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ADRIFT:
The Cuban Raft People
Amid
the steady stream of refugees leaving Cuba
since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in
January 1959, three especially great waves
of migration stand out. In the first
(1960-1961), many took flight after the
pro-Soviet character of Castro’s rule
became apparent. In the second, well over a
hundred thousand people fled the country
during the 1980 Mariel boatlift. Another
began in 1994, when countless refugees
launched all manners of precarious crafts in
order to reach U.S. soil.
In
Adrift, Alfredo A. Fernandez recounts the
saga of the 1994 refugees, tracing the
origin of the crisis to the pervasive
turmoil produced in Cuba by the 1989-1991
collapse of the USSR and the resulting
cut-off of Soviet economic subsidies. During
this period, U.S. immigration policy
flip-flopped, making the journey to American
life for Cubans ever more precarious.
In
tracking 1994’s crisis through ensuing
years of global political fallout, Fernandez
presents a compelling international gallery
of heroes, rogues, survivors, diplomats, and
traitors. Among them: raft people who faced
sharks and storms on the flimsiest of
home-made vessels, only to end up in the
limbo of U.S.-run detention camps; UN
Ambassador Madeleine Albright chastising the
Cuban government for cowardice; Fidel Castro
himself appearing at a Latin American summit
surrounded by scores of visibly armed
bodyguards; and finally five-year-old Elian
Gonzalez, found floating alone in an
inner-tube off Fort Lauderdale in November,
1999, rescued, only to become a pawn of
international politics. Ultimately,
Fernandez suggests, we must ask whether it
is the Cuban people or U.S. immigration
policies that are adrift.
Alfredo
A. Fernandez was born in Cuba in 1945. His
writings in Spanish include the novels El
Candidato (winner of the 1978 Premio Union
de Escritores de Cuba), Domino de Dictadores
(1992 Premio Razon de Ser), and Lances de
Amor (1993 Premio Novela Alejo Carpentier).
He has also worked with the Cuban Institute
for Film as an advisor and scriptwriter.
Susan
Giersbach Rascon is Assistant Professor of
Spanish at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she also teaches
in the Graduate Certificate Program in
Translation.
Cover
photo: Reuters/Archive Photos. Cover design
by James F. Brisson
Arte
Publico Press - University Of Houston -
Houston, TX 77204-2174
http://www.arte.uh.edu - Order by phone:
800-633-ARTE – “ADRIFT The Cuban Raft
People” $14.95
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