“Barbados or Canada?” Race, Immigration, and Nation in Early-Twentieth-Century Cuba

Chomsky, Aviva

doi:10.1215/00182168-80-3-415

Cited by 72 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…The only recourse for English-speaking Caribbean immigrants was to appeal to the British Consul as subjects of the Empire. Apart from this largely inadequate protection, they had no formal defense against Cuba's deeply entrenched fear of black foreigners, a fear that had bloody consequences for people of African descent, native and foreign, on more than one occasion (Chomsky 2000;de la Fuente 2001ade la Fuente , 2001bGiovannetti 2001;Helg 1995;Naranjo Orovio 1997).…”

Section: From the Frying Pan Into The Fire?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among the studies that focus on intra-regional migration, the English-speaking Caribbean presence in Central America has been analyzed through the lens of labor (Chomsky 1996;Echeverria-Gent 1992;Petras 1988), racial and ethnic stratification (Bourgois 1989;Newton 1984;Purcell 1993), national identity and inclusion (Harpelle 2001), gender (Putnam 2002, religion (Bryce-Laporte 1998), and political ideology and Diasporic identity (Gordon 1998). Those that have looked specifically at the Cuban case have focused on labor movements (Carr 1998), the meanings and uses of British colonial subject status (Charlton 2005;Giovannetti 2001), Garveyism (Este vez Rivero 2003;Lewis 1998), black immigrants in the context of early twentieth-century Cuba (Chomsky 2000;McLeod 2000), family structure (Espronceda Amor 1999), and black subjectivities (Queeley 2010). In nearly all of this research, the presence of 'home' persists whether it be through voluntary return, expulsion, or a continual influx of migrants; through letters to loved ones updating them on life abroad or to the British consulate protesting the conditions of that life; through family remittances or funds saved for hurricane victims; or through traveling pastors or visiting cricket teams.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Queeley

2012

African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal

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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 Guanta ńamo 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; Guanta ńamo; US military bases 'El Centre', as it is most often called, is a single-story building with one large room equipped with a desk, a file cabinet of some sort, and the essential wooden rocking chairs that no Cuban home or social space is considered complete without. Indeed, what demarcates this space as one dedicated to reaching people and places beyond the island's borders are its walls. On the wall to the left, there is a Black Star

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Section: From the Frying Pan Into The Fire?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Queeley

2012

African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal

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“…From this unpromising and unsavoury starting point, he later in life came to appreciate Afro‐Cuban culture, and indeed pioneered scholarly interest in it. Any assessment of Ortiz and his work must grapple with this deeply problematic legacy, yet must also acknowledge the later Ortiz as a founder of Afro‐Cubanism and an outspoken and radical critic of racism (Chomsky 2000: 424–7).…”

Section: Cosmopolitan Anthropology and The Caribbeanmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the social ground beneath our feet: for a cosmopolitan anthropology

Berg¹

2010

Social Anthropology

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This article argues that for a truly cosmopolitan anthropology to come about, we need to reflect critically on the conditions of our knowledge production. Using the example of women's under‐representation within anthropology, and the marginalisation of the Caribbean, I argue that we need to think more about the social ground beneath our feet and recognise the differential access that anthropologists across the globe and at home have to the ongoing larger conversation that constitutes the discipline. We like to think that universities are republics of letters in the Enlightenment spirit, in which free‐flowing conversations take place between equals. Yet like other domains of knowledge production, academia is embedded in hierarchical structures imbued with power. We need to situate our ongoing conversation and our commitment to a cosmopolitan anthropology in this broader context.

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“…Despite policies aimed at limiting Black migration, in the cases we look at here there were nonetheless substantial flows of migrants labeled Black to the host countries. Examining the case of Cuba, Aviva Chomsky (2000) argues that Black migrants acted as a trigger, unsettling serious underlying issues in domestic race relations: Black Cubans were quite aware that, white protestations to the contrary, anti-immigrant campaigns in fact jeopardized their status as well. If immigrant workers were undesirable because they were black, this in fact undermined the entire myth that the descendants of black slaves were as “Cuban” as whites, even new white immigrants (Chomsky 2000, p. 462).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Black Cubans were quite aware that, white protestations to the contrary, anti-immigrant campaigns in fact jeopardized their status as well. If immigrant workers were undesirable because they were black, this in fact undermined the entire myth that the descendants of black slaves were as “Cuban” as whites, even new white immigrants (Chomsky 2000, p. 462).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“We Didn't Cross the Color Line, the Color Line Crossed Us”

Sawyer

Paschel

2007

Du Bois Rev.

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We examine the interlinked migrations between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, between the Dominican Republic and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and, finally, migrations from these three countries to the United States. The literature tends to draw stark differences between race and racism in the United States and the nonracial societies of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. However, although Blackness is a contextual category, through analyzing how “Black” migrants are racialized using these three contexts, we find that there is a simultaneously global and local derogation of “Blackness” that places Black migrants at the bottom of socioeconomic hierarchies. Further, these migrants remain largely outside of conceptions of the nation, and thus Blackness is constructed as a blend of racial phenotype and national origin, whereby native “Blacks” attempt to opt out of Blackness on account of their national identity. This dynamic is particularly true in the Caribbean where Blanqueamiento, or Whitening, is made possible through a dialectical process in which a person's Whiteness, or at least his or her non-Blackness, is made possible by contrast to an “Other.” Consequently, we argue that immigration becomes a key site for national processes of racialization, the construction of racial identities, and the maintenance of and contestation over racial boundaries.

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“Barbados or Canada?” Race, Immigration, and Nation in Early-Twentieth-Century Cuba

Cited by 72 publications

References 27 publications

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

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

On the social ground beneath our feet: for a cosmopolitan anthropology

“We Didn't Cross the Color Line, the Color Line Crossed Us”

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