Contents
CUBAN MEMORY WARS
ENVISIONING CUBA
LOUIS A. PREZ JR., EDITOR
Envisioning Cuba publishes outstanding, innovative works in Cuban studies, drawn from diverse subjects and disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, from the colonial period through the postCold War era. Featuring innovative scholarship engaged with theoretical approaches and interpretive frameworks informed by social, cultural, and intellectual perspectives, the series highlights the exploration of historical and cultural circumstances and conditions related to the development of Cuban self-definition and national identity.
CUBAN MEMORY WARS
RETROSPECTIVE POLITICS IN REVOLUTION AND EXILE
MICHAEL J. BUSTAMANTE
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
Chapel Hill
This book was published with the assistance of the Anniversary Fund of the University of North Carolina Press.
2021 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Designed by Richard Hendel
Set in Utopia and Klavika by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Front cover sculpture: Rubn Torres Llorca, An con mi enemigo bajo el mismo techo(Still with my enemy under the same roof), 1988. Back cover: Cuban flag draped over Llorca, An con mi enemigo bajo el mismo techo. Both artworks courtesy of the Farber Collection and the artist.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bustamante, Michael J., author.
Title: Cuban memory wars : retrospective politics in revolution and exile / Michael J. Bustamante.
Other titles: Envisioning Cuba.
Description: Chapel Hill : The University of North Carolina Press, 2021. | Series: Envisioning Cuba | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020038676 | ISBN 9781469662022 (cloth) | ISBN 9781469662039 (pbk. ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9781469662046 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH : Collective memoryCuba. | CubansUnited StatesAttitudes. | National characteristics, Cuban. | Cuban AmericansEthnic identity. | CubaHistoriography. | CubaHistoryRevolution, 1959Public opinion.
Classification: LCC F 1773 . B 87 2021 | DDC 972.9106/4dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020038676
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Acknowledgments
This is a book about memory. But now that I have to thank all who made it possible, I just hope there is no one I forget. I am grateful first and foremost to my advisors and mentors at Yale University: Gilbert Joseph, Lillian Guerra, Matthew Jacobson, and Albert Laguna. Each helped steer this projects first iteration to completion. Gil Joseph pushed me to follow my instincts even when I felt daunted. I owe so much to his guidance, example, and generosity of spirit, beginning in my undergraduate days. Both Matthew Jacobson and Albert Laguna believed in the importance of this work and offered invaluable suggestions for revisions.
Lillian Guerra (now at the University of Florida) deserves special recognition. In 2005, on the basis of an essay I left in her office the fall of my junior year, she invited me to spend a summer in Havana to conduct research for my undergraduate history thesis. Those formative ten weeks led me to academia more than ten years and many more trips to Cuba later. Her devotion to her students is unmatched, and she has given me the confidence to come into my own as a historian and writer.