ReMembering Cuba : Legacy of a Diaspora

by Herrera, Andrea O'Reilly

• ISBN13: 9780292731479
• ISBN10: 0292731477
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr

Summary

"To date, no [other] book representing such a wide and extensive sampling of views and experiences of the Cuban Diaspora exists." --Isabel Alvarez Borland, author of Cuban-American Narratives of Exile: From Person to Persona Longing for their lost homeland unites Cuban exiles and their children, many of whom have never seen the Island. Yet as decades pass and the hope of "next year in Cuba" fades, the Cuban American community has had to forge new understandings of where "home" is and what it means to be "Cuban," "American," and/or "Cuban American." The testimonies gathered in this book offer over one hundred perspectives on the Cuban diaspora and on what it means to be Cuban in exile. Through narratives, interviews, creative writings, letters, journal entries, recipes, photographs, and paintings, Cubans from various waves of the migration and their descendants piece together a complex mosaic of the exile experience and diasporic identity. In her introduction, Andrea O'Reilly Herrera describes how she conceived the project and chose the contributors, including both unknown and established artists and writers such as Gustavo Peacute;rez Firmat, Sylvia Curbelo, Pablo Medina, Lourdes Gil, Ricardo Pau-Llosa, Heberto Padilla, and Joseacute; Kozer. The contributors' diverse and sometimes conflicting voices offer a more inclusive and complex understanding of Cuban American identity and the various Cuban "presences" residing throughout the United States. Likewise, they overthrow a perceived "hierarchy of suffering" among Cuban Americans, which purports to dictate who can and cannot speak authentically about exile and loss, as well as what form their expression can take.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Acknowledgments	xv
Introduction	xvii
Andrea O'Reilly Herrera
SECTION I---The Interior Exile (``insilio'')	1	(50)
Testimonio de un artista	3	(1)
Leandro Soto
Oh, La Habana	4	(9)
Rafael E. Saumell
Manena's Cuban American Recipes	13	(1)
Life in Exile	13	(7)
Hector R. Romero
The ``Sandwich'' Generation	20	(6)
Sara Rosell
The Thirteenth Suitcase	26	(8)
Efrain J. Ferrer
Vivian de la Incera
Sin Calcetines	34	(9)
Enrique Patterson
Beyond Fear	43	(4)
Julio J. Guerra Molina
Dead Rafter II	47	(1)
Luis Cruz Azaceta
Balsero Singing	48	(3)
Silvia Curbelo
SECTION II---``Merely a Player''	51	(32)
Los que se alejan siempre son los ninos	53	(1)
Heberto Padilla
Merely a Player	54	(4)
Maria Brito
Portrait of Wendy, At Fifty, With Bra	58	(6)
Ileana Fuentes
The Wooden Suitcase	64	(2)
Luz Irene Diaz
Once upon a Time in May of 1961...	66	(1)
Maria Emilia Castagliola
Crossing into the Mainstream	67	(2)
Juan Manuel Alonso
Fragmented Memories	69	(9)
Gabriella Ibieta
Going Back	78	(5)
Tony Mendoza
SECTION III---Crossing the Generational Divide	83	(50)
An Afternoon with Ernesto F. Betancourt	85	(7)
Growing Up Cuban American	92	(6)
Adela Betancourt Jabine
My Life in Exile	98	(2)
Maria Antonia Soto
Lost Memories and Nostalgic Obsessions	100	(7)
Francisco Soto
Thirty-Two Years Later	107	(5)
Flora Gonzalez Mandri
Island of Color	112	(4)
Rachel Werner Baldwin
Life al reves	116	(5)
Alicia Serrano Machiran Granto
On Being Cuban	121	(3)
Gina Granto-Penque
One Mother's Testimonial	124	(4)
Ada Manero Alvare
Tia Ada's Arroz con leche	128	(1)
Losing Eden	128	(5)
Carlos Alberto Alvare
SECTION IV---Snapshots	133	(38)
La hora de los mameyes	135	(2)
Ricardo Pau-Llosa
Abui	137	(6)
Maria Cristina Garcia
A Cuban American Memoir	143	(3)
Olga Mendell
Song for the Royal Plams of Miami	146	(2)
Virgil Suarez
Photograph of My Parents	148	(3)
Silvia Curbelo
First Shift at Hershey's, 4 A.M.	149	(2)
Inhabited Woman	151	(1)
Andrea O'Reilly Herrera
Burialground	152	(1)
Nilda Cepero
A Journal from the Bay of Mariel	153	(12)
Raquel Romeu
Political Exile	165	(6)
Jorge Luis Romeu
SECTION V---The Culture Wars	171	(36)
The Facts of Life on the Hyphen	173	(4)
Gustavo Perez Firmat
Against the Grain: Writing Spanish in the USA	177	(4)
Lourdes Gil
From ``The Necessary Treasons''	179	(2)
Understanding del Casal	181	(6)
Marta Elena Acosta Stone
A Cubana in New York	187	(5)
Mayling C. Blanco
Arroz	192	(1)
Virgil Suarez
Carolina Hospital---What Kind of Cuban Are You?	193	(2)
Topical Flavor	195	(1)
Nilda Cepero
Flags and Rags (On Golden Lake)	196	(6)
Elias Miguel Munoz
Kenya Carmen Dworkin y Mendez---Next Stop Ninety Miles	202	(5)
SECTION VI---``The Bite of Exile''	207	(36)
The Bite of Exile	209	(2)
Jose Kozer
Autobiography	210	(1)
Culture and Exile	211	(3)
Heberto Padilla
The Wages of Exile	214	(9)
Ricardo Pau-Llosa
Foreigner's Notebook	223	(2)
Jorge Guitart
In the Wilderness	225	(1)
Living on Borrowed Ground	225	(1)
Connie Lloveras
Clotheslines	226	(2)
Virgil Suarez
Letter to His Niece	228	(2)
Carlos J. Alvare
exilio	230	(2)
Emilio M. Mozo
sombras	231	(1)
Paradox	232	(1)
Nilda Cepero
Where Are You From? A Cuban Dilemma	233	(3)
Pablo Medina
The Chosen	235	(1)
Even Names Have Their Exile	236	(7)
Carlota Caulfield
The Photo That Watches	238	(5)
SECTION VII---``Grace under Pressure''	243	(34)
Cubans in the U.S.	245	(3)
Leandro Soto
to---Exile: Reality or Imagination	248	(1)
Grisel Pujala
Entre el gato y la casa	249	(3)
Heberto Padilla
Musicians in Motion	252	(5)
Raul Fernandez
From ``Celia Cruz''	253	(2)
From ``La magia musical de Cachao''	255	(2)
Yesterday/Ayer	257	(1)
Carmen Herrera
El descanso del heroe	258	(1)
Rafael Soriano
Head and Vessel	259	(1)
Rocio Rodriguez
From Outside Cuba/Fuera de Cuba	260	(1)
Luis Cruz Azaceta
nas---Historia rota (Broken History)	260	(2)
Maria Martinez
Orlando Rodriguez Sardinas (Rossardi)---Exilio	262	(3)
Abode	265	(2)
Roberto G. Fernandez
Lluvia y primaveras	267	(2)
Jesus J. Barquet
Autobiography, Historiography, and Mythography in Matias Montes Huidobro's Desterrados al fuego	269	(8)
Yara Gonzalez-Montes
SECTION VIII---``Inheriting Exile''	277	(44)
On Being an American-Born Cuban from Miami	279	(5)
Gisele M. Requena
From ``Stories My Mother Never Told Me''	284	(5)
Maria de los Angeles Lemus
ABCS in South Florida Suburbia	289	(10)
Victor Andres Triay
Appropriated Memories	299	(7)
Alberto Rey
Inheriting Exile	306	(3)
Margarita Engle
Un Testimonio	309	(3)
Cecilia Rodriguez Milanes
The Grand Finale	312	(1)
Gabriel Rodriguez
Memoirs of a Tampena	313	(4)
Maura Barrios
Una cubanita pasada por agua	317	(3)
Andrea O'Reilly Herrera
Cata's ``pie'' de guayaba	320	(1)
Select Bibliography	321