WITNESSING THE REVOLUTION: NORTH AMERICANS IN CUBA IN THE 1960s

Strug, David L.

doi:10.2307/41926672

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International Journal of Cuban Studies

Volume 4, Issue 1

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WITNESSING THE REVOLUTION: NORTH AMERICANS IN CUBA IN THE 1960s

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Author(s): David L. Strug

Publication date (Print): 1 April 2012

Journal: International Journal of Cuban Studies

Publisher: Pluto Journals

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Abstract

Cuba sought international help in the 1960s from individuals, organisations, and countries that were sympathetic to the revolution in response to acts of aggression by the US government. We discuss the experiences of one such group of individuals, North Americans from Canada and the United States, who travelled to Cuba in the 1960s to live and work there. We show that the revolution benefited from their support in practical and symbolic ways. It politically socialised North Americans and imbued them with a revolutionary enthusiasm. This enthusiasm was tempered over time by recognition of the revolution's limitations. The story of these North Americans offers an insider perspective on the revolution in its early humanist phase and furthers an understanding of the New Left's views on Cuba in the 1960s. Data come from 28 qualitative interviews with North Americans who lived and worked in Cuba in the 1960s.

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Journal

Journal ID (jstor): intejcubastud

Journal ID (doi): 10.2307/j50005551

Title: International Journal of Cuban Studies

Publisher: Pluto Journals

ISSN (Print): 17563461

Publication date (Print): 1 April 2012

Volume: 4

Issue: 1

Pages: 68-87

Article

DOI: 10.2307/41926672

SO-VID: ce8e8297-2438-4c34-9315-b0044c75071e

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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/.

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References

Artaraz, K. (2009) Cuba and Western Intellectuals since 1959. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Besancenot, O. and M. Lo wry (2009) Che Guevara: His Revolutionary Legacy. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Bolender, K. (2010) Voices from the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism against Cuba. London: Pluto Press.
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Hollander, P. (2009) Political Pilgrims: Western Intellectuals in Search of the Good Society. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
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Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Artaraz, K. (2009) Cuba and Western Intellectuals since 1959. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

[2] Besancenot, O. and M. Lo wry (2009) Che Guevara: His Revolutionary Legacy. New York: Monthly Review Press.

[3] Bolender, K. (2010) Voices from the Other Side: An Oral History of Terrorism against Cuba. London: Pluto Press.

[4] Bunck, J.M. (1994) Fidel Castro and the Quest for a Revolutionary Culture in Cuba. University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

[5] Caute, D. (1988) The Fellow-Travelers: Intellectual Friends of Communism. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

[6] Communist Canada. Retrieved 27 July 2011, from http://www.cbc.ca/history/ EPISCONTENTSE1EP13CH3PA3LE.html

[7] DePalma, A. (2006) The Man Who Invented Fidel: Cuba, Castro, and Herbert L. Matthews of the New York Times. Public Affairs: New York.

[8] Dominguez, J.I. (1978) 'Cuban Foreign Policy', Foreign Affairs 57(1): 83-108.

[9] Dore, E. (2009) 'Cubans' Memories of the 1960s', Harvard Review of Latin America 8(2) (Winter): 34-8.

[10] Fagen, R.F. (1969) The Transformation of Political Culture in Cuba. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

[11] Farber, S. (2006) The Origins of the Cuban Revolution Reconsidered. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

[12] Frank, W. (1962) The Prophetic Island: A Portrait of Cuba. New York: Marzani and Munsell.

[13] Franks, J. (2011) 'Raul Castro Showing Impatience at Slow Reform Pace,' Reuters, 23 August. Retrieved 22 August 2011, from http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/ idCATRE77M5Y220110823

[14] Goodman, L.A. (1961) 'Snowball Sampling', Annals of Mathematical Statistics 32: 148-70.

[15] Gosse, V. (1993) Where the Boys Are? Cuba, Cold War America and the Making of a New Left. New York: Verso.

[16] Gosse, V. (2005) The Movements of the New Left, 1950-1975. Boston, MA: Bedford/St Martin's.

[17] Hollander, P. (2009) Political Pilgrims: Western Intellectuals in Search of the Good Society. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

[18] Isserman, M. and M. Kazin (2007) America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s. New York: Oxford University Press.

[19] Jennings, M.K. (2002) 'Intergenerational Analysis', Political Psychology 23(2) (June). Retrieved 27 May 2010, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3792292

[20] Jones, L. (1960) 'Cuba libre', Evergreen Review 4(15) (November-December).

[21] Kapcia, A. (2000) Cuba: Island of Dreams. New York: Oxford.

[22] Kaplan, F. (2009) 1959: The Year Everything Changed. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

[23] Landau, S. (1961) 'Cuba: The Present Reality', New Left Review 1/9 (May-June). Retrieved from http://newleftreview.org.ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/?page=articleôcview=821

[24] Landau, S. (1965) 'C. Wright Mills: The Last Six Months', Ramparts 4 (August): 46-54.

[25] LeoGrande, W.M. (1978) 'Civil-Military Relations in Cuba', Studies in Comparative Communism 11(3) (Autumn): 280-91.

[26] Levinson, S. and C. Brightman (1971) Venceremos Brigade: Young Americans Sharing the Life and Work of Revolutionary Cuba. New York: Simon and Schuster.

[27] Lewis, O., R.M. Lewis and S.M. Rigdon (1978) Neighbors: Living the Revolution. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

[28] Lockwood, L. (1990) Castro's Cuba, Cuba's Fidel. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

[29] Lyons, P. (1976) 'The New Left and the Cuban Revolution', in R. Radosh (ed.) The New Cuba: Paradoxes and Potentials (pp. 211-46). New York: William Morrow Company.

[30] Mailer, N. (1961, 27 April) 'An Open Letter to JFK', The Village Voice, 6(27). Retrieved 11 February 2011, from http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2008/12/clip_job_ mailer_2.php

[31] Martin, P. and M.A. Smyer (1990) 'The Experience of Micro-and Macroevents: A Life Span Analysis', Research on Aging 12: 294-310.

[32] Matthews, H.L. (1961) The Cuban Story. New York: G. Braziller, Inc.

[33] Medin, T. (1990) Cuba: The Shaping of Revolutionary Consciousness. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.

[34] Merelman, R.M. (1986) Revitalizing Political Socialization', in M.J. Herman (ed.) Political Psychology (pp. 279-319). San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

[35] Mills, C.W. (1960) Listen Yankee: The Revolution in Cuba. New York: Ballantine.

[36] Mutz, D. (2006) 'Contexts for Cross Cutting Conversation', Journal of Politics 68(1) (February): 140-55.

[37] Pérez-Stable, M. (1993) The Cuban Revolution: Origins, Course, and Legacy. New York: Oxford University Press.

[38] Radio Habana Cuba (1985) Esta es Radio Habana Cuba: Origines y propósitos. Empresa Poligràfica del CC del PCC, January.

[39] Radosh, R. (ed.) (1976) The New Cuba: Paradoxes and Potential. New York: William Morrow and Co., Inc.

[40] Radosh, R. (1976) 'The Cuban Revolution and Western Intellectuals', in R. Radosh (ed.) The New Cuba: Paradoxes and Potential (pp. 37-55). New York: William Morrow and Co., Inc.

[41] Ramy, A. (2011) 'Static Target / Moving Target', Progresso Weekly, 17 August. Retrieved 23 August 2011, from http://progreso-weekly.com/2/index.php?option=com_content &view=article&id=2702:static-target-moving-target&catid=36:in-cuba&Itemid=54

[42] Randall, M. (1961) 'A Declaration of Conscience by American Artists and Writers', Monthly Review 13(5) (September): 230-1.

[43] Randall, M. (1974) Cuban Women Now. Toronto, CA: The Women's Press.

[44] Randall, M. (2009) To Change the World: My Years in Cuba. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

[45] Rhoades, M.M. (1979) Political Socialization in Cuba. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms.

[46] Saney, I. (2004) Cuba: A Revolution in Motion. London: Zed Books.

[47] Serra, A. (2007) The 'New Man' in Cuba: Culture and Identity in the Revolution. Miami: University of Florida Press.

[48] Smith, W. (2010) 'Free the Cuban Five', The Nation, 13 July. Retrieved 9 August 2010, from http://www.thenation.com/article/37396/free-cuban-five

[49] Strug, D. (2009) 'Why Older Cubans Still Identify with the Ideals of the Cuban Revolution', Socialism and Democracy 23(1): 143-57.

[50] Wright, C. (2009) 'Between Nation and Empire: The Fair Play for Cuba Committees and the Making of Canada-Cuba Solidarity in the Early 1960s', in R. Wright and L. Wylie (eds) Our Place in the Sun: Canada and Cuba in the Castro Era (pp. 96-120). Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

[51] Zinn, H. (1973) Postwar America: 1945-1971. Indianapolis, IN: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.

International Journal of Cuban Studies

WITNESSING THE REVOLUTION: NORTH AMERICANS IN CUBA IN THE 1960s

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