Neither “Afro” nor “Latino”: Early 20th Century Cuban Racial Subaltern Entanglements with Discourses of Race, Nation, and Black Diasporicity

• In Event: Afro-Latinos in Movement: Critical Approaches to Blackness and Transnationalism in the Americas (Diasporic Politics)

Abstract

In this paper, I investigate how early 20th Century Black-identifying Cuban émigrés and sojourners in the U.S. attempted to reconcile their commitments to Cuban nationalism with Black Internationalism. I focus specifically on activist-intellectuals such as Rafael Serra who is often referred to as the “Black Martí” given his close relationship with José Martí, the “apostle” of Cuban independence. By examining their essays, speeches, and letters, I interrogate how some of these heterodox thinkers and organizers confronted difficulties as they endeavored to simultaneously rally around a “racially fraternal” Cuban nationalism (i.e., as a way of unifying Cubans against U.S. neocolonialism) and a transnational politics of Black anti-racism and solidarity. The problem lay in how these figures typically acknowledged the need for a revolutionary nationalism that would make Cubans want to part ways with the U.S. and pursue a more just future. On the other hand, they sometimes recognized that activating a truly “colorblind” Cuban nationalism would be difficult, given that U.S. neocolonialism pitted Cubans of different race backgrounds against each other. Moreover, they understood that Black internationalist solidarity was hampered by U.S. interventionism in Cuba which turned Black Cubans into opponents of Black American supporters of U.S. imperialism. Overall, this paper provides a clearer understanding of some of the challenges that Afro-Latin@ racial subalterns faced while attempting to mobilize as groups and movements that did not just seek to identify as “Cuban” or “Latin@” but also as afrodescendants belonging to a diasporic community in common struggle.

Author

• Jose I Fuste, University of California, Los Angeles