Encuentros Y Encontronazos: Homeland in the Politics and Identity of the Cuban Diaspora

Diaspora 4:2 1995 Encuentros Y Encontronazos: Homeland in the Politics and Identity of the Cuban Diaspora María de los Angeles Torres DePaul University . .Nadie entendió: todos preferían su isla aparte, su mitad de verdad. . .La sola construcción de la obra a todos ofendía. . .Nadie quiere cederpero tampoco nadie/puede obstruir: la obra avanza . . Un pie aqui y otro alia. yo mismo el puente. Jesus J. Barquet, "Un Puente Un Gran Puente" 1. Revolution, Rupture and Exile: The Origins of the Postrevolutionary Cuban Exile Community The relationship ofCuban exiles to their homeland after the 1959 revolution must be understood within a framework that analyzes United States and Cuban national security interests and how these influenced the formation of the politics of the community, and how, in turn, internal community dynamics evolved.1 While the Cuban revolution was deeply rooted in the struggle to redefine a nation and institute ajust social program, it also challenged United States hegemony in the Caribbean. This, in turn, had an impact on the post-World War II standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States—the cold war—and affected the movement of people out of the island, consequently the politics of émigré communities. Therefore, the broader framework of homeland politics—its organizational and ideological articulation—needs to be understood in this context. National security interests on both sides of the Florida Straits have drawn the boundaries in which the dilemmas of race Diaspora 4:2 1995 and class, immigrant and exile, the personal and the communal, have unfolded. The postrevolutionary Cuban exile is a distinct political formation whose origin is fundamentally anchored in the foreign policy objectives of the United States government and internal policies of the Cuban state. Exiles provided the United States military with resources and ideological cannon fodder. Foreign policies aimed at overthrowing and discrediting the Cuban revolution were in part implemented through Cuban émigrés (seeArguelles). As long as Cuban émigrés were "exiles" and not a part of the United States, the administration could deny involvement in the military actions being taken against the revolution. By being "exiles," they provided "plausible deniability" to the CIA and to other governmental agencies involved in the planning and execution of the covert war against the Castro regime. In the process, these exiles institutionalized repressive methods of political participation—particularly those focused on Cuba—within an evolving diaspora community in the United States. Further, the flight of exiles to the United States also fulfilled the ideological functions of providing evidence that communism was a repressive system. After the 1959 Cuban revolution, United States policies politicized the process ofimmigration, setting up an unprecedented program of allowing private individuals to issue visa waivers to Cubans on the island. The CIA, State Department, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) collaborated in a program through which underground organizations were given authority to issue visa waivers to their members. According to congressional testimony provided by the director of the INS in the early sixties, over 600,000 visa waivers were issued from 1960 to 1962. In fact, one such program, the Peter Pan Operation, was aimed exclusively at bringing the children of the underground to the United States. Father Bryan Walsh, a Catholic priest, was in charge ofissuing visa waivers for the children. Eventually, over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban children were brought to the United States (see Torres , "Cold"). In effect, established immigration and security policies were circumvented. Aid packages and special privileges were also extended to Cuban exiles. The special treatment of Cuban exiles was predicated on the premise that the Cuban revolution would soon be toppled and exiles would return. In all, the extraordinary treatment of Cuban exiles fostered a distinct exile formation. Cuban state policies contributed to this phenomenon. The Revolution itselfhad been a process broadly supported. The middle class in particular played a significant role not only in legitimating the rebellion, but also by participating in the underground. However, after the defeat of Batista, one organization, the 26 of July Movement headed by Fidel Castro, consolidated the revolutionary move- Homeland in the Cuban Diaspora ment under its mandate. Many organizations and individuals opposed this centralization of power under...