Welcome to The Cuban Rafter Phenomenon: A Unique Sea Exodus. In this digital archive you can explore the experiences of tens of thousands of citizens who have left Cuba in small boats, homemade rafts and other unusual craft. Currently the site focuses on those who precipitated and participated in one specific sea exodus – the raft crisis of 1994. Through photos, videos, bibliography, primary documents and narratives the site examines the 1994 crisis and, by extension, begins to investigate the nature of the larger theme of post-1980 Cuban migration. Over time, the site will grow to include many aspects and incidents in post-1980 migration including the Mariel boatlift, visa lottery and internal population shifts in Cuba. (1) The site currently documents the most recent episode in a frequently treated aspect of Cuban historiography – the post-1959 migration that has resulted in a Cuban-American population of over 1.2 million. (2) For forty five years, Cuban migration has attracted social scientists in universities internationally. They ask: What is Cuban migration a case of? Is there a single explanatory variable or a consistent set of necessary and sufficient factors that account for the flows? If so, does one explanation cover the entire post-revolutionary situation from 1959 to the present? If not, how and why have explanatory variables shifted over time? And, is the Cuban case an exception or does it follow universal rules that help us understand migration in all times and places?
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Scholars in the Humanities, Latino Studies and Communications have engaged with the prolific cultural production of two generations of Cuban-American authors/artists, exploring questions of nationhood and identity. Policy makers have been no less involved with the topic. They debate how to affect and control Cuban migration based on a dizzying list of actors in varying locations and combinations including the international, transnational, regional, bi-lateral, multi-lateral, state, national, civil, ideological, partisan, non-governmental, familial and individual. The Cuban Rafter Phenomenon: A Unique Sea Exodus supplies archival content to aid those who seek to understand these questions, particularly those who are investigating the less studied, recent Cuban migration. We also intend the site to serve as a future repository for the varied and continuing questions and explanations that are offered through academic meetings, publications and an expanding collection of donated primary materials. Like the exodus itself, the site will grow over time. Its organizers hope it will be as diverse and unique as the population it examines. Like the rafters, it will have roots both in Cuba and the United States. The present organization and content of the site are naturalistic, arising from the work of three local scholars, Dr. Holly Ackerman, Social Sciences Librarian at the University of Miami Libraries; Prof. Maria Domínguez, Executive Director, Human Rights Institute, St. Thomas University and Damián Fernández, Professor and Director, Cuban Research Institute, Florida International University. Realizing that ten years had passed since the rafter crisis, they have organized a symposium commemorating the arrival and incorporation of the most recent wave of Cubans. This included undertaking research to extend our knowledge about the present conditions and opinions of the 1994 rafters. The contents of the present website were gathered and digitized during the months prior to the symposium which is scheduled for July 16-17, 2004 in Miami. The symposium is sponsored jointly by the University of Miami (UM), Florida International University (FIU) and St. Thomas University (STU). The following content guide gives a general description. Part I - What is the Rafter Crisis? Part II - Interdicted: The Rafters Go to Guantánamo Part III - Crisis in the Wider Caribbean – The Case of the Cayman Islands Continue To
(1) The term “post-1980 migration” has been chosen among many possible descriptors (e.g., immigration, emigration, exile, refugees) because it includes all of the other terms. The date, 1980, was selected because it marked a change in U.S. government policy wherein Cubans were no longer automatically designated as refugees. For example, those in the 1980 group were termed “entrants” rather than refugees. It is these changes that the website will explore over time (2) Methodologically sound demography on Cubans in the United States can be found in the work of University of Miami scholar, Dr. Thomas D. Boswell. His latest study (A Demographic Profile of Cuban-Americans. 2002. Miami: Cuban-American Policy Center, Cuban-American National Council. LC Call #: E184.C97 B685 2002) can be found online at: http://www.cnc.org.
The University of Miami Digital Library Program, 2004. We welcome your comments. |
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