Oye Loca: From the Mariel Boatlift to Gay Cuban Miami

Notes

187 Introduction 1. Antisocial, which literally translates to “antisocial,” is a catchall term often used to refer to ostentatious homosexuality (Ian Lumsden, Machos, Maricones, and Gays: Cuba and Homosexuality [Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996], 83). 2. After Mariel, a scholarly debate emerged about the true nature of the Mariel immigrants, addressing questions such as: What percentage were really undesirables ? Were these immigrants really different than previous Cuban migrations? How did these migrants fare economically compared with previous migrations? For more on this debate, see Benigno E. Aguirre, “Cuban Mass Migration and the Social Construction of Deviants,” Bulletin of Latin American Research 13 (1994); Robert L. Bach, Jennifer B. Bach, and Timothy Triplett, “The Flotilla ‘Entrants’: Latest and Most Controversial,” Cuban Studies 11, no. 2 (1981) and 12, no. 1 (1982); Gastón A. Fernández, “Comment—the Flotilla Entrants: Are They Different ?” Cuban Studies 11, no. 2 (1981) and 12, no. 1 (1982); Eduardo A. Gamarra, “Comment: The Continuing Dilemma of the Freedom Flotilla Entrants,” Cuban Studies 12, no. 2 (1982): 87–91; Mark F. Peterson, “The Flotilla Entrants: Social Psychological Perspectives on Their Employment,” Cuban Studies 12, no. 2 (1982): 81–85; Alejandro Portes, Juan M. Clark, and Robert D. Manning, “After Mariel: A Survey of the Resettlement Experiences of 1980 Cuban Refugees in Miami,” Cuban Studies 15, no. 2 (1985): 37–59; Alejandro Portes and Leif Lensen, “The Enclave and the Entrants: Patterns of Ethnic Enterprise in Miami before and after Mariel,” American Sociological Review 54 (1989): 929–49. For an analysis of Mariel as a moral epidemic, see Benigno E. Aguirre, Rogelio Sáenz, and Brian Sinclair James, “Marielitos Ten Years Later: The Scarface Legacy,” Social Science Quarterly 78 (1997): 487–507. 3. Immediately after the 1980 boatlift, the term Marielitos was used, often in a derogatory way, to refer to the Cuban Mariel entrants. The term uses the Spanishlanguage diminutive literally to denote “those from Mariel.” The derogatory connotations of the term, especially for the period during and immediately after the NOTES 188 notes to introduction boatlift, reflect the widespread negative perception of this migrant group, including among Spanish-speaking Cuban Americans who originated its use. With time, the stigmatization of the Mariel migration diminished as more members of that generation and Cuban American activists and scholars challenged negative perceptions of the migration as a whole. With this shift in perception, the term Marielitos also was redefined as more descriptive than derogatory. Although I use the term here to highlight the racialized and class-based stigmatization of Mariel entrants, in other places in the book I also use the term to mark this migration’s distinct identity and experiences. 4. I use the term Latino to refer to people living in the United States who trace their descent to the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and Latin America. This is a diverse group that includes people from many different nationalities, including Cuban Americans. When referring to census data, I use the term Hispanic to refer to this population because that is the official term used in these statistics. My respondents, like many other Miamians, often use the term Latin to refer to this population when speaking in English. Therefore, when I am quoting them, I use this term as well. I understand these terms to refer to a similar population. I use the term Anglo (instead of white) to refer to non-Hispanic whites, although this term is not commonly used in Miami. In Miami’s racial landscape, many Latinos understand themselves and are understood by others to be white. Therefore, I believe the use of Anglo provides more precision in this context. When referring to census data, I use the terms non-Hispanic whites to refer to Anglos and non-Hispanic blacks to refer to African Americans and black immigrants from non-Hispanic nations. For more on census definitions of race and ethnicity, see Clara Rodriguez, Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, and the History of Ethnicity (New York: New York University Press, 2000). 5. Carlos Ulises Decena, Tacit Subjects: Belonging and Same-Sex Desire among Dominican Immigrant Men (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2011), 115. 6. For a discussion of the relationship between gender-transgressive homosexuality and the term transgender in Latino/a communities, see Susana Peña, “Gender and Sexuality in Latina/o Miami: Documenting Latina Transsexual Activists ,” Gender and History 22, no. 3 (2010): 755–72. 7. Carlos Paz Pérez, La sexualidad en la habla cubana (Madrid: Agualarga Editores...