Netflix, Wasp Network and the Cuban exile settled in Miami

Since its premiere, “Wasp Network” film has been object of intense activism against the Cuban exiles settled in Miami. In that sense, this paper aims to determine the incidence of this activism on the film’s trajectory on Netflix. Document review and content analysis are used as techniques. The main finding shows that, in face of pretense that film was not seen, there was an opposite impact, with particular emphasis on the Cuban community itself in United States and, to a lesser extent, in Spain and Latin American countries.

West Tampa

In this shortest section of the book, Gálvez discusses West Tampa, a second settlement of Cuban exiles and cigar workers that was established on the west bank of the Hillsborough River. He describes the river in some detail, as well as Céspedes Hall, which was the center of the exile community in West Tampa. Gálvez devotes long entries to two important personalities, Martín Herrera and Fernando Figueredo. Titles are, The River, Bridge, Oysters and Boats; Martín Herrera; Céspedes Hall; and Fernando Figueredo.

The Politics of Cuban Music in the United States

The third chapter describes the history of Cuban politics in the United States, their recent transformations, and how they have impacted musical production and interaction. The politics and musical prominence of Cuban exiles in Miami has resulted in a range of reactions to Cuban musicians in South Florida ranging from controversy to acceptance. Divisive Florida performances are contrasted with appearances by Cuban artists elsewhere in the country. The National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba’s first tour of the United States in 2012 featured a range of repertoire by Cuban artists, European romantic composers, Gershwin, and more that represented a call for increased US-Cuban musical interaction.

The CIA and Cuba: The Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis

This chapter is concerned with the some of the CIA’s operations against Cuba. It examines the ill-fated invasion at the Bay of Pigs by CIA backed and trained Cuban exiles, and how the failure impacted the agency. President Kennedy chose to fire the Head of the CIA and his deputy Allen Dulles and Charles Cabell. This occurred a short while before another, far more serious, crisis. In October 1962 reconnaissance aircraft provided evidence of a Soviet missile base on Cuba. This prompted the Cuban Missile Crisis. During the crisis the CIA was called on to provide intelligence on matters of the highest significance, and to do so it used the material provided by a Soviet source, Colonel Oleg Penkovsky. Documents: Report on the Cuban Operation; The Inspector General’s Survey of the Cuban Operation; Oleg V. Penkovskiy.

Operation Zapata: Cuba

This chapter explores one of the most infamous episodes of covert action during the Cold War: The Bay of Pigs. The operation, which was authorized by Dwight Eisenhower in March of 1960 and carried out by John F. Kennedy in mid-April of the following year, involved training and arming Cuban exiles with the aim of overthrowing Fidel Castro. America’s hand was not supposed to show. In the end, the mission was a failure. Consistent with the book’s argument, the evidence shows that decision makers were reluctant to openly violate the nonintervention principle by pursuing overt action against Fidel Castro. As a result, they opted for a covert operation they knew was less likely to succeed to avoid undermining America’s moral authority and to protect the credibility of its commitments. Decision makers were also willing to act overtly if a legal exemption to nonintervention materialized.

The Civil War the World Made

How did world events help create the Civil War? This chapter examines the impact of global revolutionary movements in shaping U.S. politics in the 1840s and 1850s crisis. Particularly it follows crises in Cuba and Spain over the survival of slavery and the resilience of imperial rule and follows Cuban exiles into U.S. politics to show their role in helping turn U.S. political debate toward expansion.

Marielitos, the Criminalization of Blackness, and Constructions of Worthy Citizenship

Chapter two analyzes the coverage of the 1980 Mariel boatlift in the Spanish language El Miami Herald newspaper. Stigmatized as criminals in the mainstream press, the Marielitos were younger, poorer, and “blacker” than were Cubans from previous immigration waves. Examining the dilemmas faced by established Cuban exiles, who during the Cold War desired to both support their new compatriots and escape the Marielito stigma, the chapter argues that white dominant tropes about laziness, dependency, and criminality were utilized by Cuban voices to set themselves apart from black or “unworthy” migrants. Juxtaposing the newspaper discourse and Afro-Cuban testimonials, the chapter illustrates how racist attitudes from Cuba and the United States intersected to impact their acceptance by the local (white) Cuban community. The chapter underscores the crucial role blackness played in the Mariel stigma, and illustrates the continued utility of anti-black racializing discourses in current notions of “worthy citizenship.”