Identity Resignifications in Cuba since Transnational Migration (1960-2024)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62486/gen202586Keywords:
transnational migration, Cuban identity, diaspora, cultural resignificationAbstract
Introduction Cuban migration after 1959 has been a prolonged social process that has had a decisive impact on the configuration of national identities. This phenomenon, which has developed in a transnational context, has gone beyond traditional conceptions of the nation as a closed territorial space, giving rise to new ways of imagining and practicing Cuban identity between the island and the diaspora. Development Throughout the period 1960-2024, different waves of migration have generated complex reinterpretations of identity, shaped by cultural practices, family ties, symbolic remittances, and strategies of agency deployed by migrants. From an interdisciplinary approach, identity is understood as a dynamic, hybrid, and performative process in which belonging and meaning are negotiated in transnational social fields. These dynamics have produced a plural, relational, and constantly evolving Cuban identity, nourished by the dialogue between memory, migratory experience, and contexts of reception. Conclusions Transnational migration has not diluted Cuban identity, but rather catalyzed its transformation into a constellation of situated Cuban identities. This archipelagic identity is affirmed in distance and continually redefined, highlighting the need to rethink the nation as an expanded, diverse, and constantly evolving social space.
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