Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: As a self-defined exile community, Cuban Americans differ sharply from other Latino national origin groups in that they have developed a set of unique political institutions and a political culture based on their exile identity. This political culture is stereotypically defined by its right-wing, anti-Castro politics and automatic antipathy toward all things �leftist�. Even though the Florida Cuban American community varies according to generation and the �wave� of immigration that brought immigrants to the United States, social scientists and the public tend to take the community�s monolithic political profile for granted and assume that it remains unchanged over time. Yet careful analysis of 2000 and 2004 Cuban Polls reveals that while most Cuban Americans in South Florida are anti-Castro, the level of their fervor varies greatly among generational and wave cohorts.
This paper analyses these generational and cohort effects on anti-Castro political ideology among Cuban Americans.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: By mid-2006, for the first time in almost half a century, all actors and observers of the Cuban drama that has attracted the attention of a wide spectrum of the world’s public opinion were in agreement. All breathed a sort of a mix of expectation, calm, anguish, and hope in front of the moderately imminent biological (as the term is customarily used in Cuba) ending of at least the current political leadership. What was not actually expected was that the vigil was going to end so suddenly and not exactly for the terminal reason (the death of Castro) that most feared or hoped for. What it was less clear then and it is less clear now, of course, is the doubt consisting in deciphering if this chapter of the recent history of Cuba will also represent a drastic change of regime. In other words, this paper argues, the ultimate questions was not only ‘and now, what?’ What was demanded was to know if all the uncertainty created by Castro’s illness was going to end in a succession or a transition. In this context, each sector, actor and observer has performed according to individual or group needs and desires.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is two-fold. The first purpose is to briefly explain and chronicle the work of Marti. The second purpose is to trace the influence of Marti?s thought in Castro?s Agrarian policy.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: �De Castro podran decir lo que quieran, pero �" Bakhtin�s heteroglossia and the cross-generational discourse of Cuban immigrants in Miami.

Language is learned and shaped contextually and through social interaction. It is an admixture of social positions and interactions (private, public, market, professional, etc.) that often contest each other. In Bakhtin�s view, people of different classes, occupations, and generations have their own dialects�or ideolects. These dialects carry within social values, assumptions, and standpoints. Therefore, ideas (expressed in language) are socially and historically located. Furthermore, language is dialogic; that is, it has a real or imagined audience. Language has, as well, centripetal or regulating forces that seek to unify, to render language �monoglossic.� Hence, in Bakhtin�s view, language is ideological.
Because language is always potentially oppressive and dogmatic, heteroglossia�the contestation of dialects within a language�is of particular value to democracy. Heteroglossia unveils the tyranny of language and challenges dominant ways of thinking. Thus, differences in age and experience will necessarily influence ideas expressed in language, often resulting in generational, inter-cultural, and intra-cultural conflict as groups seeks to have�or challenge--the dominant voice in the dialogic exchange. Bakhtin�s concept of heteroglossia is the structural framework through which I examine the ideological discourse in the Cuban community in Miami. This essay is focuses especially on nostalgic representations of Cuba in Miami�s mainstream media, and the different representations of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, which is, paradoxically, both symbolic unifying image and pivotal point of conflict between long-established, culturally-acclimated Cuban immigrants who fled their native country decades ago and recently-arrived Cubans who were raised under Castro�s regime.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Authoritarian regimes seek to control the information available to their respective citizens. The advent of the Internet poses special challenges if a regime wishes to limit access to foreign sources of information. In this paper we test the effectiv