Talking about Race in Cuba: Four Trans-Atlantic African Diaspora Women Share Their Experience

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International Journal of Cuban Studies

Volume 7, Issue 2

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Talking about Race in Cuba: Four Trans-Atlantic African Diaspora Women Share Their Experience

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Author(s): Nataka Moore , Tiffany McDowell , Mildred Watson , Caridad Morales Nussa

Publication date (Print): Winter 2015

Journal: International Journal of Cuban Studies

Publisher: Pluto Journals

Keywords: racism, Afro-Cubans, community engagement

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Abstract

Descendants of the African Diaspora have encountered different challenges to well-being within their respective countries. In Cuba, it appears that while the Cuban Revolution attempted to level the outcomes for all citizens, Black Cubans remain marginalised and targets of discrimination. We, three African American and one Black Cuban women researchers, used a roundtable approach to analyse our experiences in Cuba. Using our individual reflections as data, the four of us sought to make meaning of cultural identity and expression within Cuba, and impact on well-being. Implications of this work can inform interventions for well-being of multiple African Diasporic populations in North and South America.

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Caridad Morales Nussa

Journal

Journal ID (doi): 10.13169

Journal ID (publisher-id): intejcubastud

Title: International Journal of Cuban Studies

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 17563461

ISSN (Electronic): 1756347X

Publication date (Print): Winter 2015

Volume: 7

Issue: 2

Pages: 212-235

Affiliations

Adler University, USA

Towson University, USA

Article

Publisher ID: intejcubastud.7.2.0212

DOI: 10.13169/intejcubastud.7.2.0212

SO-VID: 25d82efb-a4ad-4feb-b177-ff6de6e524e6

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History

Bibliography

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Arandia Covarrubias, G. (2005) ‘Somos o no somos’, La Gaceta de Cuba , 1, January–February, p. 59.
Armstead, R. (2007) ‘Growing the Size of the Black Woman: Feminist Activism in Havana Hip Hop’, NWSA Journal 19(1): 106–17. doi:10.2979/NWS.2007.19.1.106.
Ayorinde, C. (2004) Afro-Cuban Religiosity, Revolution, and National Identity . Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
Boszormenyi-Nagy, I. and G. Spark (1973) Invisible Loyalties: Reciprocity in Intergenerational Family Therapy . New York: Harper & Row.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979) The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986a) ‘Ecology of the Family as a Context for Human Development: Research Perspectives’, Developmental Psychology 22(6): 723–42. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.22.6.723.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986b) ‘Recent Advances in the Ecology of Human Development’, in R.K. Silbereisen, K. Eyferth and G. Rudinger (eds) Development as Action in Context: Problem Behavior and Normal Youth Development . Berlin: Springer-Verlag, pp. 287–309.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1988) ‘Interacting Systems in Human Development: Research Paradigms, Present and Future’, in N. Bolge, A. Caspi, G. Downey, et al. (eds) Persons in Context: Developmental Processes . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 25–49.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1989) ‘Ecological Systems Theory’, in R. Vasta (ed.) Six Theories of Child Development: Revised Formulations and Current Issues (Vol. 6). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Bronfenbrenner, U. and S.J. Ceci (1993) ‘Heredity, Environment, and the Question How?: A New Theoretical Perspective for the 1990's’, in R. Plomin and G.E. McClearn (eds) Nature, Nurture, and Psychology . Washington, DC: APA Books.
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Nagel, J. (1994) ‘Constructing Ethnicity: Creating and Recreating Ethnic Identity and Culture’, Social Problems 41(1): 152–76. doi:10.2307/3096847.
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[1] Arandia Covarrubias, G. (1994) ‘Strengthening Nationality: Blacks in Cuba’, Contributions in Black Studies: A Journal of African and Afro-American Studies 12(1): 62–9. Available at http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cibs/vol12/iss1/7.

[2] Arandia Covarrubias, G. (2005) ‘Somos o no somos’, La Gaceta de Cuba , 1, January–February, p. 59.

[3] Armstead, R. (2007) ‘Growing the Size of the Black Woman: Feminist Activism in Havana Hip Hop’, NWSA Journal 19(1): 106–17. doi:10.2979/NWS.2007.19.1.106.

[4] Ayorinde, C. (2004) Afro-Cuban Religiosity, Revolution, and National Identity . Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.

[5] Boszormenyi-Nagy, I. and G. Spark (1973) Invisible Loyalties: Reciprocity in Intergenerational Family Therapy . New York: Harper & Row.

[6] Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979) The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[7] Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986a) ‘Ecology of the Family as a Context for Human Development: Research Perspectives’, Developmental Psychology 22(6): 723–42. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.22.6.723.

[8] Bronfenbrenner, U. (1986b) ‘Recent Advances in the Ecology of Human Development’, in R.K. Silbereisen, K. Eyferth and G. Rudinger (eds) Development as Action in Context: Problem Behavior and Normal Youth Development . Berlin: Springer-Verlag, pp. 287–309.

[9] Bronfenbrenner, U. (1988) ‘Interacting Systems in Human Development: Research Paradigms, Present and Future’, in N. Bolge, A. Caspi, G. Downey, et al. (eds) Persons in Context: Developmental Processes . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 25–49.

[10] Bronfenbrenner, U. (1989) ‘Ecological Systems Theory’, in R. Vasta (ed.) Six Theories of Child Development: Revised Formulations and Current Issues (Vol. 6). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

[11] Bronfenbrenner, U. and S.J. Ceci (1993) ‘Heredity, Environment, and the Question How?: A New Theoretical Perspective for the 1990's’, in R. Plomin and G.E. McClearn (eds) Nature, Nurture, and Psychology . Washington, DC: APA Books.

[12] Brown-Rice, K. (2014) ‘Examining the Theory of Historical Trauma among Native Americans’, The Professional Counselor 3(3): 117–30. doi:10.15241/kbr.3.3.117.

[13] Canton, N.J. (2000) History of Cuba: The Challenge of the Yoke and the Star . La Habana, Cuba: SI-MAR S.A. Publishing House.

[14] Carew, J. (1996) ‘Caribbean Culture and Development’, Race & Class 38(2): 71–6. doi:10.1177/030639689603800205.

[15] Castro, F. (1986) Main Report: Third Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba . La Habana, Cuba: Editoria Politica.

[16] Cowling, C. (2011) ‘As a Slave Woman and as a Mother': Women and the Abolition of Slavery in Havana and Rio de Janeiro’, Social History 36(3): 294–311. doi:10.1080/03071022.2011.598728.

[17] Davidson, B. (1988) The African Slave Trade . Boston, MA: Back Bay Books.

[18] De la Fuente, A. (1998) ‘Recreating Racism: Race and Discrimination in Cuba's ‘Special Period’. Cuba Briefing Paper Series. The Caribbean Project, Center for Latin American Studies, Georgetown University. Available at http://sdonline.org/29/recreating-racism-race-and-discrimination-in-cuba.

[19] De la Fuente, A. (2001) A Nation for All: Race, Inequality and Politics in the Twentieth Century . Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.

[20] Denzin, N. (1970) The Research Act in Sociology . London: Butterworth.

[21] Esteban Morales, D. (2008) Challenges of the Racial Question in Cuba . Vol. 56. La Habana, Cuba: Editorial of Social Sciences.

[22] Gilroy, P. (1993) The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

[23] Katz-Fishman, W. and J. Scott (2002) ‘The South and the Black Radical Tradition: Then and Now’, Critical Sociology 28(1–2): 169–99. doi:10.1177/08969205020280011101.

[24] Kim, U. and Y.-S. Park (2007) ‘Development of Indigenous Psychologies: Understanding People in a Global Context’, in M.J. Stevens and U.P. Gielen (eds) Toward a Global Psychology . Hoboken, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

[25] Klein, H.S. (2010) The Atlantic Slave Trade . New ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[26] Lopez-Levy, A. (2011) ‘Chaos and Instability: Human Rights and U.S. Policy Goals in Cuba’, NACLA Report on the Americas 44(5): 16–8. Available at http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/67286255/chaos-instability-human-rights-u-s-policy-goals-cuba.

[27] Mandri, F.G. (2006) Guarding Cultural Memory: Black Cuban Women in Literature and the Arts . Charlottesville, VA and London: University of Virginia Press.

[28] McManus, J. (1989) Getting to Know Cuba . New York: St. Martin's.

[29] Moore, N. and T. McDowell (2014) ‘Expanding Adlerian Application: The Task, Challenges and Obstacles for African American Parents’, Journal of Individual Psychology 70(2): 114–27. doi:10.1353/jip.2014.0011.

[30] Morales Domínguez, E. (2007) Desafíos de la problemática racial en Cuba . La Habana, Cuba: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales. Available at http://www.afrocubaweb.com.

[31] Mossakowski, K.N. (2003) ‘Coping with Perceived Discrimination: Does Ethnic Identity Protect Mental Health?’, Journal of Health and Social Behavior 44: 318–31. doi:10.2307/1519782.

[32] Nagel, J. (1994) ‘Constructing Ethnicity: Creating and Recreating Ethnic Identity and Culture’, Social Problems 41(1): 152–76. doi:10.2307/3096847.

[33] Nazroo, J., J. Jackson, S. Karlsen and M. Torres (2007) ‘The Black Diaspora Inequalities in the US and England: Does Where You Go and How You Get There Make a Difference?’, Sociology of Health and Illness 29(6): 811–30.

[34] Oldfield, J.R. (2012) ‘Repairing Historical Wrongs: Public History and Transatlantic Slavery’, Social & Legal Studies 21(2): 243–55. doi:10.1177/0964663911435520.

[35] Ortíz, F. (1975) Los negros esclavos . La Habana, Cuba: Ediciones Ciencias Sociales.

[36] Ortíz, F. (1993) ‘Los factores humanos de la cubanidad’, in I. Barreal (ed.) Étnia y sociedad . La Habana, Cuba: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, pp. 1–20.

[37] Pérez Sarduy, P. and J. Stubbs (2000) Black Cuban Voices. On Race and Identity in Contemporary Cuba . Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. Available at http://www.afrocubaweb.com.

[38] Prieto, A. (1994) Cultura, Cubanidad, Cubanía. La nación y la emigración . La Habana, Cuba: Editora Política.

[39] Reeves, S., A. Kuper and B. D. Hodges (2008) ‘Qualitative Research Methodologies: Ethnography’, Bmj 337. Available at http://www.bmj.com/content/337/bmj.a1020.

[40] Rose, T. (1994) Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America . Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.

[41] Rosenberg-Weinreb, A. (2008) ‘Race, FE' (Faith) and CUBA'S Future’, Transforming Anthropology 16(2): 168–72. doi:10.1111/j.1548-7466.2008.00025.x.

[42] Rubiera-Castillo, D. (2000) Reyita: The Life of a Black Cuban Woman in the Twentieth Century . Durham: Duke University Press.

[43] Saney, I. (2004) Cuba: A Revolution in Motion . New York: Fernwood Publishing.

[44] Saunders, T.L. (2012) ‘Black Thoughts, Black Activism Cuban Underground Hip-Hop and Afro-Latino Countercultures of Modernity’, Latin American Perspectives 39(2): 42–60. doi:10.1177/0094582X11428062.

[45] Villagomez, R.E. (2007) [Review of the Book: Guarding Cultural Memory: Black Cuban Women in Literature and the Arts, by F. González Mandri], Wadabagei: A Journal of the Caribbean and Its Diasporas 10(2): 105. Available at http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/book-reviews/26379968/guarding-cultural-memory-BlackCuban-women-literature-arts.

[46] Wells, I.B. and J.J. Royster (1996) Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892–1900 . Edited by J.J. Royster. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's.

International Journal of Cuban Studies

Talking about Race in Cuba: Four Trans-Atlantic African Diaspora Women Share Their Experience

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