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Focusing on a period of history rocked by four armed movements,
Lillian Guerra traces the origins of Cubans' struggles to determine
the meaning of their identity and the character of the state, from
Cuba's last war of independence in 1895 to the consolidation of
U.S. neocolonial hegemony in 1921. Guerra argues that political
violence and competing interpretations of the ""social unity""
proposed by Cuba's revolutionary patriot, Jose Marti, reveal
conflicting visions of the nation - visions that differ in their
ideological radicalism and in how they cast Cuba's relationship
with the United States. As Guerra explains, some nationalists
supported incorporating foreign investment and values, while others
sought social change through the application of an authoritarian
model of electoral politics; still others sought a democratic
government with social and economic justice. But for all factions,
the image of Marti became the principal means by which Cubans
attacked, policed, and discredited one another to preserve their
own vision over others'. Guerra's examination demonstrates how
competing historical memories and battles for control of a weak
state explain why polarity, rather than consensus on the idea of
the ""nation"" and the character of the Cuban state, came to define
Cuban politics throughout the twentieth century.
Authorities in postrevolutionary Cuba worked to establish a binary
society in which citizens were either patriots or traitors. This
all-or-nothing approach reflected in the familiar slogan “patria
o muerte” (fatherland or death) has recently been challenged in
protests that have adopted the theme song “patria y vida”
(fatherland and life), a collaboration by exiles that, predictably,
has been banned in Cuba itself. Lillian Guerra excavates the rise
of a Soviet-advised Communist culture controlled by state
institutions and the creation of a multidimensional system of state
security whose functions embedded themselves into daily activities
and individual consciousness and reinforced these binaries. But
despite public performance of patriotism, the life experience of
many Cubans was somewhere in between. Guerra explores these
in-between spaces and looks at Cuban citizens’ complicity with
authoritarianism, leaders’ exploitation of an earnest
anti-imperialist nationalism, and the duality of an existence that
contains elements of both support and betrayal of a nation and of
an ideology.
Jose Marti contributed greatly to Cuba's struggle for independence
from Spain with words as well as revolutionary action. Although he
died before the formation of an independent republic, he has since
been hailed as a heroic martyr inspiring Cuban republican
traditions. During the twentieth century, traditionally
nationalistic literature has reinforced an uncritical idealization
of Marti and his influence. However, new approaches have recently
explored the formation, reception, uses and abuses of the Marti
myth. The essays in this volume analyze the influence of Jose Marti
- poet, scholar, and revolutionary - on the formation of
often-competing national identities in post-independence Cuba. By
exploring the diverse representations and interpretations of Marti,
they provide a critical analysis of the ways in which both the left
and right have used his political and literary legacies to argue
their version of contemporary Cuban "reality."
Jose Marti contributed greatly to Cuba's struggle for independence
from Spain with words as well as revolutionary action. Although he
died before the formation of an independent republic, he has since
been hailed as a heroic martyr inspiring Cuban republican
traditions. During the twentieth century, traditionally
nationalistic literature has reinforced an uncritical idealization
of Marti and his influence. However, new approaches have recently
explored the formation, reception, uses and abuses of the Marti
myth. The essays in this volume analyze the influence of Jose Marti
- poet, scholar, and revolutionary - on the formation of
often-competing national identities in post-independence Cuba. By
exploring the diverse representations and interpretations of Marti,
they provide a critical analysis of the ways in which both the left
and right have used his political and literary legacies to argue
their version of contemporary Cuban 'reality.'
A leading scholar sheds light on the experiences of ordinary Cubans
in the unseating of the dictator Fulgencio Batista In this
important and timely volume, one of today's foremost experts on
Cuban history and politics fills a significant gap in the
literature, illuminating how Cuba's electoral democracy underwent a
tumultuous transformation into a military dictatorship. Lillian
Guerra draws on her years of research in newly opened archives and
on personal interviews to shed light on the men and women of Cuba
who participated in mass mobilization and civic activism to
establish social movements in their quest for social and racial
justice and for more accountable leadership. Driven by a sense of
duty toward la patria (the fatherland) and their dedication to
heroism and martyrdom, these citizens built a powerful underground
revolutionary culture that shaped and witnessed the overthrow of
Batista in the late 1950s. Beautifully illustrated with archival
photographs, this volume is a stunning addition to Latin American
history and politics.
In the tumultuous first decade of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel
Castro and other leaders saturated the media with altruistic images
of themselves in a campaign to win the hearts of Cuba's six million
citizens. In Visions of Power in Cuba, Lillian Guerra argues that
these visual representations explained rapidly occurring events and
encouraged radical change and mutual self-sacrifice. Mass rallies
and labor mobilizations of unprecedented scale produced tangible
evidence of what Fidel Castro called "unanimous support" for a
revolution whose "moral power" defied U.S. control. Yet
participation in state-orchestrated spectacles quickly became a
requirement for political inclusion in a new Cuba that policed most
forms of dissent. Devoted revolutionaries who resisted disastrous
economic policies, exposed post-1959 racism, and challenged gender
norms set by Cuba's one-party state increasingly found themselves
marginalized, silenced, or jailed. Using previously unexplored
sources, Guerra focuses on the lived experiences of citizens,
including peasants, intellectuals, former prostitutes, black
activists, and filmmakers, as they struggled to author their own
scripts of revolution by resisting repression, defying
state-imposed boundaries, and working for anti-imperial redemption
in a truly free Cuba.
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