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Cuban-American
Literature
Cuban-Americans are brought up with mythological stories of a place they can never attain--their homeland. Here is a brief history of the Cuban American literature.
Cuban American literature has dated back to the 19th century. It has generally focused on Cuban identity according to Juan Flores, a scholar from Hunter College. Cuban American literature also centers on the Cuban Revolution and Exile.
Figueredo writes, “Gutierrez de la Solana feels the Exile was the product of the Cuban Revolution. Prior to 1959, emigration from Cuba was miniscule. In the 1800's patriots like poet Jose Marti plotted the island's independence in Tampa and New Orleans…and in the 50's, wealthy university students, including a young Fidel Castro, conspired against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista from New York and Miami. When the Revolution triumphed in 1959, many of the same university students found themselves opposing Castro. They had fought to return to the centrist constitution of 1940(suspended by Strongman Batista) and not to implement a communist agenda. Thus, they rebelled. Scores were executed. Thousands were imprisoned. In time, the majority—nearly a million and half went into exile.
Many of the Cuban exiles in the 1960's went to Miami, Florida for what they thought would be a very temporary stay, until ultimately returning to Cuba. The anti-Castro exiles began writing stories and would then distribute them among the community. Marta Silvat, the daughter of Julio Silvat, (founder of Universal Publishing House) once stated, "In 1965, my father realized that we might never return to Cuba. So he put all his energy into publishing books by Cubans. His purpose was to preserve our culture in a foreign land" (Figueredo, 17). This was the first wave of Cuban American writers.
The second wave came in the 1970's and did not always criticize the Cuban government or "sing the praises of pre-Castro Cuba" (21), and encountered controversy with their writing.
The "Mariel Generation" departed from Cuba in the '80's when Castro told them they could leave if they wanted to. The first wave of Cuban exiles were hard on the Mariel Generation because they had actually fought against Castro and were typically professionals and more wealthy. The Mariel Generation, however, road the socialism wave in Cuba for a good deal of time before getting out and were not as high in stature as the first wave. Figueredo writes, "Like the anti-Casto authors of the 1960's, the Mariel writers targeted the Maximum Leader. But that was where the similarities ended. These writers did not glorify pre-1959 Cuba. Having reached maturity under Castro, they wrote about their experiences in a communist state" 24).
The fourth wave of Cuban-American writers did not write only is Spanish, but also wrote in English. According to Figueredo, they "could be divided into two groups:
The 'atrevidos' were writers whose formative years were shaped in Cuba.
The second group came out of writing workshops." Since many of these writers' families could not read Spanish, they decided to write in English in hopes of passing on their Cuban culture.
Roberto G. Fernandez comes out of the fourth group, the "atrevidos." He left the island when he was eleven years old. His first two novels were in Spanish, and in his third novel,
Raining Backwards, he switched to English. According to the Spanish American Almanac, "Ironically, one of the most important writers in forging a Cuban American literature and in breaking new ground in his use of the English language is a professor of Spanish. Through his novels, Fernandez not only touches upon all the taboo subjects in the Cuban community of Miami--the counterrevolutionary movement in the United States, racism, acculturation and dissimilation--but also helps the community to take them in a less serious vein and to laugh at itself" (441).