Queers, Laughs, Jabs, and Visitas: Exploring New Directions in Cuban-American Studies

Session Submission Type: Paper Session: Talk Format

Abstract

Drawing from the multiple and overlapping methodologies of literary studies, cultural studies, and urban, social, and cultural history, the papers in this session present new terrain for examining and understanding Cuban-American history, politics, culture, and identity. The papers in this session move beyond celebration or condemnation of Fidel Castro, the Cuban Revolution of 1959, or the U.S. embargo to interrogate how Cubans on and off the island have constructed and confronted their racial, ethnic, gender, and sexual identities. These papers also recognize the importance of the transnational; in other words, these papers consider the (sometimes uneven) back-and-forth movement and dialogue taking place between and within Miami and Havana, on the stage and in the boxing ring, in newspapers, and vis a vis individual and collective memories. Julio Capo’s paper focuses on how Miami’s ties to Cuba and the Caribbean during the first half of the twentieth century created space for the growth of queer cultures and networks that served as an alternative to Havana. Albert Laguna’s work argues for the need to put Cuba and its diaspora into critical conversation through an examination of a 1990s Cuban comic variety show and el paquete semanal. Michael Bustamante begins to recover the testimonials and cultural production created by exile Cubans who visited the island in the late 1970s, seeking to understand the political significance of these exchanges for both Cuba and its diaspora. Christina D. Abreu uses the story of Cuban heavyweight boxer Teófilo Stevenson and a proposed bout with Muhammad Ali to tell a post-1959 Cuban national history framed in the context of the global color line and global Cold War. Taken together, these papers suggest that the field of Cuban-American Studies is methodologically diverse, has moved beyond a temporal framework preoccupied with 1959, and considers the diaspora central to understanding the Cuban nation and vice versa.

Sub Unit

• American Studies Association Annual Meeting

Chair

• Maria de los Angeles Torres, University of Illinois at Chicago

Individual Presentations

• Queers and Competing Tourist Markets in Miami and the Caribbean, 1920-1940 - Julio Capo, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

• Before the Thaw: The Politics of Cuban Popular Culture in 21st Century Miami and Havana - Albert Laguna, Yale University

• Confronting (and Forgetting) Return: The Visitas de la Comunidad of 1979 - Michael J Bustamante, Florida International University

• Patria over Profits: The Story of Cuban Boxing Champion Teófilo Stevenson - Christina D Abreu, Northern Illinois University

Comment

• Maria de los Angeles Torres, University of Illinois at Chicago