363
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
1 collections
    0
    shares

      If you have found this article useful and you think it is important that researchers across the world have access, please consider donating, to ensure that this valuable collection remains Open Access.

      International Journal of Cuban Studies is published by Pluto Journals, an Open Access publisher. This means that everyone has free and unlimited access to the full-text of all articles from our international collection of social science journalsFurthermore Pluto Journals authors don’t pay article processing charges (APCs).

      scite_
       
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Dangerous Marielitos: Wisconsin Newspapers and the Proliferation of a Negative Representation

      research-article
      International Journal of Cuban Studies
      Pluto Journals
      Cuban, Refugee, Marielito, criminal, Fort McCoy
      Bookmark

            Abstract

            This article analyses the local roots of the criminalised characterisation of Cuban refugees who resided in a Wisconsin detention centre during and after the so-called Mariel Exodus or Boatlift in 1980. Acknowledging the role of national media in espousing a violent and chaotic image of the Mariel Boatlift and its participants, who became known as ‘Marielitos’; it examines how local Wisconsin newspapers gravitated towards this representation, compounding its negative influence. The article then explains how the economic recession and rising concerns about deviant sexuality morphed media accounts of Cuban refugee struggles and uncovers narratives not captured by Marielito criminality. By doing so, the article complicates the understandings of refugee identities and experiences.

            Content

            Author and article information

            Contributors
            Journal
            10.13169
            intejcubastud
            International Journal of Cuban Studies
            Pluto Journals
            17563461
            1756347X
            Spring 2018
            : 10
            : 1
            : 30-52
            Affiliations
            The University of Wisconsin, Madison
            Article
            intejcubastud.10.1.0030
            10.13169/intejcubastud.10.1.0030
            bcc57d68-9ccc-47a9-8806-55e6a4f85a6f
            © International Institute for the Study of Cuba

            All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

            History
            Categories
            Academic Articles

            Literary studies,Arts,Social & Behavioral Sciences,History,Cultural studies,Economics
            criminal,Refugee,Fort McCoy,Cuban,Marielito

            References

            1. Army Joint Public Affairs Office (May–November, 1980) ‘Federal Emergency Management Agency, Cuban Refugee Resettlement Operation’, Daily Status Report: Cuban Refugee Resettlement Operation, Fort McCoy, WI.

            2. Black River Falls Banner Journal (May 28, 1980a) ‘Recession Has Some Impact on Local Firm: Decreased Sales Force Layoffs’.

            3. Black River Falls Banner Journal (May 28, 1980b) ‘Consider Their Plight’.

            4. and (July 9, 1980) ‘Cuban Refugees: Where to Now?’ Twin Cities Reader .

            5. , and (2005) ‘Well-Founded Fear: Political Asylum and the Boundaries of Sexual Identity in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands’, in and Jr. (eds) Queer Migrations: Sexuality, U.S. Citizenship, and Border Crossings , 61–62. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

            6. and (1991) Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics . New York, NY: W.W. Norton.

            7. El Mercurio (June 5, 1980a).

            8. El Mercurio (June 17, 1980b) ‘Cubans Aid in Information Program’, 2.

            9. (n.d.) ‘An Overview of Fort McCoy’. Fort McCoy Installation Website . Available at http://www.mccoy.army.mil/ReadingRoom/Newspaper/AreaGuide/Welcome.htm.

            10. (1995) The Abandoned Ones: The Imprisonment and Uprising of the Mariel Boat People . Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.

            11. (August 8, 1980) ‘Homosexuals Por Favor! Cuban Refugees Trapped in a Waiting Game for Freedom’. GayLife , 3.

            12. (2008) Criminal Intimacy: Prison and the Uneven History of Modern American Sexuality . Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

            13. La Crosse Tribune (May 19, 1980a) ‘Next Cuban Processing Facility McCoy Selected Refugee Center’.

            14. La Crosse Tribune (May 22, 1980bi) ‘Cuban Refugees to Arrive this Weekend’.

            15. La Crosse Tribune (May 28,1980bii) ‘Iron Mine Must Cut Back Production’.

            16. La Crosse Tribune (June 1, 1980c) ‘Recession Will Worsen’.

            17. La Crosse Tribune (June 2, 1980di) ‘5 Cubans Shot in Chaffee Riots’.

            18. La Crosse Tribune (June 2, 1980dii) ‘Over 2800 Cuban Refugees Arrive at Fort McCoy’.

            19. La Crosse Tribune (June 2, 1980diii) ‘Chaffee Rioters Won't See McCoy’.

            20. La Crosse Tribune (June 2, 1980div) ‘7.8% Jobless Rate Hits 31/2 –Year High’.

            21. La Crosse Tribune (June 3, 1980e) ‘Security Tightened for Cubans at Chaffee’.

            22. La Crosse Tribune (June 5, 1980f) ‘Cuban's Mental Fitness Under Study’.

            23. La Crosse Tribune (June 8, 1980g) ‘Families “at Home” in Barracks’.

            24. La Crosse Tribune (June 17, 1980h) ‘Weapons on Some Refugees’.

            25. La Crosse Tribune (June 21, 1980i) ‘Administration Gives Refugees Special Status’.

            26. La Crosse Tribune (June 21, 1980ii) ‘Old “Barely Live” in Cuba’.

            27. La Crosse Tribune (June 21, 1980iii) ‘Interpreter Ends Up Taking Refugees Home’.

            28. La Crosse Tribune (June 22, 1980j) ‘Teeth Woes High at McCoy’.

            29. La Crosse Tribune (July 1, 1980k) ‘The Cubans and Welfare Worries’.

            30. La Crosse Tribune (July 9, 1980l) ‘Number of Gay Refugees Unclear at Fort’.

            31. La Crosse Tribune (July 16, 1980m) ‘Cuban Teens Say They Fear Living at Fort’.

            32. La Crosse Tribune (July 18, 1980n) ‘Warhawks Say They Help Refugees’.

            33. La Crosse Tribune (August 15, 1980o) ‘Judge Fumes at Fort McCoy’.

            34. La Crosse Tribune (August 17, 1980p) ‘Young Refugees Tell of Fear’.

            35. La Crosse Tribune (August 22, 1980q) ‘New Refugee Security Force Group Formed at Fort McCoy’.

            36. La Crosse Tribune (August 22, 1980r) ‘Fear of Refugee Grows in Village’.

            37. La Crosse Tribune (August 26, 1980s) ‘What Tribune Readers Say: Sensationalism’.

            38. La Crosse Tribune (September 14, 1980t) ‘Some Refugees Called Very Sick’.

            39. La Crosse Tribune (September 28, 1980u) ‘Tomah People Glad to See Cubans Go’.

            40. La Crosse Tribune (September 30, 1980v) ‘What Tribune Readers Say: Send Them Back’.

            41. La Crosse Tribune (October 8, 1980w) ‘Carter Lies’.

            42. La Crosse Tribune (October 20, 1980x) ‘McCoy Press Office Called “a Nightmare”’.

            43. La Crosse Tribune (October 20, 1980xii) ‘Colonel Says Cubans Blamed for Crimes Committed by Others’.

            44. La Crosse Tribune (October 26, 1980y) ‘McCoy Clean-Up Crews Find “Sickening” Mess in Barracks’.

            45. La Crosse Tribune (October 28, 1980z) ‘Mismanagement Is McCoy Legacy’.

            46. La Crosse Tribune (May 29, 2005) ‘When Cubans and Chaos Came to Fort McCoy, That Was in 1980’ & ‘When Castro Duped the U.S. Into Accepting Refugees in the Mariel Boatlift: Many of Them Were Criminals’.

            47. (2001) Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

            48. Milwaukee Journal (May 26, 1980a) ‘Cubans as Hardworkers’.

            49. Milwaukee Journal (June 27, 1980b) ‘Obey Raps Dreyfus for Refugee Stance’.

            50. Milwaukee Journal (July 1, 1980c) ‘Politicking Clouds Refugee Issue’.

            51. Milwaukee Sentinel (June 24, 1980a) ‘Spread Cuban Costs’.

            52. Milwaukee Sentinel (June 27, 1980b) ‘Workers at McCoy Homeless’.

            53. (2005) ‘Visibility and Silence: Mariel and Cuban American Gay Male Experience and Representation’, in and Jr. (eds) Queer Migrations: Sexuality, U.S. Citizenship, and Border Crossings , 125–45. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

            54. (2007) ‘“Obvious Gays” and the State Gaze: Cuban Gay Visibility and U.S. “Immigration Policy during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift”’. Journal of the History of Sexuality 16, no. 3 (September): 485.

            55. (2001) ‘Race and Place in the Adaptation of Mariel Exiles’. International Migration Review 35 (2): 449–71.

            56. Sparta Herald (May 19, 1980a) ‘Unconfirmed Reports Say 2,500 Cubans Are Due Here’.

            57. Sparta Herald (May 27, 1980bi) ‘Fort McCoy Puts Ban on Fishing’.

            58. Sparta Herald (May 27, 1980bii) ‘Lots of Rumors, But No Refugees’.

            59. Sparta Herald (June 9, 1980c) ‘Cuban Refugee Count is 12,500’.

            60. Sparta Herald (June 16, 1980d) ‘Escapes, Drinks Stir Cubans’.

            61. Sparta Herald (June 23, 1980e) ‘Refugee Costs Are Challenged’.

            62. Sparta Herald (June 30, 1980fi) ‘Cubans’.

            63. Sparta Herald (June 30, 1980fii) ‘Cuban Spending Lifts Economy’.

            64. Sparta Herald (July 21, 1980g) ‘Judge, McCoy Officials at Odds Over Juveniles’.

            65. Sparta Herald (July 28, 1980h) ‘3 Cubans Still at Large’.

            66. Sparta Herald (July 28, 1980i) ‘Federal Government to Help Pay for Processing’.

            67. Sparta Herald (August 4, 1980j) ‘Sex Offender Protection is Seminar Topic’.

            68. Sparta Herald (August 11, 1980ki) ‘Bond Set for Refugee Charged in Burglaries’.

            69. Sparta Herald (August 11, 1980kii) ‘“Our People Are Up in Arms” Residents Uneasy Over Cubans’.

            70. Sparta Herald (August 18, 1980li) ‘Weekly Round-Up’.

            71. Sparta Herald (August 18, 1980lii) ‘Cuban Lawsuit on File’.

            72. Sparta Herald (August 25, 1980mi) ‘Police Warn of Roaming Refugees’.

            73. Sparta Herald (August 25, 1980mii) ‘Refugee to be Arraigned on Charge of Burglary’.

            74. Sparta Herald (August 25 1980miii) ‘Cuban Refugees May Explode’.

            75. Sparta Herald (September 2, 1980n) ‘Cuban Center May Explode’.

            76. Sparta Herald (September 2, 1980o) ‘Claims of Violence, Lack of Security Are Refuted’.

            77. Sparta Herald (September 15, 1980p) ‘Need for Cuban Sponsors Is Topic of Symposium’.

            78. Sparta Herald (September 22, 1980q) ‘Weekly Round-Up’.

            79. Sparta Herald (October 6, 1980r) ‘Sex Offender Seminar Set October 15’.

            80. Sparta Herald (December 1, 1980s) ‘First Payment for Refugee Expense Coming’.

            81. Sparta Herald (December 8, 1980t) ‘Cubans Hear Law Lecture’.

            82. Sparta Herald (December 22, 1980u) ‘Marriage Between Cuban and 13-Year-Old Girl Blocked’.

            83. Times Magazine (September 8, 1980) ‘Nation: Camp of Fear in Wisconsin’. Available from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,924398–2,00.html.

            84. Tomah Journal (August 18, 1980a) ‘Cuban Police Are Cause of Fights’.

            85. Tomah Journal (August 28, 1980b) ‘McCoy, County Police Discuss Runaway Cubans’.

            86. Tomah Journal (September 18, 1980c) ‘Posse Draws Small Crowd’.

            87. Tomah Journal (October 2, 1980d) ‘Cuban Juveniles Are Handcuffed, Locked Up’.

            88. U.S. Department of State (1980) ‘Cuban Refugees’. U.S. Department of State , August.

            89. Wisconsin State Journal (June 30, 1980) ‘U.S. Marshal Rides Herd at Refugee Center’.

            Comments

            Comment on this article