Who Are the Black Revolutionaries?: Resistance in Cuba and the State Boundaries that Endure

Abstract

To be a black revolutionary as defined by someone who fights for black equality, progress and power, has always accompanied a contentious relationship with the Cuban state. Nonetheless, those that are defined as black revolutionaries are often those that are aligned with the state. I call for a wider definition of this term to include those outside of Cuba, those that are independent and critical of the state as well as Cubans that remain in private spaces, outside of the public sphere. In addition, I ask what have been the boundaries since 1959 in which black revolutionaries have had to live, act and dialogue? The growth of social media and increased networks coupled with the worsening of racial inequalities due to economic reforms suggest that the state is at a critical juncture. Black progress will not come without resistance from the ground and these new, independent dialogues and private spaces serve as the foundation to black resistance.

Keywords:

• Cuba
• black activism
• racism
• white hegemony
• black consciousness

Notes

1 The interviews in this piece join two projects: one set of interviews were done from 2008–2010 in Havana Cuba and the second set were done in the United States in 2018 and 2019. The first set were forty-five interviews conducted by snowball sample with Cuban of all races as well as elite interviews with anti-racist activists on the island. The interviews from this set that are used in this article are only with black or mixed-race Cubans. Other interview data from this early set of interviews can be found in The Power of Race in Cuba, referenced below. The second set are from an oral history project of black Cubans with Devyn Spence Benson that primarily take place in Miami and New York. This second set also uses snowball sampling and thus far consists of seventy-five interviews. (Clealand, Danielle Pilar. 2017. The Power of Race in Cuba: Racial Ideology and Black Consciousness During the Revolution. Oxford University Press.)

2 Sawyer, Mark. 2006. Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Spence Benson, Devyn. 2016. Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

3 Robaina, T.F., 2014. Nueve meses después del artículo de Roberto Zurbano en el “New York Times”. Afro-Hispanic Review, pp.107–112. Clealand, 2017.

4 For a critical account of what it means to be a black revolutionary in Cuba and an anti-racist activist see, Zurbano, Roberto. Soy un negro más: Zurbano par lei-meme. 2014. Afro-Hispanic Review. 33.1: 13–60.

5 As Roberto Zurbano argues, “Antiracist activism in Cuba has been mistreated by the left and the right, in other words, by the Cuban government and the so-called Cuban dissidence.” For his response to the government’s November announcement and the origin of this quote, see https://negracubanateniaqueser.com/2019/11/22/roberto-zurbano-bienvenido-el-permiso-para-ser-antirracista/?fbclid=IwAR0l9p9JjQuNpqhGkCy3gf4ZQpsLLlAV4tS6hhogpepUZC4sHQvn71thdYE.

6 Martínez Hernández, Leticia. Díaz-Canel en el Consejo de Ministros: ‘No vamos a reuniciar a las conquistas y los sueños por realizar.” Granma. November 21, 2019.

7 Clealand, 2017.

8 Zurbano, R., 2014. Soy un negro más: Zurbano par lui-même. Afro-Hispanic Review, pp.13-60.

9 Fernandez, Nadine. 1999. Back to the Future: Women, Race and Tourism in Cuba. In Sun, Sex and Gold: Tourism and Sex Work in the Caribbean; Edited by, Kamala Kempadoo. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. ; Roland, L. Kaifa. 2008. Tourism and the Negrificacion of Cuban Identity. Transforming Anthropology. 14.2: 151-162.; Blue, Sarah. 2007. The Erosion of Racial Equality in the Context of Cuba’s Dual Economy. Latin American Politics and Society. 49:35-68. Sawyer, Mark Q. 2006. Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Clealand, Danielle Pilar. 2017. The Power of Race in Cuba: Racial Ideology and Black Consciousness During the Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press.

10 Although this is largely based on observation and conventional wisdom, Victor Fowler discusses this phenomenon in his essay: Fowler Calzada, Victor. 2009. Contra el argumento racista. Revista Encuentro 53/54.

11 Clealand 2017.

12 Fernandes, Sujatha. 2006. Cuba Represent! Cuban Arts, State Power, and the Making of new Revolutionary Cultures. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

13 Clealand, Danielle Pilar. 2018. Black Activism and the State in Cuba. In Comparative Racial Politics in Latin America. Ed. Kwame Dixon & Ollie Johnson. New York: Routledge.

14 Fernandes 2006; Saunders, Tanya. 2015. Cuban Underground Hip Hop: Black Thoughts, Black Revolution, Black Modernity. Austin: University of Texas Press. Perry, Marc D. 2015. Negro Soy Yo: Hip Hop and Raced Citizenship in Neoliberal Cuba. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

15 Gamez, Nora. 2012. Hearing the Change: Reggaeton and Emergent Values in Contemporary Cuba. Latin America Music Review. 33.2: 227-260.

16 Espendrú was the term for Afro that began in the 1980s in Cuba and the title suggests its role in asserting black pride and affirmation.

17 Casamayor-Cisneros, Odette. 2009. Confrontation and Occurrence: Ethical-Esthetic Expressions of Blackness in Post-Soviet Cuba. Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies. 4.2: 103–135.

18 Clealand 2017

19 Clealand 2017.

20 Moore, Carlos. 1988. Castro, The Blacks and Africa: Afro-American Culture and Society, v.88. Los Angeles: Center for Afro-American Studies University of California. Guerra, Lillian. 2012. Voices of Power: Revolution, Redemption and Resistance, 1959-1971.Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ; Benson, Devyn Spence. 2016. Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Benson, Devyn Spence. 2018. Sara Gómez: Afrocubana (Afro-Cubans Women’s) Activism After 1961. Cuban Studies. 46: 134-158.

21 De la Fuente, Alejandro. 2001. A Nation for All: Race, Inequality and Politics in Twentieth-Century Cuba. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.; Guerra 2012.

22 Sawyer 2006

23 Rout, K. 1991. Eldridge Cleaver. New York: Vintage Books. Tyson, Timothy. 1999. Radio Free Dixie: Robert F Williams and the Roots of Black Power. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Brent, William Lee. 2000. Long Time Gone: A Black Panther’s True-Life Story of His Hijacking and Twenty-Five years in Cuba. iUniverse. Sawyer 2006.

24 Sawyer 2006; Benson 2016.

25 Padmore George. 1953. Behind the Mau Ma. Phylon: 14.4: 355-372. Padmore, George. 1972. Pan-Africanism or Communism. New York: Doubleday. Robinson, Cedric. 1983. Black Marxism. London: Zed Press.

26 Gutierrez, Ramón A. 2004. Internal colonialism: An American Theory of Race. DuBois Review. 1.2: 281-295. Ture, Kwame & Charles V. Hamilton. 1992. Black Power: The Politics of Liberation. New York: Vintage.

27 The blogosphere in particular has flourished with bloggers both within and outside of Cuba. See negrateniaqueser.com and afromodernidades.com for an example of both.

28 Robinson 1983, pp. 184

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Danielle Pilar Clealand

Danielle Pilar Clealand is an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University.