El Puente: transnationalism among Cubans of English-speaking Caribbean descent

Abstract

This article examines intra-Caribbean migration and transnationalism through the case of anglophone Caribbean immigrants and their descendants in Cuba. In seeking an explanation for the resurgence of English-speaking Caribbean associations in Cuba during the 1990s, it explores the historical trajectory of this group from the time of arrival through the 1959 Revolution to the present. In addition to providing a narrative of the experience of this particular group of Anglo-Caribbean/Afro-Latin American/African diasporic subjects and illuminating the continuities and discontinuities in transnational practices over time, I argue that this case of West Indian Cubans expands the notion of the transnational social field itself beyond the sending and receiving countries, particularly for those who lived in Guantánamo and worked on the US naval base. I also argue that this case clearly, and perhaps dramatically, demonstrates the primacy of the state in regulating transnational processes and provides insights into how second and third generation immigrants, who are very rooted in their national identity, can become agents of transnational and Diasporic practices.

Keywords:

• Cuba
• West Indian migration
• transnationalism
• Guantánamo
• US military bases

Acknowledgements

Data in this article are based on dissertation research conducted in the eastern Cuban cities of Santiago and Guantánamo between 2001 and 2005. I would like to thank the CUNY-Caribbean Exchange Program and the Graduate Center PhD Program in Anthropology for funding that allowed me to complete this project.

Notes

1. The Special Period refers to the moment in Cuba's history following the Soviet Union's collapse and subsequent withdrawal of economic support. The Cuban economy was catapulted into a severe depression as it lost primary trading partners and the US tightened the embargo, leading to scarcity of basic goods and massive unemployment.

2. This phrase comes from Audrey Charlton's dissertation research on Jamaicans and Barbadians in Cuba through 1959. She quotes one of her Jamaican informants who remarked that ‘Now Kasia [a neighbor whom she liked] proud to know she fadah [West Indian]. She outlooking. It now dey feel proud again’ (2005, p. 4).

3. In this article, I use the terms Afro-Cubans and Cubans of color interchangeably. As the racial composition of Anglophone Caribbean immigrants was predominantly ‘black’, the Cuban-born descendants of English-speaking Caribbean immigrants would be classified as Afro-Cuban, something that was consistent with my observation of those involved in the revitalization effort. Indeed, all but one of my informants refer to immigrants from the anglophone Caribbean as negros (blacks) and therefore I also use the term ‘black Cubans’ to indicate the racial identity of West Indian Cubans as a group.

4. All names of research participants have been changed.

5. An abbreviation for Caribbean Community, CARICOM states include Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, St Lucia, Belize, and Suriname.

6. This is a rough estimate of the number of people who did not return to their islands of origin or move on to some other destination based upon census data. Charlton (2005) estimates that 30,000 remained after 1940.

7. Prior to the Cuban Revolution, the US government reported paying out seven million dollars a year in base worker salaries (Lipman, 2009, p. 158).

8. According to Eugene Godfried (2000), this meant the suppression of ethnic identities for all Cubans. As he states ‘the official position which over-emphasized the “Cuban” citizenship of the citizens has estranged the immigrants of “white” color as well as “black” color as is the case of Haitian, Jamaican and other Caribbean and African nations’.

9. Soul Train was an iconic variety show running from 1971 to 2006 that featured African American musicians and dancers.