Cubans at School and Race at Play: Cuban Teachers at Harvard, New Paltz, and Tuskegee

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Education and Equity in the United States and Abroad

Abstract

In the early 1900s, Cuban teachers attended the New Paltz Normal School, the Tuskegee Institute, and Harvard. I argue that the social position of the receiving institutions affected in important ways the experience of the Cuban teachers. Normal schools, relegated to a lower social status than elite institutions like Harvard, provided an early experience of being racialized as Latinx or African-American in U.S. society.

I propose that the emphasis on Cuban teachers at Harvard privileges the story of elite white Cubans, rather than emphasizing the ways that Cubans became Latinx. The paper reflects on the need for Cuban-Americans to express solidarity with other Latinx people, and to support public institutions that have fostered the educational growth of minoritized students.

Author

• Raquel Alicia Otheguy, Bronx Community College of the City University of New York