Synopsis
This collection creates a picture of society in Cuba that is fully engaged in the exchange of international cultural currents. Though scholars, policymakers, the public, and the media often portray the nation as suspended outside space and time, the authors argue that the island is insular merely in physical geography and that its influence on global actors and forces in the 21st century is complex and significant.
The myth of isolation has served as an excuse for political actions on both sides of the Florida Straits. But transnational norms, capital, identities, and mass culture have not stopped short of Cuban shores. These articles, based on grassroots fieldwork in Cuba as well as in Little Havana (Miami), South Miami Beach, and other locations, demonstrate patterns of connections that challenge the standard discourse on Cuban distinctiveness. The authors expand the dimensions of the study of Cuba’s international relationships by including aspects of life that are not solely the consequence of state action, conceptualizing transnationalism as an exchange across borders by nonstate actors, individuals, organizations, and networks. While addressing the subject of migration--including immigration to the United States in the century before Castro--they also examine social and cultural encounters in areas such as music, tourism, gay life, religion, and literature.