Connecting to Cuban national identity through literature: an examination of memory, nostalgia, trauma and exile in Oscar Hijuelos's Our House in the Last World and A Simple Habana Melody

Abstract

CONCLUSION BIBLIOGRAPHY during a heated political time (and featuring a country with a sordid history with the U.S.) is certainly something impressive, something worth taking a look at. This exploration of Hijuelos's work will allow readers a new perspective about U.S. definitions of "immigrant" and "Latino." A writer such as Hijuelos, with his mainstream appeal yet culturally specific style, content, and narrative devices, makes U.S. audiences rethink the boundaries of American literature. The U.S. has had a tumultuous relationship with the island of Cuba for decades. Cuba has both social and political significance for the United States for many reasons, but the major issues keeping Cuba on the minds of U.S. politicians and citizens are geographical proximity and Fidel Castro. Cuba is located just 112 miles from the coast of Florida (and about 90 miles from Key West) and yet for the most part remains untouchable by many U.S. Americans initially because of the dictator Batista's fall to Castro in 1958 3 and later because of the travel embargo firmly in place since 1962 under John F. Kennedy's presidency. 4 Previous to Castro's takeover, the U.S. was a large presence in Cuba physically, with many American families living there to work for U.S. companies, and in commerce. Jacqueline Kaye writes, "From 1898 onwards the US freely intervened in Cuban affairs, sometimes at the invitation of Cuban politicians" and, it is safe to say, sometimes without invitation (133). 5 Since JFK's travel embargo in 1962, tension between the two countries has not lessened much, if at all. Probably because Cuba is a kind of forbidden experience, an untouchable 3 Batista, in power partly through a coup staged by the U.S. government, had historically favored U.S. companies in Cuba. When Castro took power, he forced all U.S. companies out. 4 The Bay of Pigs invasion likely did not breed amicable feelings between the U.S. and Cuba, either.