Questioning the Cuban Exile Model: Race, Gender, and Resettlement, 1959-1979

209 Pages·2010·0.716 MB·English

by  Cheris Brewer Current

The New Americans
Recent Immigration and American Society

Edited by
Steven J. Gold and Rubén G. Rumbaut

A Series from LFB Scholarly

Questioning the Cuban Exile Model
Race, Gender, and Resettlement, 1959-1979

Cheris Brewer Current

LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC
El Paso 2010
Copyright © 2010 by LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Current, Cheris Brewer, 1979-
Questioning the Cuban exile model : race, gender, and resettlement,
1959-1979 / Cheris Brewer Current.
p. cm. -- (The new Americans : recent immigration and American
society)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-59332-388-2 (hbk. : alk. paper)
1. Cubans--United States--History--20th century. 2.
Refugees--Cuba--History--20th century. 3. Immigrants--United
States--History--20th century. 4. Cubans--United States--Ethnic
identity.
5. Cuba--Emigration and immigration--Social aspects. 6. United
States--Emigration and immigration--Social aspects. I. Title.
E184.C97C87 2010
325'.272910973--dc22
2010014558

ISBN 978-1-59332-388-2

Printed on acid-free 250-year-life paper.

Manufactured in the United States of America.
For Elisa who unknowingly inspired this project and
for Corry who saw me through it.
v
Contents

Introduction ix

Chapter 1
Normalizing Cuban Refugees: Representations of
Whiteness and Anti-Communism during the Cold War 1

Chapter 2
“You Are But Hours Away From Miami”: Resettlement
Policies and Refugee Experiences with Relocation 31

Chapter 3
CubaNation: Cuban Communities across the United States 61

Chapter 4
Cuban Women in Transition: Exile, Work, and
Negotiating New Experiences in the US. 93

Chapter 5
Cuban Men in the US: Shifts in Masculinities 117

Chapter 6
Cuban-American Literature:
Redefining Cubanness/Cubanía 141

Conclusion 163

Bibliography 167

Index 183
vi
Tables

Table 1
Resettled Refugees by State, as of December 1965 42

Table 2
Resettled Refugees by State, as of December 1972 43

Table 3
1970 Cuban Population and Resettlement by State 65

Table 4
Cuban Migration Within the US, 1985-1990 83

vii

Introduction

The widely popular Cuban “exile model” casts Cubans of the 1960s
and 1970s as better than regular immigrants or other refugees. The
model presents Cubans as overtly political, highly educated, universally
white, economically successful, residents of Miami, and martyrs of
Castro’s revolution. While there is some truth in these superlatives,
especially among the earliest refugees, the US government, media and
early scholars applied the “exile model” to all Cubans of the 1960s and
1970s. Cuban American scholar Nancy Mirabal poses a theoretical
challenge to the traditional historiography on Cubans in the United
States.1 In her path-breaking essay, “‘Ser de Aquí’: Beyond the Cuban
Exile Model,” Mirabal coins the phrase the “exile model” and critiques
the idea of a monolithic Cuban experience. Moreover, Mirabal argues
that the Cuban population in the US is now permanent and scholars
need to expand the current cannon to include a more dynamic
understanding of what it means to be Cuban in the US. Since waiting
for Castro’s death or fall from power has dominated Cuban American
politics and United States foreign policy toward Cubans, most
scholarship on Cubans focuses on those still in Cuba, while the limited
number of studies on Cubans in the US have failed to move beyond the
“exile model.”2
ix