided its superstitions, its sensualism, its impulsiveness, in short, its African psyche. The yellow race brought the addiction of opium, its homosexual vices, and other refined corruptions of its secular civilization. (1973, 19)

Furthermore, Ortiz advocated that immigration solely from northern Europe in order to "sow among us the germs of energy, progress, life." To continue accepting other races, according to Ortiz, only increased criminality on the island (1906, 55–57).

36. Cubanidad is more than just Cubanness. For Ortiz, cubanidad is a "condition of the soul, a complexity of sentiments, ideas and attitudes" (1939, 3).

José Martí (1853–1895), Cuban journalist, revolutionary philosopher, and patriot, is credited with organizing the physical invasion of Cuba to bring about its independence from Spain. A prolific writer (whose Obras Completas consists of seventy-three volumes) and precursor of modernismo, Martí is regarded as the father of Cuba by both Resident and Exilic Cubans. He was killed a month after landing in Cuba during a skirmish with Spanish troops at Dos Ríos (May 19, 1895). His death made him a martyr and a symbol of Cuban liberation.

37. The ajiaco metaphor is not intended to represent Cubans exclusively. Obviously, cultural mixtures also occurred within other Latin American countries, and Cubans are no more or less a product of cultural blends. Yet the term ajiaco may not be the best word to represent other Hispanic groups; Central Americans might use the term sancocho Christianity to refer to their own perspective, since sancocho is their term for their indigenous stew.

38. Etymologically, mulato is believed to be a derivative from the Arabic mulwállad (pronounced muélled). Muwállad is defined as "one born of an Arab father and a foreign mother," a possible passive participle of the second conjugation of wálada, "he begot." However, mulato, literally "mule, young or without domesticity," was influenced in form by a folk-etymological association with the Spanish word mulo, "mule," from the Latin mulus. Adding the diminutive suffix -at to the word mulo creates a general hybrid comparison. Dozy, in his monumental work on the Arabic language, insists the word mulato is actually a Portuguese word of contempt signifying mule. See Supplément aux dictionnaires Arabes, 3rd ed., s.v. "Begot," by Reinhart Dozy. Fernando Ortiz concurs with this etymological definition of mulato to the nature of a mule (1975a, 40).

39. José Vasconcelos (1882–1959), Mexican philosopher and statesman, is credited with constructing the utopian concept of the cosmic race as a way of combating the prevalent positivism of his time, which advocated the destruction of Mexican culture because it was believed Anglos were evolutionarily superior. Although we can celebrate the defense of Latin American culture against Eurocentrism, we need to recognize that philosophers like Vasconcelos still upheld positivism's hierarchical view of race.

40. Just as a Middle Passage exists in the Atlantic, so does one exist in the Pacific for Cubans. With the abolition of slavery and the sugar industry's need for laborers, Cubans imported Chinese to replace the emancipated blacks. Although these Chinese were not official slaves, their journey to the island and their existence on Cuban soil were similar to those of slaves.

Cuba's European roots are not necessarily in Spain alone but also in the United States. For most central Europeans, Spain is spiritually and ethnically more aligned with Africa than it is with Europe. Even though the Crescent was vanquished from Spain by the Cross, they believe that eight hundred years of Islamic rule have imprinted a Moorish soul upon the Spaniards.

41. To reduce the Amerindian ingredient to just Taínos is problematic. As more laborers were needed on the island, they were imported (kidnapped or

Andalusians, Basques, Castilians, Catalonians, Galicians, isleños (Canary Islanders), and Portuguese are some of the diverse cultures of the Iberian Peninsula who came to Cuba. Hence the term Spaniard cannot be limited to one ethnically homogeneous Iberian population. Also, on the Iberian Peninsula a series of peoples culturally and genetically merged with one another. They include, but are not limited to, Arabs, Berbers, Carthaginians, Celts, Greeks, Gypsies, Jews, Romans, Phoenicians, and Visigoths. Additionally, after Latin American wars for independence, royalists throughout the hemisphere found a haven in Cuba, as did the French before them, who fled the Haitian Revolution. Hence, the word Spaniard reflects an ajiaco in and of itself.

Under the label "African" exists another ajiaco. Ortiz provides a brief ethnological sketch of ninety-nine different African nations represented in Cuba. African has become a homogeneous term signifying the mixture of different peoples, traditions, and cultures (1975b, 40–56). More recent studies by the Cuban Academy of Sciences show more than two thousand African names in Cuba (Barnet 1986, 8). Further complications occurred over the definition of African, as black Haitians, Bahamians, Jamaicans, and other islanders settled in Cuba during the past two centuries, having found employment harvesting sugar.

Like the other elements of the Cuban ajiaco, immigrants from the Pacific regions cannot be simply categorized as Asian. They came from Swatow, Amoy, Canton, Hong Kong, Saigon, and Manila. They came from different districts of China and other countries with differing customs, traditions, languages, and dialects.

42. In 1980 the Dade County legislative delegation to Tallahassee included only one Republican and no Cubans. Additionally, all three Miami congress persons were Euroamerican Democrats. By the 1988 election, out of the twenty-eight state legislative seats from Dade County, eleven were held by Republicans, ten of them Exilic Cubans. Also, two of the three congressional seats were held by Republican Exilic Cubans. When the Miami Hispanic vote is compared with the rest of the nation's Latino population, it is easy to see the strong loyalty Exilic Cubans have for the Republican Party.

43. For example: Miguel H. Díaz, On Being Human: U.S. Hispanic and Rahnerian Perspectives (2001); Orlando O. Espín, The Faith of the People: Theological Reflections on Popular Catholicism (1997); Alexandro García-Rivera, St. Martín de Porres: The "Little Stories" and the Semiotics of Culture (1995); Roberto S. Goizueta, Caminemos con Jesús: Toward a Hispanic/Latino Theology of Accompaniment (1995); Justo L. González, Mañana: Christian Theology from a Hispanic Perspective (1990); Ada María Isasi-Díaz, En la Lucha: A Hispanic Women's Liberation Theology (1993); Luis G. Pedraja, Jesus Is My Uncle: Christology from a Hispanic Perspective (1999); and Fernando Segovia, Decolonizing Biblical Studies (2001).

44. Liberation theologians like Gustavo Gutiérrez expressed concern that revolution theology has the tendency to "baptize" the revolution by placing it beyond criticism. Castro's well-known phrase, "Everything within the Revolution,

45. Postmodernity is defined by Jean-François Lyotard as an "incredulity toward metanarratives," in which the great heroes, dangers, voyages, and goals of the narrative function are lost (1984, xxiv). I aver that postmodernity, like liberation theology, is a neomodernist movement, an heir of the Eurocentric Enlightenment. To describe postmodernity as a theology or philosophy instead of a theory contradicts Fredric Jameson's assertion that postmodernity "marks the end of philosophy" (1983, 112). Latin American theologians have taught us to speak of theology and philosophy as a "second act," a reflecting praxis that struggles for basic human rights. Thus, metanarratives can be understood as transcendental categories invented by modernity to interpret and normalize reality, a reality comprehended philosophically as postmodernity. My use of the term postmodernity does not indicate a systematic engagement with or exclusive academic reflection of its paradigms. Rather, following Gustavo Gutiérrez's methodological example, I use whatever tools of human thought are available that illuminate the Exilic Cuban social position.

46. It could be argued that from 1962 to the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba existed on the periphery of the Soviet Union.

1. The 26 of July Movement was an underground operation designed to overthrow the dictatorship of Batista. The movement has been growing in Cuban cities since 1953 and was named after the date when Castro led a bloody attack on the Moncada barracks in Santiago. Once caught, Castro, who had conceived of the attack, spent twenty-one months in Batista's prison.

2. Karen Branch, "Crowds Target Reno's Home," Miami Herald, April 6, 2000.

3. Meg Laughlin, "Prayer Vigil," Miami Herald, March 31, 2000.

4. Carolyn Salazar and Manny Garcia, "Federal Agents Seize Elián in Predawn Raid," Miami Herald, April 22, 2000.

5. For a complete review of this type of Latina feminism, see Isasi-Díaz.

6. By the 1920s United States capitalists controlled all the infrastructures,

7. Although scholars classify the clusters of arriving refugees differently, for purposes of understanding the overall creation of la lucha, I have constructed the flow of migration into four discernable waves, recognizing that the parameters are not absolute.

8. After the CIA-sponsored Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs) fiasco, the Castro government announced in June 1961 that anyone leaving the country could leave only with bare necessities. All other properties, including bank accounts, were confiscated. At most, they could carry five U.S. dollars, a suit of clothing, and a few changes of underwear. With time, the five U.S. dollars were replaced with worthless pesos.

9. Between the end, with the suspension of the airlift in April 1973, of the second wave and the start, with the Mariel boat lift of 1980, of the third wave were seven years in which substantially fewer Cubans entered the United States. During this time, 34,541 immigrants eventually made it to the States. Most had to fly first to Spain and wait for a long time for visas to be granted (Azicri 1988, 67).

10. Joel Russell, "1997 Hispanic Business Rich List," Hispanic Business 20 (March, 1997): 16–17.

11. Cathy Booth, "The Capital of Latin America: Miami," Time 142, no. 21 (1993): 84.

12. Christopher Marquis, "A Second Plan to Oust Castro Hatched After Bay of Pigs," Philadelphia Inquirer, November 19, 1997; and Laura Myers, "CIA Offered Crime Boss $150,000 to Assassinate Castro, Memo Shows," Philadelphia Inquirer, July 2, 1997.

13. William R. Amlong, "How the CIA Operated in Dade," Miami Herald, March 9, 1975; William R. Amlong, "CIA Sold Airline Cheap," Miami Herald, March 10, 1975; Martin Merzer, "Airline Does Job—Quietly," Miami Herald, December 10, 1986.

14. Gail Epstein Nieves, "Militant Exile Tells of Plot to Kill Castro: Group's Plan Detailed at Cuban Spy Trial," Miami Herald, March 28, 2001.

15. Elaine de Valle, "Cuba Again Links Dade Man to Plot," Miami Herald, June 22, 2001.

16. The two other cofounders were Raúl Masvidal, businessman and former candidate for the mayorship of Miami, and Carlos Salman, a Miami realtor and former chair of the Dade County Republican Party (Skoug 1996, 71, 80).

17. Ann Louise Bardach and Larry Rohter, "Key Cuba Foe Claims Exiles’ Backing," New York Times, July 12, 1998; and "Alleged Castro Murder Plot Foiled," Associated Press, August 10, 1998. CANF denies any financial relationship with Posada and is suing the New York Times for libel on account of this story.

18. Frances Robles, "Imprisoned Castro Foe Rejects Use of Terror; Posada Denies He Bombed Airline," Miami Herald, July 24, 2001.

19. Gail Epstein Neives, "Spy Testimony Heated," Miami Herald, March 14, 2001.

20. Roberto Suro, "Exile Group Leader and 6 Others Are Accused of Plotting to Kill Castro," Philadelphia Inquirer, August 26, 1998; and Chris Hawley, "Three Plead Innocent to Castro Plot," Associated Press, September 2, 1998.

21. María Cristina García has documented more than eighty-four independent periodiquitos. Her description of these periodiquitos best illustrates their ethos. She writes:

The rhetoric and symbolism in the periodiquitos were powerful. With names like Conciencia (Conscience), El Clarín (The bugle), Centinela de la Libertad (Sentinel of liberty), and even El Gusano, the periodiquitos referred to Cuba as la patria sangrienta (the bleeding nation) and nuestra patria esclava (our enslaved homeland); the exile community was referred to as el pueblo libre de Cuba (the free people of Cuba). Their mottos were battlecries: ¡Con Cuba, contra los traidores! (With Cuba, against the traitors!); ¡En defensa de nuestros valores tradicionales! (In defense of our traditional values!); ¡Sin unidad no hay regreso! (Without unity there will be no return!) One editor always ended his essays with the dateline "Miami, año _____ de la entrega de Cuba a los Rusos" (Miami, year _____ of Cuba's deliverance to the Russians). (1996, 102–3)

Some periodiquitos provided serious news coverage relying on respectable journalism, but most consisted of "yellow journalism." For many of these journalists, their work is a religio-political calling that keeps la causa sagrada in the public consciousness, creating uniformity in thought among the Exilic Cuban community and exposing those who betray la lucha.

22. William R. Long and Guillermo Martínez, "Castro invita al exilio a un diálogo," El Herald, September 7, 1978.

23. La Crónica, October 15, 1979, 23.

24. Luisa Yáñez, "Brigade Ousts 2 for Trip to Cuba: Taunts, Threats Made; No One Hurt," Miami Herald, April 9, 2001; and Elaine De Valle, "40 Years After Bay of Pigs, Veterans Face New Battle: Men Who Fought in 1961 Invasion Fighting Fidel Castro, Each Other," Miami Herald, April 15, 2001.

1. All scriptural quotes have been translated by the author from the original Hebrew (the Hebrew Bible) and the Greek (the New Testament).

2. The Lieberson and Silverman study's findings on the causes of U.S. race riots were amply matched in Miami. Specifically, the causes were found to be (1) too few black police officers, (2) too few black entrepreneurs and store owners, and (3) an electoral system constructed to prevent blacks from participating in local representative government (1965, 887–98).

3. "Cuba's New Refugees Get Jobs Fast," Business Week, 12 March 1966; "Those Amazing Cubans," Fortune, October 1966; and "Cuban Success Story in the United States," U.S. News and World Report, 20 March 1967.

4. In spite of the tremendous political clout enjoyed by CANF today, the Exilic

5. The last time African swine fever appeared in Cuba it was introduced by the CIA to destabilize the country, according to U.S. Senate investigations. See Peter Winn, "Is the Cuban Revolution in Trouble?" Nation, June 7, 1980, 682–85.

6. In spite of the extreme repression in Haiti, Haitian refugees were classified as fleeing the island because of economic difficulties, while Exilic Cubans were thought to be fleeing for political reasons. The latter gained entrance into the United States, while the former were repatriated.

7. Alfonso Chardy, "‘Invisible Exiles’: Black Cubans Don't Find Their Niche in Miami," Houston Chronicle, September 12, 1993.

8. Unlike most cities in the United States, Miami has historically suffered from a power vacuum. Because of Miami's history as a tourist town, an elite with "old" money was never established. The Miami Herald was able to fill this power vacuum by becoming the voice of the Euroamerican establishment. From this position, Cubans could be kept "in their place" and used as scapegoats for the city's ills. While the rest of the national media portrayed the lives of Exilic Cubans as a "success story" during the first two waves of migration, the local media maintained a critical stance toward the federal government for allowing the arrival of so many Cubans. By 1971, as the Exilic Cuban economic enclave was becoming established, the CEO of the Herald formed the "nongroup" composed of thirty eight members of the Euroamerican elite who headed different governmental, political, business, and social structures of powers (for example, owners or top managers of Eastern Airlines, Burdines, Miami Dolphins, Knight-Ridder, major banks, and the utility companies). They were called the nongroup because its existence was always denied. Once a month they met for dinner at one another's houses and essentially served as the shadow government of Dade County. Through this group, along with the "voice" of the Herald, a campaign was launched during the Mariel boat lift to portray these refugees as criminals.

Speaking for the Miami Euroamerican establishment, the Miami Herald, through its editorials and letters to the editor, sought to prevent the Mariel immigration by discrediting the arrivals. For the first two months of the exodus, the Miami Herald coverage was 90 percent negative. Their highly negative stereotyping of Marielitos affected all Exilic Cubans, regardless of their year of immigration (Portes and Stepick 1993, 27). Ironically, as the decade progressed, many Euroamericans left Miami, in a development known as "white flight," causing substantial declines in newspaper readerships. In 1960, as Cubans were beginning to arrive in Miami, 79 percent of all households in the county received the Miami Herald. By 1985 only 40 percent received the paper (Soruco 1996, 41–42). For the first time in U.S. history, an English paper was translated into another language and given away for free with a subscription to the English paper. Also in 1986 Cuban-born lawyer Angel Castillo became the paper's first Hispanic managing editor, initiating an emphasis on covering Cuban issues and hiring Cuban personnel. However, on November 21, 1987, Luis Botifol, chairman of Miami's Republic

9. When Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez (half-brother to then–Florida Marlins pitcher Livan Hernandez and catcher Alberto Hernandez) arrived on a raft in the Bahamas with six other balseros, then–attorney general Reno quickly offered "humanitarian visas" for him and his common-law wife (and not to the other five on the raft). She cited humanitarian reasons based on the fact that Orlando Hernandez is considered Cuba's finest pitcher, throwing a ninety-miles-per-hour fastball and holding the Cuban national tournament record for games won. Ironically, Orlando Hernandez turned down Reno's offer and migrated instead to Costa Rica, allowing him the opportunity to sign as a free agent with a major league team and avoiding the major league draft, which would have forced him to negotiate only with the team choosing him. By not seeking asylum in the United States, he became eligible for the free-agent bonus worth several million dollars over and above any multimillion-dollar contract he would sign with a major league team. His decision proved profitable when he landed a $6.6 million contract with (ironically) the New York Yankees. Basically, wealth, or the potential to earn it, qualifies as a reason to grant asylum. What makes this case interesting is the reconstruction of El Duque's escape from communism. Hernandez's story, as he told it to the Associated Press and NBC, contributes to the Exilic Cuban self-identity of fleeing on a sinking raft, through shark-infested waters. Yet Juan Carlos Romero, the captain of the "raft," tells a different story. He says the raft was in fact a twenty-foot craft with a cabin and diesel motor and that El Duque spent the majority of the voyage in the cabin because of seasickness. The boat never took to the water, nor did it sink off the shores of the Bahamas. Rather, it returned to Cuba after dropping off El Duque. No leaky raft, no rowing, no sharks, calm seas, plenty of drinking water, and four cans of Spam are the details the captain remembers about the journey—but such details are unimportant in the construction of la lucha. See "Fact or Fiction? Travel Mate Says El Duque's Story Not Accurate," Chicago Sun-Times, December 6, 1998.

10. The name of the returning Jew who led emancipated compatriots to the

11. The biblical account tells us that Nebuchadnezzar carried off "all Jerusalem into exile." All is defined as the officers, the mighty men of valor, craftsmen, and the blacksmiths. Those left behind were the "poorest of the land" (2 Kings 24:14).

12. Three such tomb markers in Miami's Woodlawn Park Cemetery bear the names of Cuba's former "presidents." They are Gerardo Machado, who was deposed in 1933 and died in exile on a Miami Beach operating table; Carlos Prío, who led the country from 1938 to 1952 and shot himself in Miami Beach in 1977; and Carlos Hevia, who was "president" for a day in 1933 but was deposed when the true ruling junta changed its mind.

13. The cupbearer did more than taste the king's wine to thwart assassination attempts; he was also a confidant of the royal entourage who influenced the king's policies, as was the case with Nehemiah.

14. Yuca, named by the Amerindians, is an indigenous Cuban plant with pointed, stiff leaves and white, waxy flowers. It is often tall with a stout stem. The fruit is brown on the outside and white on the inside and looks like potatoes. It is boiled or fried and serves as a standard part of most Cuban meals—Cubans eat them as frequently as North Americans eat potatoes. YUCA also stands for Young Upwardly Mobile Cuban Americans. Usually YUCAs are part of the one-and-half generation described earlier.

Generation Ñ are usually the children of YUCAs coming of age in Miami. They are counterparts to the Euroamerican Generation Xers.

15. Tere Figueras, "Love of Country: Cuba's Centennial," Miami Herald, May 17, 2002.

16. Along with Exilic Cubans, sugar growers in Florida, Louisiana, and Hawaii and the citrus industries of Florida, Texas, and California oppose normalization, fearing competition from Resident Cubans.

17. Jose De Cordoba and Carla Anne Robbins, "Pope's Cuban Visit Creates Ripples in U.S.: Officials Debate Modifying Trade Embargo, Improving Ties," the Wall Street Journal, January 30, 1998.

18. "Food Program Starts Cuba Appeal," Associated Press, September 2, 1998.

19. Frank Davies, "Bush Backs Proposal to Fund Activities of Dissidents in Cuba," Miami Herald, May 19, 2001.

20. Associated Press, "Bush Refuses to Lift Embargo on Cuban Trade Until Castro Meets Tough Conditions," Miami Herald, May 20, 2002.

21. Fernando Remirez de Estenoz, "Cuba: Past History, Present Realities, Future Possibilities" (paper presented at NAFSA: Association of International Educators’ workshop, Stanford University, February 9, 2001).

22. Frank Davies and Nancy San Martin, "Aid for Cuba Dissidents Doomed to Fail, Critics Say," Miami Herald, May 17, 2001; "Cuba ‘Endorses’ Bill to Aid Island's Dissidents," Miami Herald, May 24, 2001; and Lesley Clark, "Lieberman Meets with CANF," Miami Herald, June 25, 2001.

23. Luisa Yanez, "Cuban Spies Put in Prison ‘Hole’: Their Lawyers Protest Isolation," Miami Herald, July 2, 2001.

24. CANF is not the only organization vying for the Exilic Cubans’ hearts and souls. Other groups exist to combat the normalized Exilic Cuban perceptions, such as the Cuban Committee for Democracy, composed mostly of academic scholars. Outside the United States, based in Madrid, is the Plataforma Democrática Cubana (Cuban Democratic Platform), a pluralistic coalition relying on international efforts to pressure Castro into moving toward democratic reform. But such groups are usually located outside Dade County, existing at the margins of the Miami community. They possess too few resources and adherents to provide a viable alternative.

25. Peter Slevin, "60 Minutes Examines Mas Canosa," Miami Herald, October 19, 1992.

26. A popular joke in Miami is that if Exilic Cubans owned as much land as they claim to have owned before the Revolution, then Cuba would have been the size of the Soviet Union.

27. Ana Arana, "United States Firms Making Cuban Land Claims," Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, May 16, 1993.

28. Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996, Title III.

29. Ezra was appalled by marriages between Jewish men and non-Jewish women, specifically the intermingling of the community's leaders. This was a clear violation of the Pentateuchal law, which forbade the union of Canaanites with Jews, lest "their daughters, prostituting themselves to their own gods, may induce [Israel's] sons to do the same" (Exod. 34:14–16). Ezra's solution was for the men to divorce their foreign wives. It is interesting to note that the biblical book of Ruth, written during this period, provides an alternative voice to the mandate laid down by Ezra, thus capturing the spirit of Second Isaiah. In the story of Ruth, God uses a "foreign wife," a Moabite, of the type put away by Ezra, to represent society's most vulnerable members. Ruth is saved because of the egalitarian laws that Ezra tries to abort, and through her King David arises to save Israel (De La Torre 2000, 278).

1. For Martí, patria meant the reconciliation of all Cubans, a reconciliation achieved by consciousness-raising. Martí envisioned an egalitarian Cuba established through education and based on social equality instead of on the social tensions and inequalities existing in the United States. He called for a balancing (not elimination) of classes. He had no problem with the capitalist who paid fair wages and made an honest profit. He also fought in words and deeds for racial equality. During a time when racism was the norm, if not a virtue, Martí constantly argued that it was immoral and evil, linking a liberated Cuba to a liberated black community. He called for a patria void of the Catholic Church's influence. Although anticlerical, he insisted on total freedom in religious practices and belief.

2. Sexism names social structures and systems in which the "actions, practices, and use of laws, rules and customs limit certain activities of one sex, but do not limit those same activities of other people of the other sex" (Shute 1981, 27).

3. The Latin legal concept known as patria potestad maintained the authority of the male as the head of the family. It was instituted in Spain during the mid 1200s and became law in Cuba (as well as in the rest of Latin America) in 1680. This concept was reinforced by the 1809 Napoleonic Code and the 1886 Spanish Civil Code (Stoner 1991, 202).

4. Queen Isabella ruled Spain during the first war for independence, the Ten Years’ War.

5. Throughout the world, Cuba is renowned for its cigars, the ultimate phallic symbol. According to Fernando Ortiz's study of tobacco:

Among people, like the Cuban Indians, given to phallic cults, erotic ceremonies, and sexual propitiation, the tobacco or cigar, by its form, can also have a priapic symbol, and the smoked and shredded cigar have a figuration of seminal potency which penetrates, fecundates, and animates life in all its manifestations. (1963, 114)

Cuban machismo seeks world recognition for the potency of Cuban cigars, even if it means bringing the world to the brink of a nuclear conflagration, as in 1962.

6. In short, women, gays, nonwhites, and the poor are not macho enough to construct patria. Between 1965 and 1968, thousands of artists, intellectuals, hippies, university students, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals were abducted by the State Secret Police and interned, without trial, in Military Units for Assistance to Production (UMAP) reeducation labor camps. Because they were dissidents under the normative gaze, they were constructed as homosexuals, as illustrated by the slogan posted at the camp's entrance: "Work will make men of you."

7. This is not to assert that homosexuals do not face violence on both sides of the Florida Straits. Just as the Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas faced persecution by the Castro government, so too have gay Exilic Cubans experienced violence at the hands of the Exilic community. For example, Manolo Gomez, who tried to create an organization countering Anita Bryant's mid-1970s crusade against homosexuals, found himself fired from his job at Vanidades, a monthly periodical, and suffered a severe beating from unknown assailants. He eventually left Miami, fearing for his life (Arguelles and Rich 1985, 127).

8. Columbus recorded indigenous reports of an island called Matino believed to be entirely populated by women (1960, 50–51). Rather then visiting it, Columbus returned to Spain, possibly indicating that he and his crew had had their fill of native, "erotic" women.

9. In 1928 the U.S. Ku Klux Klan created a chapter in Cuba.

10. Anthony Pagden also quotes Cieza de León, who wrote, "Many of them

11. Las Casas's accounts of the barbarism inflicted on the indigenous people led to the construction of the Black Legend, which justified the superiority of Protestantism to Catholicism for Euroamericans, diverting attention from the treatment of the indigenous population of North America. Regardless of how the Black Legend was constructed for Euroamerican consumption, it cannot be denied that within one lifetime, an entire culture developed on the islands of the Caribbean was exterminated. Those few Taínos who survived were assimilated into the dominant Spanish culture.

12. The African influence on the Cuban ethos can be traced to 711 c.e. with the Moorish invasion of Spain by both East and North Africans; however, its greatest impact was felt when slavery was introduced to Cuba.

13. Other proposals to eliminate blacks from the Cuban social setting included the policy of dividing black from biracial Cubans by according privileges to the latter and assimilating them (up to a point) as allies. This policy in part explains the desire of some blacks to become whiter (McGarrity and Cárdenas 1995, 80).

14. In reality, it was not until 1523 when la Casa de la Contratación of Seville provided the financial backing needed to transplant the sugar industry from its base in the Canary Islands to Cuba.

15. Fernando Ortiz, in his early studies of African culture, held the ulterior motive of identifying the traditions of Afrocubans so that such customs could be effectively eradicated. Ironically, toward the end of his intellectual career, Ortiz's views about Afro-Cuban culture changed, as he fought against racism and sought to validate aspects of Afrocubanismo as folkloric by establishing the Society of Afrocuban Studies.

16. Mambises, from the African word mambí, are the offspring of an ape and a vulture. It is a derogatory term given to revolutionaries (regardless of skin color) by the Spaniards. Yet this slur has become a name of honor. Today in Miami one of the most ultraconservative radio stations, owned and operated by whites, is called Radio Mambí.

17. A larger number of black Cubans died in the struggle for independence than did whites. If they were equal in military services, then over representation in fighting for Cuba Libre could be ignored and the proportional rewards of military victory denied. After the war they believed they earned sociopolitical recognition and a right to participate in constructing patria. Black Cuban general Quintín Banderas, who bravely fought for independence, attempted to get employment in a "free" Cuba. His white counterparts won government jobs and positions as rural officers. He was denied a government job as a janitor. When his money expired he solicited help from President Estrada Palma. The president denied him an audience. He eventually joined a group to protest the fraudulent reelection of Estrada Palma. He was murdered by the rural guard, who mutilated his body (Helg 1995, 16, 105–6, 120).

18. In spite of machismo placing the black man in the position of a woman, it must be noted that within Cuban African culture, sexism is also prevalent. For example, Ibos girls are taught to obey and serve men, while boys learn to look down on their mothers. The machista ethos of the abakuá allows intercourse only if the man is on top and is the only one who is active (Lumsden, 1996, 47, 221–22). The bantú use the word man only in referring to members of their nation. All other Africans are not men (Ortiz 1975a, 37).

19. No disrespect is meant by the usage of the word coolie, which historically has been used as a derogatory term. I use the word to refer to the Chinese laborer because it best describes their social location of oppression. The word coolie is composed of two Chinese characters, coo and lie. Coo is defined as "suffering with pain"; lie means "laborer." Hence the coolie is the "laborer who suffers with pain," a definition that well describes their situation in Cuba.

20. The Middle Passage was the route slave trading ships took across the Atlantic; however, this voyage signifies more than just the transporting of African slaves. The Middle Passage was the most dangerous period in the lives of captured Africans. The African human cargo was tightly packed in the galleys of the slave ships, hence facilitating the spread of infectious diseases and death. Although profitable for traders, the Middle Passage has come to represent the ultimate evil caused by slavery. I maintain that a similar Pacific Middle Passage was created in the transport of Asians to Cuba. Like the Africans before them, Asians endured extreme misery and suffering during their journey to Cuba.

21. In reality, since the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries, Chinese laborers began arriving in New Spain and Peru, as a by-product of the Manila-Acapulco trade connection initiated after 1565 (Leng 1999, 248).

22. A popular Cuban saying is "Vale más un muerto que un chino" (A corpse is worth more than a Chinaman). Cuban sinophobia has led Carlos Franqui, Castro's friend and biographer, to conclude it was the reason for the intensity of the Sino-Cuban feud (Moore 1988, 264).

23. Andrew Cawthorne, "Feature—Tourism Boom Shakes Up Cuban Society," Associated Press, September 8, 1998.

24. Commenting on the short life span of slaves, the eighteenth-century Cuban poet and slave Juan Francisco Manzano wrote:

25. The lyrics of a slow rumba called "En el año ‘44" (In the year ‘44, the year of a preemptive violent repression of a supposed slave revolt), sung in Matanzas by slaves, serve as a hidden transcript describing the economic reality of both blacks and the poor whites:

1. These attempts were as follows: (1) Concerned about Cuba falling into British or French hands, Jefferson proposed to James Madison in 1809 an exchange with Napoleon (who supposedly controlled Spain and its empire): Cuba in return for a free hand elsewhere in Spanish America. (2) President Madison tried to negotiate Cuba's annexation with the elite rich Cuban landowners; however, negotiations fell through because of Cuban fears of a British invasion if annexation were to take place. By 1822 talks had resumed, but to no avail. (3) During Latin America wars for independence (1823–1825), Bolívar intended to include Cuba but was foiled by then–secretary of state Henry Clay, who assumed a future annexation of the island by the United States. (4) After annexing Texas, then president James Polk made a $100 million offer to purchase Cuba from Spain in 1848. (5) When the talks to purchase Cuba failed, Narciso López, a nemesis of Bolívar, set up an expedition force from New Orleans. Euroamerican veterans

2. Tomás Estrada Palma, Cuba's first president, rested comfortably in the United States during the war for independence. A U.S. citizen, he was wellknown for his pro-annexation ideas and his racism.

3. The Platt Amendment required approval from the United States before entering into any treaty with another foreign power; the right of the United States to acquire land for the purpose of lodging the U.S. Navy, for example, at the Guantánamo Naval Base; and the right of the United States to intervene in the Cuban government for the "preservation of Cuban independence," translated to mean protection of U.S. interests.

4. After a century of a United States–oriented economy, the blockade would have meant the eventual downfall of Castro, if it had not been for the intervention of the Soviet Union. Yet admission into the Soviet bloc meant exchanging one hegemonic power for another. Different organizational principles and economic paradigms were required to ensure Cuba's survival and to construct an indigenous form of socialism. The rapid reorganization of Cuba's economy, the external pressure of the United States, the legacy of centuries of colonialism, the development of unrealistic economic goals, the mismanagement caused by inexperienced personnel in turn caused by departing high management–level Cubans, the constant flow of administrative improvisations, and the switch in priority to industrialization over the island's economic dynamo, sugar, created economic failures during the attempt to build socialism. The economic disappointments of the 1960s led Cuba to forsake an alternative model to socialism, succumbing to the European model constructed by the Soviet Union. Submitting to the Soviet Union hegemony and becoming the sugar bowl of the Eastern bloc resulted in economic growth measured by sustained rise in productivity. During the 1970s and early 1980s Cuba's economy enjoyed respectable rates of growth because the Soviet Union decided to allow Cuba to sell any Soviet oil not domestically consumed on the free market; Cuba improved its planning techniques; and Cuba began to grant material incentives for laborers rather than expecting an increase in production based on moral obligation. The rejection of Marxism as symbolized by the crumbling of the Berlin Wall sent Cuba into an economic tailspin, as the foundation of the "socialist paradise" ended. The end of Soviet subsidies, euphemistically called the "special period," is characterized by the abrupt end of

5. Paul Brinkley-Rogers, Curtis Morgan, Elaine de Valle, and Audra D. S. Burch, "Case Provokes Harsh Feelings, Hope," Miami Herald, April 5, 2000.

6. Paul Brinkley-Rogers, "Exiles Tearful Over Boy's Future," Miami Herald, April 8, 2000.

7. Paul Brinkley-Rogers and Eunice Ponce, "For Most in Miami, Ruling Draws Restrained Reaction," Miami Herald, June 2, 2000.

8. Marika Lynch and Luisa Yanez, "Leaders Dust Off a Post-Castro Plan for South Florida," Miami Herald, July 9, 2001.

9. Paul Brinkley-Rogers, "Case Provokes Harsh Feelings," Miami Herald, April 5, 2000.

10. "I'm Tired of Not Being Proud of Miami," Miami Herald, May 21, 2000.

11. Paul Brinkley-Rogers, "Emotional Bond Compels Protesters," Miami Herald, January 8, 2000.

12. The event was scheduled for September 11, but the tragic events in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C., led to the show's cancellation. Nevertheless, the playing out of la lucha before September 11 deserves analysis.

13. Cynthia Corzo, Daniel Chang, Charles Rabin, and Martin Merzer, "Miami May Lose Latin Grammys," Miami Herald, August 18, 2001; Elaine de Valle and Luisa Yanez, "Exiles Accept Plan for Protest Site at Latin Grammys," Miami Herald,

14. Alfonso Chardy, "Exile Ad Exhorts Anti-Castro Hard Line," Miami Herald, August 23, 2001.

15. Andres Viglucci, Jordan Levin and Charles Rabin, "Protests Jeopardize Safety at Event, Show Chief Says," Miami Herald, August 21, 2001; Andres Viglucci, "Grammy Flap Exposes Split Among Exiles," Miami Herald, September 2, 2001.

16. The poll was conducted for the Cuba Study Group, an informal association of about a dozen wealthy Exilic Cubans. Some of the group's members include Carlos Saladigas of Premier American Bank, Carlos de la Cruz of Coca-Cola Puerto Rico Bottles, Paul L. Cejas of PLC Investments, and Alfonso Fanjul of Flo-Sun Inc.

17. Andres Oppenheimer, "Poll Says Exiles Shifting from Hard-Line Positions," Miami Herald, May 16, 2002.

18. Realizing the importance of the Exilic Cuban voting bloc in the 2004 presidential election, President George W. Bush attended the centennial celebration of the formation of the Cuban Republic in Miami on May 20, 2002. There he unveiled his "initiative for a new Cuba," which reaffirms the U.S. economic embargo on the island; upholds the ban on most U.S. travel to the island, a ban that is defied by tens of thousands of Euroamericans each year; provides direct assistance to Cubans through nongovernmental agencies; negotiates for direct mail service between the two countries; provides educational scholarships for family members of political prisoners and those wishing to establish independent civil institutions; and facilitates humanitarian assistance by U.S. religious and nongovernmental groups. See Tim Johnson, "President to Reveal New Plan to Help Cubans," Miami Herald, May 20, 2002.

Yet leading dissidents on the island have responded negatively to Bush's proposal. Vladimiro Roca, who served almost five years in prison for his political views, insists that "dialogue, negotiation, and reconciliation" would better serve the cause of freedom than the continued Cold War rhetoric. Dissidents worry that Bush's proposal to provide funding to Resident Cubans would only strengthen Castro's arguments that dissident groups on the island are bankrolled by the CIA. "Any kind of financial help from any government for our work is unacceptable," said human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez. "That's especially true of a government such as Washington which has such very bad relations with Cuba." See Anita Snow, "Cuban Officials Accuse Bush of Pandering to Miami Exiles, Dissidents Fear Continued U.S. Policies Will Hurt Their Cause," Miami Herald, May 21, 2002.

19. "Bush Visit Today Sign of Exiles Influence," Miami Herald, May 20, Carol Rosenberg, 2002.

20. Russell Contreras, "Everyone's Loco for the Latino Bush They Call "P": Gorgeous George," Austin Chronicle, August 11, 2000.