Homeland and Belonging among Cubans in Spain

Abstract

R e s u m e n Este artículo contribuye a los debates recientes en estudios de diáspora sobre la relació n entre procesos de exclusió n, experiencias de desplazamiento y memorias de país de origen existentes en la producció n de subjetividades diaspó ricas. El artículo concierne a la diáspora cubana en España, la cual consiste de aproximadamente 50,000 personas. Estas personas representan refutadas prácticas y discursos sobre origen y desplazamiento, sobre pertenecer y no pertenecer. En este artículo sostengo que la noció n de ''generació n diaspó rica'' nos puede ayudar a entender los modos contrastantes en que los cubanos habitan diáspora. Las generaciones diaspó ricas se basan en trayectorias de migració n. É stas ponen los aspectos temporales de la formació n de la diáspora en primer plano y por encima de aspectos espaciales. Sostengo que para las dos generaciones más recientes de esta diáspora, prácticas y discursos de exclusió n tanto en el país de origen como en el lugar de la diáspora igual que entre la primera generació n de la diáspora han contribuido en la producció n de subjetividades desterritorializadas. This article is a contribution to recent debates within diaspora studies of the relationship between processes of exclusion, experiences of displacement, and memories of homeland in the production of diasporic subjectivities. It concerns the Cuban diaspora in Spain, consisting of approximately 50,000 people who represent contesting practices and discourses of home and away, belonging and not-belonging. In the article I argue that to understand diasporic Cubans' contrastive modes of inhabiting Diaspora, the notion of ''diasporic generations'' is helpful. Diasporic generations are based on trajectories of migration, thus foregrounding the temporal aspects of Diaspora formation over spatial aspects. I argue that among the two most recent generations of this Diaspora, practices and discourses of exclusion in both homeland and diasporic location as well as among the first generation of the diaspora have led to the production of deterritorialized subjectivities.

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