Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper will examine issues of childhood, language, and cultural translation as seen in the narratives of Cuban American authors Carlos Eire and Mirta Ojito. The study focuses on how exile and memory have shaped recent memoirs by both authors. By juxtaposing their childhood accounts, the paper explores their negotiation of Cuban and American identities, while transposing the importance that history plays in the development of their sense of national and ethnic identification.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper, we examine the internal and external obstacles to mobilization confronted by nuclear workers who organized to challenge the Oak Ridge Nuclear Reservation and the Department of Energy over health grievances. The Coalition for a Healthy Environment (CHE) formed after workers from the nuclear facility shared their observations of a pattern of denial and resistance by the government to their health concerns. We begin with a description of the unique historical circumstances surrounding the Oak Ridge facility, including the maintenance of a culture of secrecy and information control. After highlighting the environmental problems in Oak Ridge, we present respondents’ narratives about their on-the-job exposures. We then trace the emergence of CHE, describing workers’ emergent recognition of their common illness experiences and their subsequent collective efforts to gain access to basic information and heath care. We examine both internal obstacles to mobilization such as the physical limitations of environmentally ill activists, the lack of resources, and internal dissension among group members and external obstacles to mobilization such as fear of on-the job harassment, retaliation, and social ostracism. Despite these limitations, the group empowered workers, raised employee and community awareness, and provided a support base for other ill workers and community residents. We conclude with some implications for future research on environmentally ill activists.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Using data from a sample of Spanish respondents interviewed between 1991 and 1993, we explore the collective sources of remembrance of famous historical figures from Latin American history and popular culture, and in particular the social correlates of the memory of Che Guevara. We draw on research on the generational location of collective memory, changing generational values, the status basis of patterns of culture consumption and the spatial and identity-based sources of remembrance in order to attempt to get at the social and cultural meaning of the memory of what has become a world-wide symbol for a variety political causes and ideals. The results show that the collective remembrance of famous historical figures is indeed patterned by generational location. Furthermore in the case of Che Guevara, the generational effects are consistent with his having become a more salient mnemonic object for those who have seen him rise to prominence as a collective symbol and not a biographical individual, since he is more likely to be remembered by the more recently born cohorts. However, even within this cohort, social cleavages related to education, politics, values and regional identity serve to structure his memory, suggesting that the memory of Che Guevara (at least as late as the early post-cold war period), rather than having become increasingly massified by its relation to consumer culture, continued to be a purview of a relatively delimited social stratum.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Integrating objective and constructionist approaches to collective memory, this paper takes the first step in developing sociological approach to martyrdom through an examination of the case of Che Guevara. The construction and maintenance of individuals as martyrs is most often and most successfully done through the actions of powerful and resourceful states and institutions. The efforts of Cuba to control the facts of Guevara’s life and the efforts of Bolivia to hide his body illustrate tactics institutions and states use in the attempt to control the reputation of martyrs. The lack of control Cuba holds over the use of the famous photo of Guevara shows that in the increasingly globalized market and media, this manipulation and control is increasingly difficult, introducing questions of what martyrdom means and how it operates in contemporary society.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Max Weber’s discussion of the tension between an ‘ethic of ultimate ends’ and an ‘ethic of responsibility’ in his essay Politics as a Vocation provides the theoretical basis for an examination of the life of Ernesto Che Guevara. The essay entails firstly, an analysis of the symbolic narratives created by the charismatic relationship and secondly, a critical evaluation of his political conduct through the lens of the Weberian antinomy between religious conviction and political accountability. Weber’s stoical political philosophy is utilized as a counterpoint to the moral idealism of Guevara in order to reflect more broadly on the meaning of political messianism.