Guerrillerismo in the Shadows, 1980–1989

2019 ◽  
pp. 106-127
Author(s):  
Anna Clayfield
Keyword(s):  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
Official Discourse ◽  
Complex Picture ◽  
Soviet Model ◽  
The Revolution

By examining the official discourse of the Cuban Revolution in the 1980s, this chapter paints a more complex picture of the decade than has commonly been portrayed in the literature. Far from being a time in which the Revolution was subsumed by its adherence to the Soviet model, the tracing of the relative absence or presence of guerrillerismo demonstrates that the 1980s was a decade of shifting ideological currents, a decade in which the use of a guerrilla rhetoric served different functions at different points. This chapter argues that one such function in the late 1980s (as well as in other decades), was to undermine the proliferation of a “siege mentality.”

Preface and Introduction

2022 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Manolo De Los Santos ◽  
Vijay Prashad
Keyword(s):  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Monthly Review ◽  
The Revolution

We are grateful to present this special issue of Monthly Review, carrying forward a tradition established six decades ago. The stance of the magazine reflects Castro’s assertion that criticism should be from within the revolution, mirroring the view of C. Wright Mills. In his Listen, Yankee, Mills wrote that we don’t worry about the Cuban Revolution, we worry with it. This volume is put together in that spirit.

The Vanguard Will Be the Guerrilla Movement, 1968–1979

2019 ◽  
pp. 70-105
Author(s):  
Anna Clayfield
Keyword(s):  
Structural Change ◽  
Official Discourse ◽  
Beliefs And Values ◽  
Guerrilla Movement ◽  
Formative Years ◽  
The Revolution

This chapter explores how guerrilla motifs were still readily discernible in the official discourse of the 1970s. Scholarly studies have often overlooked this period in the Revolution’s trajectory, designating it simply as a decade of “Sovietization,” or, to use the Cuban term, increased “institutionalization.” What the evidence in this chapter reveals is that, though the Revolution underwent a profound structural change in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many of the beliefs and values which underpinned the revolutionary project in its formative years—that is, those linked to a guerrilla ethos—were still being promoted well into the Revolution’s second decade in power.

Consolidating the Revolution, 1959–1968

2019 ◽  
pp. 34-69
Author(s):  
Anna Clayfield
Keyword(s):  
Political Culture ◽  
Official Discourse ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
The Way ◽  
The Revolution

This chapter comprises an in-depth analysis of the revolutionary leadership’s discourse between 1959 and 1968, a year often pinpointed by external observers as heralding a move away from the guerrilla-style, empirical management of the Revolution towards a more structured, Soviet-inspired approach. The chapter also charts the way in which the leaders of the Revolution employed guerrilla rhetoric from their very first days in power, thus gradually embedding guerrilla-related motifs into the official discourse. In turn, this language helped to shape a new political culture that not only reinforced the legitimacy of the revolutionary project but also gave the impression of conferring ownership for its development onto the Cuban people.

Modes of Making War

2021 ◽  
pp. 109-126
Author(s):  
António Tomás
Keyword(s):  
Small Group ◽  
Cape Verde ◽  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Guinea Bissau ◽  
The One ◽  
Che Guevara ◽  
The Revolution

By the time the anticolonial war started in Guinea-Bissau, in terms of counterinsurgency doctrine Cabral could choose from two major theories. On the one hand, the theory of movement, proposed by the likes of Mao, that involved the massive participation of the peasantry. On the other, the foco theory, espoused by Che Guevara and experimented in the Cuban revolution, that consisted of the incursion in a given territory of a small group of revolutionaries with the mission to start the uprising. The revolution in Guinea is the mix between the two. It counted on the one hand with a significant adherence of the Guinean peasantry, but the party’s leadership was in the hand of a handful of cadres, most of them from Cape Verde.

US-Cuban Musical Relations before and after the Revolution

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-29
Author(s):  
Timothy P. Storhoff
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
The Us ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Trade Embargo ◽  
The Revolution

Chapter One provides the history and context for the rest of the book. The United States and Cuba had a vibrant musical relationship before the Cuban Revolution. When the United States instituted a trade embargo and travel ban on Cuba, musicians continued to seek opportunities for cultural exchange and pushed the boundaries of what travel policies permitted. The chapter outlines how the US-Cuban relationship has changed under various US Presidents, and how musical exchanges have been both stifled and briefly sanctioned under different administrations.

Historicizing Sexuality in the Cuban Revolution

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (136) ◽  
pp. 217-232
Author(s):  
Jennifer L. Lambe
Keyword(s):  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
History Of Sexuality ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Revolution

Abstract What should be the place of the Cuban Republic in histories of sexuality under the revolution? This essay argues that scholarly accounts of gender and sexuality in post-1959 Cuba want for a fuller engagement with their pre-1959 context. In particular, it seeks to open up a conversation about questions and topics in the history of sexuality that might straddle the 1959 divide, as well as the historiographical (and political) consequences of writing across it.

scholarly journals Conceptualizing Change in the Cuban Revolution

2021 ◽  
pp. 89-111
Author(s):  
Marina Gold
Keyword(s):  
Life Histories ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Perspective Change ◽  
History Of ◽  
Generational Conflicts ◽  
The Revolution

AbstractThis paper will consider two levels within the study of the Cuban revolution: the meta-narratives of change and continuity that determine the academic literature on Cuba and inform political positioning in relation to the revolution, and the methodological challenges in understanding how people in Cuba experience change and continuity in their daily life. Transformation and continuity have been the two dominant analytical tropes used to interpret Cuban social and political life since the overthrow of the Batista regime in 1959. For Cuban scholars and politicians, a focus on change in reference to what was Cuba’s reality before the Revolution is a continuous concern and a powerful discursive mechanism in redefining and reinvigorating the revolutionary project. Simultaneously, in periods of crisis throughout the 62 years since the revolution, the capacity to demonstrate continuity with revolutionary principles while developing new mechanisms to redefine the political project has ensured the revolution’s subsistence. Conversely, continuity and change are also harnessed by critics of Cuba’s current regime to articulate the ever-imminent collapse of socialism in the region. Change has been their main focus of concern during critical historic moments that affected the trajectory of the Cuban revolutionary project. From this perspective, change embodies a promise of progress and implies a movement toward liberal democracy and a pro-US foreign policy, while continuity denotes failure, stagnation, and repression. At the core of the analysis of change in Cuba lies a concern with the nature of the state. Ethnographic data reveals the partialities and contradictions people experience in their daily life and across time. Two elements of ethnographic experience are particularly informative: life histories that span across the revolutionary period, and generational conflicts surrounding political issues. I will focus on the life history of key informants and the generational conflicts that surround their experience, a well as their material contexts (their neighborhood, their house, their job), all of which help to elucidate the complexities of studying change within a permanent revolution.

scholarly journals La religión en Biografía de un cimarrón de Miguel Barnet

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-10
Author(s):  
Dunja Mihajlovic
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Miguel Barnet ◽  
Catholic Religion ◽  
The Revolution

Biografía de un cimarrón es el título del testimonio de Esteban Montejo, un esclavo cubano, recopilado y traspuesto a la escritura por Miguel Barnet. En este testimonio, Montejo manifiesta sus ideas sobre la religión católica y las creencias y prácticas religiosas afrocubanas. Este trabajo propone que la ideología de la revolución cubana se encuentra inserta en el texto. Las expresiones de indiferencia acerca de la religión pueden leerse como parte de un mensaje textual acorde con las ideas de la revolución cubana. Biography of a runaway slave is the title of the “testimonio” of Esteban Montejo, a Cuban slave, compiled and written by Miguel Barnet. In this text, Montejo expresses his ideas on the Catholic religion, as well as on Afro-Cuban religious beliefs and practices. It is suggested that the ideology of the Cuban revolution is present in the text. The expressions of indiference towards religion can be read as part of a textual message that agrees with the ideas of the revolution.  

scholarly journals Anatomía del entusiasmo: la revolución como espectáculo de ideas

2009 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Rojas
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Cuban Revolution ◽  
American Left ◽  
The Revolution

RESUMEN: La Revolución Cubana, como evento ideológico de la izquierda latinoamericana, europea y estadounidense, representó un «espectáculo de ideas» para los intelectuales contemporáneos. El artículo explica cómo este acontecimiento histórico e ideológico marcó el pensamiento intelectual de algunos autores de la época, para lo cual se fundamenta en sus obras escritas sobre la isla. La crítica al régimen opresor es identificada por el autor en textos que en un momento apoyaban la Revolución en algún sentido, el artículo muestra el análisis desde la perspectiva de la descolonización y el subdesarrollo, donde hace latente este antagonismo en las opiniones intelectuales estudiadas.ABSTRACT: The Cuban revolution, as an ideological event from the Latin American, European and American left, represented a «show of ideas» for the contemporary intellectuals. The article explains how this historic and ideological situation made an impact on the intellectual thinking of some authors in the period. This is based on their writings about the island. The criticism to the oppressor regime is identified by the author in texts that sometimes supported the revolution in any way. The article shows the analysis from the decolonization and the underdevelopment perspective in which it becomes latent this antagonism in the studied intellectual opinions.

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