La problemática de las categorías raciales en Estados Unidos: El caso de los afrocubanos

Resumen

Aunque hay estudios que muestran la adaptación exitosa de los exiliados cubanos en Miami, en ninguno se han examinado las experiencias de los inmigrantes cubanos recientes en lugares de refugiados del suroeste de Estados Unidos. Entre estos inmigrantes cubanos se incluye una gran cantidad de afrocubanos. En áreas donde la mayoría de la población es blanca o de origen mexicano, y donde el grupo de afroestadunidenses es pequeño, la adaptación de los afrocubanos crea confl ictos de identidad cuando luchan por encontrar un lugar en el gran sistema trirracial blanco/negro/café del suroeste. Con base en 45 entrevistas con afrocubanos en Austin y Albuquerque, exploramos la identifi cación racial y étnica de este grupo. Nuestro estudio emplea un enfoque construccionista y explora las formas en que las identidades raciales y étnicas se forman en diálogo con la autoevaluación y con la clasifi cación externa. Los resultados revelan la complejidad de los procesos de identifi cación cuando los afrocubanos intentan mantener su identidad como “cubanos” y como “negros” al oponer resistencia a la clasifi cación diferenciativa de “negro” o “hispano”. Ellos no quieren elegir entre uno y otro término de identifi cación. ABSTRACTAlthough studies show the successful adaptation of Cuban exiles in Miami, little research has examined the experiences of recent Cuban immigrants who have settled in refugee relocation sites in the southwestern United States. These recent waves of Cuban immigrants include a large number of Afro-Cubans. In areas where most of the population is of white or Mexican origin, with a much smaller number of African Americans, these Afro-Cubans’s adaptation creates identity confl ict as they struggle to fi nd a place in the white/black/brown tri-racial system of the U.S. southwest. Based on forty-fi ve interviews with Afro-Cubans in Austin and Albuquerque, we explore the racial and ethnic identifi cation of this group. Our study uses a constructionist approach and explores the ways in which racial and ethnic identities are formed through a dialogue between internal self-appraisal and external classifi cation by others. The results reveal the complexity of identifi cation processes as Afro-Cubans attempt to maintain their identifi cation as both “Black” and “Cuban” at the same time as they resist being forced to choose between the external classifi cations of “Black” or “Hispanic.”

Imagen de portada

Palabras clave

• negritud
• cubanos
• refugiados
• latinos
• identidad racial-étnica

Cómo citar

Citas

1. Ackerman, Holly, “The ‘Balsero’ Phenomenon, 1991-1994”, Cuban Studies/Estudios Cubanos, vol. 26, 1996, pp. 169-200.
2. Alcoff, Linda M., “Is Latina/o Identity a Racial Identity?”, en Jorge Gracia y Pablo de Greiff (eds.), Hispanics/Latinos in the United States: Ethnicity, Race, and Rights, Nueva York, Routledge, 2000, pp. 23-44.
3. Bailey, Benjamin H., “Dominican-American Ethnic/Racial Identities and United States Social Categories”, International Migration Review, vol. 35, núm. 2, 2001, pp. 677-708.
4. Barth, Fredik, “Introduction”, en Fredik Barth (ed.), Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference, Boston, Little Brown, 1969, pp. 9-38.
5. Burke, Nancy, “Creating Islands in the Desert: Place, Space, and Ritual among Santería Practitioners in Albuquerque, New Mexico”, tesis de doctorado, University of New Mexico, 2001.
6. Cornell, Stephen y Douglas Hartmann, Ethnicity and Race: Making Identities in a Changing World, Thousand Oaks (Calif.), Pine Forge Press, 1997.
7. ———, “Conceptual Confusions and Divides: Race, Ethnicity, and the Study of Immigration”, en Nancy Foner y George Fredrickson (eds.), Not Just Black and White: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration, Race and Ethnicity in the United States, Nueva York, Russell Sage Foundation, 2004, pp. 23-41.
8. Dávila, Arlene, Latinos Inc.: The Marketing and Making of a People, Berkeley/Los Ángeles, University of California Press, 2001.
9. Davis, F. James, Who is Black?: One Nation’s Defi nition, University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991.
10. De la Fuente, Alejandro, “Race, National Discourse, and Politics in Cuba: An Overview”, Latin American Perspectives, vol. 25, núm. 3, mayo de 1998, pp. 43-69.
11. Dowling, Julie A., “I’m Not Mexican... Pero soy Mexicano: Linguistic Context of Labeling Among Mexican Americans in Texas”, Southwest Journal of Linguistics, vol. 24, núms. 1-2, 2005.
12. Foley, Neil, The White Scourge: Mexicans, Blacks, and Poor Whites in Texas Cotton Culture, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1997.
13. ———, “Straddling the Color Line: The Legal Construction of Hispanic Identity in Texas”, en Nancy Foner y George Fredrickson (eds.), Not Just Black and White: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration, Race and Ethnicity in the United States, Nueva York, Russell Sage Foundation, 2004, pp. 341-357.
14. Foner, Nancy, In a New Land: A Comparative View of Immigration, Nueva York, New York University, 2005.
15. García, María Cristina, Havana USA: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida, 1959-1994, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1996.
16. Gonzales, Phillip B., “The Categorical Meaning of Spanish American Identity Among Blue Collar New Mexicans”, Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, vol. 19, núm. 2, 1997, pp. 123-136.
17. Greenbaum, Susan, More than Black: Afro-Cubans in Tampa, Gainesville (Florida), University Press of Florida, 2002.
18. Grenier, Guillermo y Lisandro Pérez, The Legacy of Exile: Cubans in the United States, Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 2003.
19. Gutiérrez, David G., Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1995.
20. Haney-López, Ian, White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race, Nueva York: New York University Press, 1996.
21. Hoetink, Harry, The Two Variants in Caribbean Race Relations: A contribution to the Sociology of Segmented Societies, Nueva York, Oxford
22. University Press, 1967.
23. Hollinger, David A., Postethnic America, Nueva York, Basic Books, 1995.
24. Itzigsohn, José y Carlos Dore-Cabral, “Competing Identities? Race, Ethnicity, and Panethnicity among Dominicans in the United States”, Sociological Forum, vol. 15, núm. 2, 2000, pp. 225-247.
25. Itzigsohn, José, Silvia Giorguli y Obed Vázquez, “Immigrant Incorporation and Racial Identity: Racial self-identifi cation among Dominican Immigrants”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, vol. 28, núm. 1, 2005, pp. 50-78.
26. Itzigsohn, José, “The Formation of Latino and Latina Panethnic Identities”, en Nancy Foner y George Fredrickson (eds.), Not Just Black and White: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Immigration, Race and Ethnicity in the United States, Nueva York, Russell Sage Foundation, 2004, pp. 197-216.
27. Jenkins, Richard P., Rethinking Ethnicity: Arguments and Explorations, Nueva York, Russell Sage Foundation, 1997.
28. Jones-Correa, Michael y David L. Leal, “Becoming ‘Hispanic’: Secondary Pan-Ethnic Identifi cation Among Latin American-origin Populations in the United States”, Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, vol. 18, núm. 2, 1996, pp. 214-255.
29. Kasinitz, Philip, John Battle e Inés Miyares, “Fade to Black? The Children of West Indian Immigrants in Southern Florida”, en Rubén Rumbaut y Alejandro Portes (eds.), Ethnicities: Children of Immigrants in America, Berkeley, University of California Press, 2001.
30. Marrow, Helen, “To Be or not to Be (Hispanicor Latino)”, Ethnicities, vol. 3, núm. 4, 2003, pp. 427-464.
31. Menchaca, Martha, Recovering History, Constructing Race: The Indian, Black, and White Roots of Mexican Americans, Austin, University of Texas Press, 2002.
32. Mirabal, N. Raquel, “Ser de Aquí: Beyond the Cuban Exile Model”, Latino Studies, vol. 1, núm. 3, 2003, pp. 366-382.
33. Montejano, David, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836- 1986, Austin, University of Texas Press, 1987.
34. Nagel, Joane, “Constructing Ethnicity: Creating and Recreating Ethnic Identity and Culture”, Social Problems, vol. 41, núm. 1, 1994, pp. 152-176.
35. Nelson, Candace y Marta Tienda, “The Structuring of Hispanic Ethnicity: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives”, en Mary Romero, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo y Vilma Ortiz (eds.), Challenging Fronteras: Structuring Latina and Latino Lives in the U.S., Nueva York, Routledge, 1997, pp. 7-29.
36. Nieto-Phillips, John M., The Language of Blood: The Making of Spanish American Identity in New Mexico, 1850-1940, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 2004.
37. Oboler, Suzanne, Ethnic Labels, Latino Lives: Identity and the Politics of (Re)Presentation in the United States, Mineápolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1995.
38. Omi, Michael y Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States. From the 1960s to the 1990s, Nueva York, Routledge, 1994.
39. Portes, Alejandro y Alex Stepick, City on the Edge: The Transformation of Miami, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1994.
40. Portes, Alejandro y Min Zhou, “The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and its Variants”, Annals of the American Political and Social Sciences, vol. 530, núm. 1, 1993, pp. 74-96.
41. Rodríguez, Clara, Changing Race: Latinos, the Census, and the History of Ethnicity in the United States, Nueva York, New York University Press, 2000.
42. Sansone, Livio, Blackness Without Ethnicity: Constructing Race in Brazil, Nueva York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
43. Vaughn, Bobby, “Afro-Mexico: Blacks, Indígenas, Politics, and the Greater Diaspora”, en Anani Dzidzienyo y Suzanne Oboler (eds.), Neither Enemies nor Friends: Latinos, Blacks, Afro-Latinos, Nueva York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp. 117-136.
44. Vaughn, Umi, “Shades of Race in Contemporary Cuba”, Journal of the International Institute, vol. 12, núm. 2, University of Michigan, verano de 2005.
45. Vila, Pablo, Crossing Borders, Reinforcing Borders: Social Categories, Metaphors, and Narrative Identities on the U.S.-Mexico Frontier, Austin, University of Texas Press, 2000.
46. Waters, Mary C., Black Identities: West Indian Immigrant Dreams and American Realities, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1999.
47. Whitten, Norman A. y Arlene Torres (eds.), Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean, vol. 1, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1998.
48. Fecha de recepción: 10 de agosto de 2007
49. Fecha de aceptación: 17 de septiembre de 2007