How We Heal: Genealogical Narratives of Healing among San Lázaro Devotees

Healing is the basis of belief in San Lázaro, a popular saint among Cubans, Cuban-Americans, and other Latinx peoples. Stories about healing, received through faith in San Lázaro, are typically passed on through family members, rendering them genealogical narratives of healing. In this photo essay, the author draws on her maternal grandmother’s devotion to San Lázaro and explores how other devotees of this saint create genealogical narratives of healing that are passed down from generation to generation. These genealogical narratives of healing function as testaments to the efficaciousness of San Lázaro’s healing abilities and act as familial avenues through which younger generations inherit belief in the saint. Using interview excerpts and ethnographic observations conducted at Rincón de San Lázaro church in Hialeah, Florida, the author locates registers of lo cotidiano, the everyday practices of the mundane required for daily functions and survival, and employs arts-based methods such as photography, narrative inquiry, and thematic poetic coding to show how the stories that believers tell about San Lázaro, and their experiences of healing through faith in the saint, constitute both genealogical narratives of healing and genealogical healing narratives where testimonies become a type of narrative medicine.

From Burning Paintings to Domestic Anxieties

Jorge Duany examines the shifting cultural ties between Cuba and the United States since 1959, and how they have reframed relations between Cubans on and off the island. Duany argues that the cultural politics of Miami’s Cuban community have changed substantially because of demographic and generational transitions over the last three decades. Until the 1980s, Cuban artists and other intellectuals in the United States had limited contact with their island counterparts. However, it is now customary for U.S. museums and galleries to collect and exhibit artworks produced in post-1959 Cuba without much protest or opposition from Cuban Americans. Although some exile artists and critics still believe that U.S. cultural institutions should not display such artworks, the fault lines between Cubans residing on the island and abroad seem more porous than in the past. The author concludes that the visual arts may serve as cultural bridges across the Florida Straits.

No More Lies Are to Be Told

This chapter surveys the late 1980s, when Armando Fernández defects to the United States, stands trial, and confirms the story told a decade earlier by Michael Townley. Emboldened by the first indictment of a Chilean military man in US courts, investigators and the families push for the Chilean courts to re-open the Letelier case, which they refuse to do. Back in the United States in 1990, the two Cuban-Americans who had been on the lam since 1979, Virgilio Paz and José Suárez, are caught, tried, and jailed.

Homicide Squad

This chapter recounts the days leading to the assassination on September 21, 1976. Michael Townley and the Cuban-Americans follow Letelier’s movements as they suspect one another and hide their tracks. Two other Chileans, Armando Fernández and a woman with the pseudonym of “Liliana Walker,” accompany Townley to New York and Washington. Two Cubans set off the car bomb in Sheridan Circle.

Intellectual Authors, 1996–2018

This epilogue ties up loose ends by narrating the experiences of all the important participants in the Letelier case: Isabel Letelier and her sons have grown old and beloved; Michael Moffitt remarried and prospered; investigators moved on and remained fond of the case they solved. Some Cuban-Americans served significant sentences, but all have remained popular in their communities. Manuel Contreras died in prison in 2015; Mariana Townley died penniless while her former husband, Michael Tonwley, remained in Witness Protection. Augusto Pinochet died while awaiting trial for human rights violations and can now be safely assessed as not only covering up the crime but ordering the assassination. The epilogue ends with thoughts on the importance of the case for democracy, human rights, the Cold War, and counterterrorism.

Some Misguided Sense of Patriotism

This chapter pivots to the biographies of a handful of Cuban-Americans who will help Michael Townley surveil and assassinate Orlando Letelier. The Cuban militants, enemies of the communist revolution in Cuba, coordinate with Chileans against socialists operating outside of Chile and Cuba, using terror as a tactic. Among these Cuban Americans are Guillermo Novo, Ignacio Novo, José Suárez, Alvin Ross, and Virgilio Paz.

Expressive Writing Intervention With Cuban-American and Puerto Rican Parents of LGBTQ Individuals

Acceptance by parental figures is one of the most important protective factors for the mental health of LGBTQ individuals. To date, little is known about the experiences of Latinx parental figures of LGBTQ children. Thirty Latinx parental figures (19 Cuban-Americans; 11 Puerto Ricans) completed an expressive writing intervention focusing on cultural strengths and challenges that influenced their journey toward accepting their LGBTQ child. Thematic analysis revealed Latinx-specific cultural strengths and challenges, such as familismo, caballerismo, machismo, and marianismo that influenced the process toward acceptance of their child. Parental figures reported feelings of happiness, pride, peace, satisfaction and relief, as well as mixed feelings and emotions following the writing intervention. Strength-based approaches to working with Latinx parental figures of LGBTQ individuals are discussed.

The Variants in the TCF7L2 Gene Increases the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes in Cuban American by Impairing Glucose Homeostasis (P15-021-19)

Objectives Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a complex and chronic metabolic disorder that involves complex interaction between environmental factors and genetic predisposition. TCF7L2 gene recently emerged as top candidate gene for T2D. Our study is aimed to assess six TCTL2 common polymorphisms: rs7903146, rs12255372, rs11196205, rs7901695, rs7895340 and rs4506565, in relation to T2D and related phenotypes in Cuban Americans who lived in Miami-Dade county, Florida. Methods We conducted a case-control study with 341 Cuban Americans (172 without T2D/169 with T2D). Unconditional logistic regression method was used to assess the association between six TCF7L2 SNPs and the risk of T2D in the additive genetic model, and further adjusted by potential confounding factors such as age, sex, BMI, physical activities and calorie intake. Student's t-tests on continuous values of T2D related quantitative traits were compared between risk allele carriers and non-carriers in control subjects. In addition, linkage disequilibrium and haplotype analysis were performed using Haploview 4.2. Results Four TCF7L2 SNPs (rs7901695, rs4506565, rs7903146 and rs11225537) were significantly associated with the risk of T2D in a Cuban American population after multivariable adjustment. Among non-diabetic control subjects, risk minor allele carriers of three TCF7L2 SNPs (rs7901695 (T > C), rs4506565 (A > T) and rs7903146 (C > T)) had significantly higher fasting glucose level and marginally higher level of glycated hemoglobin (A1C), compared to non-risk allele carriers. Consistently, results from haplotype analysis showed that two haplotypes TAC and CTT, formed by aforementioned three TCF7L2 SNPs (rs7901695, rs450565 and rs7903146), were significantly associated with the risk of T2D (P = 0.0094, and P = 0.0044, respectively), with the frequency of TAC significantly lower and CTT significantly higher in subjects with T2D, compared to subjects without T2D. Conclusions The results of this study provide convincing evidence that variation in TCF7L2 genes confers strong susceptibility to T2D in the population studied. Funding Sources Funding for this research was provided through an NIH/NIDDK sponsored grant. Supporting Tables, Images and/or Graphs