Essay #5 - Will Long - The Importance of Cuban Exile Newspapers

Will Long ? Essay #5 ? The Importance of Cuban Exile Newspapers

Kennedy and Roudometof define communities as ?units of belonging whose members perceive that they share moral, aesthetic/expressive or cognitive meanings, thereby gaining a sense of personal as well as group identity.? (2002, p. 6).  With that definition in mind, transnational communities are ?immigrant groups that establish solidaristic communities in the host country, often concentrating geographically in particular cities and neighborhoods, and who still maintain close bonds with their places of origin.? (Alonso, 1995, p. 596).  One of the most well-known diasporic communities in the United States is Miami?s Cuban population.

Rex separates most of Miami?s Cuban immigrant population from the ?brain drain? and ?brain circulation? phenomena described by Saxenian (2002, p. 1). Instead they fall within a broader group of transnational community he calls refugees ? ?seeing their immediate situation as temporary and envisaging a return to the homeland when political circumstances change? or ?who cannot envisage such a change? and are committed to finding a new life in the countries of refuge? (1994). Because, according to Alonso, ?new immigrants tend to be friends and relatives of those who came before, making migrations easier through the contacts already established,? (1995, p. 596) Cubans revitalized Miami from a beach resort in economic decline. (p. 598). The ?respatialization,? discussed by Mitchell, of the area west of downtown led to the enclave that is known as Little Havana. (2003, p.80) Although today, many Cubans are moving out of the city to suburbs, Miami culture is still closely related to Cuban culture.

Similar to Clifford?s example of the Moe family (1992, p. 101), Cuban exiles keep a distinct culture, although many have not been to their homeland for several years - in some cases even decades. In Miami, multiple Cuban exile newspapers exist and, through their articles and editorials, reinforce Cuban culture. Unlike the biggest Spanish-language newspaper of Miami, El Nuevo Herald, these smaller exile newspapers focus on the Cuban community and many are distributed to Hispanic business for free which allows them to reach a larger audience (deVarona, 2000, ¶ 5). According to Brown and Botero, exile newspapers are ?invaluable in preserving and continuing a sense of identity and community among exiled brethren? (1997) because they help ?maintain a body of shared information, values, and historical experience.? (Almeida, 1995, ¶ 22). Georgiou suggests it is ?important to realize that diasporic media address those audiences both in their particularity, and also in the universality of their (imaginary) cultural existence.? (2005, p. 483). Kennedy and Roudometof say ?second-, third-, or fourth-generation migrants might be empowered to reinvent and revitalize their former national cultural identities,? (2002, p. 13) and as deVarona points out while originally the audience of exile newspapers was the Cuban refugees, now a new generation of Cuban Americans, ?the children and grandchildren of the first wave of Cuban refugees,? are the ones who will continue Cuban culture (2000, ¶ 5).

Through exile newspapers, Cuban exiles living in Miami have ?been extremely successful in maintaining their cultural identity.? (Brown & Botero, 1997, ¶ 10). The circulation around the Cuban community allows later-generations that may have never been to Cuba reinvent and preserve Cuban history, ?customs, traditions, and... language.? (Brown & Botero, 1997, ¶ 7). Overall, these newspapers serve as ?chronicles of the hopes and aspirations of the Cuban people in exile, of the struggle to maintain a unity of purpose, of the need to preserve, add to, and transmit a cultural heritage and also they depict the very nature of the exile soul striving to be once again, someday, in a free Cuba.? (deVarona, 2000, ¶ 6).

Sources:

Almeida, R. (1995). Nos ku Nos: The transnational Cape Verdean community. Retrieved June 21, 2007, from http://www.umassd.edu/specialprograms/caboverde/cvtransnat.html

Alonso, W. (1995). Citizenship, nationality and other identities. Journal of International Affairs, 48(2), 585-599.

Brown, W. & Botero, C. (1997). Cuban Exile Newspapers at the University of Miami. Exhibit based on presentation to Library of Congress. Retrieved June 21, 2007, from http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/flnews/cuban.html

Clifford, J. (1992). Traveling Cultures. In L. Grossberg, C. Nelson, & P. Treichler (Eds.), Cultural Studies (pp. 96-112). London and New York: Routledge.

deVarona, E. (2000). The Cuban exile periodicals collection at the Cuban Heritage Collection of the University of Miami Otto G. Richter Library.  Retrieved June 21, 2007, from http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/flnews/fnpesp.html

Georgiou, M. (2005). Diasporic media across Europe: Multicultural societies and the universalism--particularism continuum. Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies, 31(3), 481-498.

Kennedy, P. & Roudometof, V. (2002). Transnationalism in a global age. In P. Kennedy & V. Roudometof (Eds.), Communities Across Borders: New Immigrants and Transnational Cultures (pp. 1-26). London and New York: Routledge.

Mitchell, K. (2003). Cultural geographies of transnationality. In K. Anderson, et al. (Eds.), Handbook of Cultural Geography (pp. 74-87). London: SAGE Publications.

Rex, J. (1994). The second project of ethnicity: Transnational migrant communities and ethnic minorities in modern multicultural societies. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Sciences, 7(3), 207-217

Saxenian, A. (2002). Transnational communities and the evolution of global production networks: Taiwan, China and India. Forthcoming in Industry and Innovation, Special Issue on Global Production Networks. (pp. 1-35).

Posted at 09:30AM Jun 22, 2007 by William Long in General  |  Comments[2]