Cubanness Within and Outside of Cuba

Cubanness Within and Outside of Cuba
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Revue LISA/LISA
e-journal
Littératures, Histoire des Idées, Images, Sociétés du Monde Anglophone – Literature,
History of Ideas, Images and Societies of the English-speaking World
Vol. XI – n° 2 | 2013
Latinotopia-USA: International Perspectives on the Transforming USA in the 21st
Century
Cubanness Within and Outside of
Cuba
La Cubanité à l’intérieur et à l’extérieur de Cuba
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https://doi.org/10.4000/lisa.5332
Abstracts
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banness inside and outside of Cuba is a difficult task. From Taínos to wave after
rants, Cubans have struggled with their identity. Whether under colonial rule or
Cubans
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and have been defined by others, forcing them to conform or be
. Under
Castro,
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whatthe island’s dream of independence from Spanish colonial rule and
finally came true, but at a price. Many argue that there are two Cubas: the
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would have us see, a romantic, idealized view of the Revolution, and the other side
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and his followers deny. In addition, there is a very large Cuban constituency in the
including Mini Havana in Miami. There, Cubans have retained their language and
due toall
their resistance to assimilation and strong need to retain their identity as
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case, Cuba is in transition and is slowly opening up to old ways of doing business,
sm and private enterprise.
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Cubanité » à Cuba ou en dehors de Cuba est une tâche complexe. Des origines
des Taïnos, issus de différentes vagues d’immigration, les Cubains sont en quête
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ce soit sous domination coloniale ou dictatoriale, les Cubains ont été définis par
qui les contraignaient à se conformer ou qui les punissaient en cas de résistance.
rêve d’indépendance de l’île face au régime colonial espagnol ou à l’impérialisme
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nfin devenu réalité, mais à quel prix. Beaucoup disent qu’il y a deux Cuba : celui
ision romantique, idéalisant la Révolution et prônée par Castro, et l’autre Cuba
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que le dictateur et ses sympathisants ne reconnaissent pas. De plus, il y a une très grande
communauté cubaine aux États-Unis, notamment Mini Havana à Miami. Là, les Cubains ont
gardé leur langue et leur culture, car ils ont résisté à l’assimilation dans leur besoin de préserver
leur identité cubaine. Quoi qu’il en soit, Cuba est dans une phase de transition et s’ouvre
doucement aux anciennes pratiques commerciales parmi lesquelles figurent le tourisme et
l’entreprenariat privé.
Index terms
Index de mots-clés : Cuba, cubanité, identité, hybridité, Castro Fidel
Index by keywords: Cuba, Cubanness, identity, hybridity, Castro Fidel
Full text
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The origin of the word Cuba is unclear, however, many scholars would agree that it
comes from the Taíno word cubao which signifies ‘abundant land’. The Taínos, as the
original inhabitants were called, were peaceful compared to their neighboring Caribs
who inhabited the Lesser Antilles, nevertheless they were oppressive. They enslaved a
few siboneyes, cave-dwelling inhabitants and the others were “restricted to the modern
province of Pinar del Río and several offshore islands.” (McGaffey and Barnett, 33) By
1492, at the time of Spanish arrival, there were approximately 200,000 inhabitants on
the island and they welcomed Columbus with food, dance, and games. While at first
they embraced the Spanish, they soon found themselves being victimized. Within a
short time those that resisted conversion to Christianity were enslaved and sent to work
in gold mines. Harsh working conditions and disease wiped out many Taínos and led to
the virtual disappearance of their society. Although very little of Taíno ethnicity remains
in Cuba today, there is still evidence of it today. The Taíno people were freed in the
sixteenth century and went on to form their own small reservations which remained in
geographic isolation for a long period of time. By then, only a few thousand Indians
remained. In the twentieth century Antonio Núñez Jiménez discovered a group of
Taínos that had been living in Oriente province. Some of the Taíno contributions still in
evidence are the herbal remedies, bohíos, which are dome homes built with thatched
roofs and many words in the Spanish and English languages.1
Due to the demise of native laborers, the Spanish were left with a shortfall of
manpower and thus brought in African slaves to work in the mines and plantation
Although statistics vary, some sources say that by the mid-nineteenth
mulatoes comprised almost fifty per cent of the Cuban
For that reason, African influence in Cuba is significant and has contributed
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traditions, including religion, food, music, and language (Yoruba, Fon, and
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). Percentages of people from African ancestry are higher in rural areas in
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although Cubans have not been very racist by American standards, black
e experienced racism. This is nothing new; racism in José de Martí’s time
le
in thatall
“anti-Negro feeling among supporters of independence was one of
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test difficulties.” (McAffey and Barnett, 32) As recently as the 1950s, Afroe banned from many of the high-class hotels and beaches, but still had their
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ive clubs where they could go. Racism was also present within the African
ome districts mulatto societies excluded persons considered too dark.” (ibid.,
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more important African legacies in Cuba is religion. It is noteworthy
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has played an important role in the development and change of Cuban
identity over time. Before 1959, Cubans were mostly Catholic and a smaller
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percentage practiced santería, a mixture of African (mostly Yoruba) and Catholic
religions. Shortly after the Revolution, however, Castro’s relationship with the Church
became more strained. Castro accused the Church of caring more about the imperialists
than following Christ’s examples of feeding the poor and righting social injustices. He
claimed that the Church was out of line with his new ideological plan for Cuba.
According to Castro, the Church’s “superficial” views were “simply incompatible with
the dramatic revolutionary process on which the country had embarked.” (Kirk, 107)
Under Castro, the practice of any religion was considered subversive and many had to
practice their worship in private without attracting too much attention to themselves
because, if caught, it could mean jail. For Castro, suppressing religious practices meant
that Cubans could spend their time and energy worshiping the Revolution instead. As a
result, many Cubans came to identify themselves more closely with political vs. religious
ideology. What Castro wanted was for the people to put their faith in the State instead of
God and make the nation their priority. This would help form a new public collective
consciousness which previously had not been a governing practice. Whereas Taínos and
Africans had been forced into a new religious belief system, post-revolutionary Cubans
were forced to not practice any religion in order to give themselves fully to the new
revolutionary state. Since the economic crisis in Cuba in the 1990s, religious practices
have increased and have even permeated Cuban media (Hansing, l7).
Not only has Cubans’ religious ideology been manipulated over centuries, but
practically every aspect of their lives has been turned upside down by each power that
has ruled the island, starting with the Spanish colonization, continuing with the
imperialist control over the Cuban people by the Americans, and, ultimately, ending
with the oppression by the Castro Revolution. As a whole, Cuban collective
consciousness has been closely connected to Otherness. For over 500 years Cubans have
been dominated and controlled directly or indirectly by foreigners. Throughout history,
Cubans and their predecessors have experienced marginalization, suppression and
oppression, whether from Spanish conquerors, American imperialism, dictatorships or
finally under the rule of Fidel Castro. Although Cubans had gained their independence
from Spain, the American Platt Amendment ensured that the United States would keep
tight economic, military, and political control of many aspects of Cuban life. During the
first period of North American regulation (1898-1928), “expansion of North American
economic forms and political structures […] acted in decisive ways to shape the
character of the nation.” (Ibarra, 2) The United States made tremendous efforts to
achieve homogeneity on the island. American dollars and businesses contributed in
o the cultural, political and economic identity of the country. As a result, a
e class arose in Cuba that benefited from, enjoyed and appreciated its ties to
States. In addition, Cuba became a playground for the rich and famous and
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as the Caribbean
Riviera. The young Republic seemed to have it all.
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e apparent, however, during the period between 1929 and 1958 that the
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was
over. During this period Cuba suffered from economic contraction
economic crisis, political tumult, and social unrest” (Ibarra, 2). In order to
how such a large part of the middle class would want to join forces with
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overturnall
their government, one must take a closer look at their mentality at
n the short period leading up to the Revolution, the young adult children of
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class had become disillusioned. They were divided into “professionalnd “industrial-commercial” groups (Draper, 112). Fidel Castro himself is
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to be one of the former, his father being a self-made man and having himself
w School in Havana. This group saw no future because the job market was
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nd what good was it to get a degree if there were no jobs to be found? The
p was frustrated with Cuba’s lack of industrialization and overdependence
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on foreign markets for raw material processing. In any case, a large part of the middle
class put their faith in Castro to solve their problems. His message cut across classes
and the poor as well as the middle class joined forces. Castro always had a soft spot for
the poor and it was their plight that, in part, motivated him. He promised that poverty
would be eliminated after his takeover. One of the first things he did was to help poor
children or becarios, the children of the peasants and the lower classes that, from an
early age, were moved to Havana, fed and housed and would become the future
generation that he could count on for support.
Castro’s proposal for a new Cuba was not only an economic one. It was a much larger
vision whose goal was ultimately freedom, a dream that Cubans had been
subconsciously holding onto for centuries. According to Antoni Kapcia,
Cuban history since the late eighteenth century can justifiably be seen as
the trajectory of the pursuit of a ‘dream’ – of true independence (political,
economic, social, cultural, intellectual or whatever). (XIV)
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8
The term “Sierra Madre Complex” was coined by Theodore Draper to describe how
Fidel Castro was able to create unconditional support in his followers, a “revolutionary
will” for which they would give themselves totally and fully to the idea of revolution
without expecting any material gain. Revolutionaries committed to Castro’s call were
told to adopt a moral stand rather than a materialistic one. Some would argue that it
was Castro’s charm and not his political expertise and know-how that helped him gain
control over Cuban will. He established a “direct, personal, almost mystical relationship
with the masses that free[d] him from dependence on classes.” (Draper, 133)
Accordingly, Rafael Rojas claims that the “official Cuban ideology, which historically has
lacked a theoretical vocation, has to do some symbolic juggling to legitimize a
totalitarian order in the midst of the twenty-first century.” (59)
The idea of freedom and self-government was a powerful concept and desire long held
by the Cuban collective consciousness. In order to gain support, Castro had created an
‘us-against-them’ mentality and promised that the destruction of American imperialist
capitalism would pave the way to a successful socialist government. As Del Aguila notes:
Appealing to nationalism [meant] calling for sacrifices in order to defeat
internal or external enemies, [and] invoking memories of previous
struggles in heroic and mythical terms, and tapping the moral, physical,
and intellectual reserves of the nation. (69)
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patria, is of utmost importance in Cuba, a very macho
the stereotypical sense of the word. According to Ruth Behar, Cuban
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nationhood
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and were fused and confused in the figure of the revolutionary
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one of the more important national heroes in Cuba. He was a martyr, a
ry hero, and he suffered persecution due to his political beliefs. There are
monuments in his honor that are nicely maintained and are occasionally
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re Fidel all
Castro chose to give speeches and to hold political ceremonies.
Martí, was born in Cuba of Spanish parents and studied law; they shared the
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f helping
the poor, and both fought to gain independence for Cuba: Martí
Spanish colonizers and Castro from the Fulgencio Batista American
. Some argue that Castro and Martí are kindred spirits and have been
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al in achieving Cuban liberation, while others would say that Martí would
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e of
Castro and what he has accomplished. In any case, as always, public
l argue one way or another based on personal views, which Cubans will likely
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have no problem sharing.
Anti-American sentiment was also used by Castro to unite Cubans in that without
America in their lives, there could be no tyranny and subjugation. According to Russell
H. Fitzgibbon, there was a sense of psychological inferiority felt by Cubans that played a
more than significant role in an anti-U.S. attitude: “It has colored practically all and
distorted many of the Cuban reactions to matters of mutual concern to Cuba and the
United States.” (254) With Fidel at the helm, Cubans would be free to create their own
independent nation; one that Castro promised would bring wealth to everyone. Cubans
trusted Castro and quickly rallied around his romantic vision. Excitement grew as
Cubans felt for the first time that there was a real chance of fundamental change. At
first, Castro’s promise of public ownership as in a true socialist society, instead of the
land being owned by the few and not the many, would be the answer to the problem of
capitalism, which had created a large-scale poverty, and to all of the other problems and
challenges Cubans were facing. As time passed, it was soon obvious that socialism was
no panacea. Problems with the United States’ embargo, as well as internal conflicts and
pressures, meant that it was necessary for the State to take control of the economy.
Without workers’ control there would be no socialism. Castro then looked to Russia’s
1961 model and the official Communist party was created in 1965.
Cuba itself became a visual platform for Communist ideology: hammer and sickle
images appeared everywhere, as well as portraits and statues of Lenin, Stalin, and local
independence hero José Martí. Revolutionary imagery appeared and has remained
everywhere in Cuba. In this way, Cubans came to identify more closely with the
Revolution through its reflection in the Cuban landscape. In Arjun Appadurai’s terms,
Cuba became an “ideoscape” which contains images that are “often directly political or
ideological in that they represent the power of the state.” (Staring et al., 12) “Three
Faces of Cuba,” a post-Revolution documentary released in 1962, shows how Cubans
were not only bombarded with visual ideological elements, but with audio input as well,
in the form of song, music, and chanting anti-American slogans. These political refrains
sung by Cubans cut across all age groups. One of the examples is that of children singing
“Fidel, Fidel, campeón, te comiste el tiburón, en las playas de Girón,” [in reference to
the Bay of Pigs] (Hunter et al., 85) and also “Lo dicen en Manila y en Corea, en
Panamá, en Turquía y en Japón, el clamor es lo mismo en todas partes: Yanqui go
home.” (ibid., 81). Literature and propaganda played a crucial role in the process of reinventing Cuba as a socialist nation. According to Salván this has
ributed to the intellectual formation of artists and writers and to the
uction of an extensive body of laudatory literature. Many writers who
orted the revolutionary project continue to do so in spite of the
ent
economicand
and political circumstances. (6)
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and women saw themselves joining organizations devoted to the
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Militias and watchdog organizations, such as the CDRs (Committees for the
the Revolution), were formed and any Cuban who speaks poorly of Castro or
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government will be punished. Many prisons and behavioral
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n sites have been set up across the island in order to handle the large
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rly years, woman’s role in the Revolution was very empowering. Like other
ionary loyalists, she was identified with a struggle that meant not only
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crifice, but also conflict on a grand scale, giving her a large sense of
Privacywithin
policythe social construct of the new system. Historically, women had
ed equality with men within the home, as reflected in the 1940 constitution.
arra illustrates, “Cuban legislation on women’s rights (divorce, maternity,
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and equal civil rights) was among the most advanced in the Western world.” (138) After
Fidel Castro came to power, Vilma Espín, a revolutionary and veteran who fought
alongside him in the Sierra Maestra Mountains, organized the Federation of Cuban
Women and the state provided “all women with free education, health care, birth
control, access to abortion, nutritional support for pregnant mothers and young
children, day care, the freedom to divorce […].” (Behar, x) The family unit suffered,
however, owing to a high divorce rate and less births due to free access to abortion.
Furthermore, women’s role within the family was replaced by a role on a grander scale.
In the late seventies, families became even more divided when “the only way to instill
new values, to create the new man and woman, was to distance children from parents,
grandmothers, uncles, and other retrograde influences.” (Smith and Padula, 146) The
nation intended on replacing the traditional family with “a socialist family united not by
blood, but by affection, friendship, and convenience.” (ibid., 145)
When the plan for socialism failed and Cuba set its sights on communism, many on
the island became disillusioned, but even so have remained faithful to Castro, even to
this day. Their life-long dream has
become more dream-like (‘dream’ as illusion), as an imagined and even
illusory reality, projected on to a possibly unattainable future and stored
in a collective folk memory, but that has always remained as a shared
vision (‘dream’ as envisaged future), to inspire, guide and protect. (Kapcia,
xiv)
16
For fidelistas, any limitations or impediments to achieving Castro’s goals might be
blamed on the U.S. embargo. Whether it is putting the blame on the Americans or the
collapse of the Soviet Union, Cubans can always find a scapegoat. In this way, they can
talk about the triumph of the Revolution and at the same time experience the great
stress that Cuban society endured during the Special Period of the early nineties:
The shortages and the black market, the de facto unemployment, the
deterioration of social services, the rationing [; … t]he complaints about
food shortages, poor quality, and lack of variety are becoming fears about
real hunger. (Judson, 28)
17
Twenty years later, things have not changed much for most Cubans. According to a
New York Times article in 2011,
enders, with access to dollars, earn wages many times that of
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� […] Many roads in Havana have been repaired. Microwave
s, DVD
players
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and and cellphones are now in stores, but most Cubans
ot
afford
them.
gives you control over what(Urbina)
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ve always been two Cubas: the mainstream and the marginalized, the
d imperial dominating forces against the oppressed. At present, again, Cuba
urrently there are those that identify with the success of the Revolution and
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all
ee themselves as victims of it. Some would argue that there is the Cuba that
to present to the world and the other that he likes to hide. For example,
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edicine has been one of Cuba’s success stories, as narrated by those who
nd documentaries, such as Michael Moore’s Sicko, have presented a good
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ba’s healthcare system. According to others, however, it is a good story but
. In
ABC's episodes of 20/20, aired on September 7th 2007, John Stossel
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Michael Moore about his documentary and its positive portrayal of Cuban
Stossel showed pictures and video clips of the hospitals that were in ghastly
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shape and explained that these were the facilities that most Cubans used. Stossel
pointed out that the hospitals which Moore visited were the facilities used only by
foreigners and privileged Cubans who could afford them. In the same film by Stossel,
Dr. José Carro, a human rights activist from Miami confirmed that Moore's claims were
lies and that there were two categories of hospitals in Cuba, some for the elite and
others for the general population. The Hannity and Colmes show that aired on October
10th 2007 on Fox News showed additional pictures so damaging, (crumbling walls,
insect infestations, and no soap or towels, to name just a few of the problems), that ABC
had refused to air them on Stossel’s show.
Another example of the side of Cuba that revolucionarios like to boast about is
education. Literacy has shot up to over 90 % but, whereas normally this would be good,
others would argue that education is just another tool used to control the people, and
that censorship is so severe that Cubans are not allowed to study or read anything at all
that is not pro Castro. In addition, they would claim that education is a dead end
because there are not enough jobs to go around once you graduate from school. Since
the collapse of Russia and most of the Communist states, Cubans have plunged into an
economic crisis that has had a profound impact on their character and resilience.
According to Katrine Hansing,
apathy, depression, and migration are some of the more dramatic
consequences of this, [however,] many if not most Cubans have been
responding by carving out their own spaces, whether economic, social, or
cultural, that are independent or at least parallel to the state. (l6)
20
Many Cubans are deeply divided on the subject of the Revolution and many families
have been torn apart physically and emotionally because of it. Some speak of el triunfo
de la Revolución and others of el fracaso. You are either “for it or against it” and there is
nothing in-between. Cuba has become a “social movement” framework as defined by
social anthropologist Ulf Hannerz2 wherein lie “ideological battles between ‘converted’
and ‘non-converted.’” (Staring et al., 12) The success or failure of the Revolution is a
matter of perspective and there are clearly two sides to the story. Many Cubans have
been discouraged; this was especially true with the collapse of the Soviet Union
whereupon Cuba experienced a Special Period of severe economic crisis. Stratification
within Cuban society became clear:
[…] the apartheid quality of the relationship between tourist and Cuban
n [is one of the most] grinding and demoralizing aspects of daily life.
Perhaps more serious in the long-term political sense are the degrees
nicism, the dissolution of social solidarity, the justified concern about
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crime, delinquency,
and alienation. (Judson, 28)
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gives you control over what
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to activate have come many sacrifices, not only for those that side with
also for those that oppose him. Tens of thousands of Cubans have died
cape the Revolution. Others have successfully escaped through emigration.
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allof migration coincided with the early years of the Revolution and
waves
ostly the middle- and upper middle-class professionals who understood that
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to lose everything by staying. Many who migrated in 1959 have waited,
prayed for the day when they could return to their homeland. They have
ate of limbo and, unfortunately now, many have either died or given up the
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urning to the island. For those opposing the Revolution, both within and
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Cuba,
Castro’s dream represents what identity theory critic Patrick Taylor
hic narrative”, a communication in “falsely universal terms” (Matibag, 208).
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It is a narrative in opposition to reality and based on a story used to explain how a
society might perform best for everyone.
The United States, a long-time “melting pot”, has been the recipient of wave after
wave of Cuban immigration. Sometimes living in groups and sometimes in isolation,
they have become a part of the “local human landscape” in the ever-changing global
ethnoscape, which is, according to Appadurai’s definition,
[a] landscape of group identity, the landscape of persons who make up the
shifting world in which we live: tourists, immigrants, refugees, exiles,
guestworkers, and other moving groups and persons who can affect the
politics of and between nations. (qtd. in Staring, 12).
23
24
Many Cubans who live in Miami consider themselves to be Miamians. Miami houses
most of the Cuban and Cuban Americans that live in the United States, around 700,000
of the one million that live stateside. These Cubans, like many other immigrants have
made an enclave which helps to promote and preserve their culture. The first wave of
Cuban migration into Miami happened in the early years after Castro’s takeover. This
Cuban community allows for the preservation of much of the Cuban culture with which
they have come to identify. There they can promote their food and other material items
that remind them of home. Many are very conservative Republicans who would like to
see the island return to the way it was: one that they either had experienced as young
children, or pictured in their minds by way of their parents and grandparents who had
lived there. According to Callejo-Pérez, after the Revolution, the older generations’ retelling of the Cuban story led the young to believe that “Cuba was no longer Cuban,” and
“fostered a love of place for the young 20-year-olds who sought a connection to the
island and its culture.” (7) These Cubans did not fight assimilation; instead they injected
Cuban identity and culture into it. In fact, the Cuban diaspora has assimilated to varying
degrees into the dominant culture. For some Cubans, visibility and identification is
much more noticeable than for others, especially for first generation Cubans who have
not lost their accents and other daily habits. If Cuban identity is determined by
everything cultural, then they must choose what part of their language, food, and other
items they will keep with them and what they want to leave behind. These Cubans will
always be hybrid.
Many Cubans outside of Cuba have had to struggle with the sense of homeland. Some
second- and third- generation Cuban Americans have felt a sense of identity crisis or inbetweenness, especially as the distance between them and their Cuban roots has
ater. For some of these children of Cuban immigrants and their children, the
becomes a painful process that Romero describes as a transformation which
oices about what to keep and what to forget, keeping enough in order not to
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own identity while opening up to new experiences and a new culture.”
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y on angst as a theoretical approach to identity, Callejo-Pérez claims that
ttempts are made to bridge the separation, the question of defining Cuban
pervasiveallissue.” (2l5) Sometimes Cubanness can be defined in terms of
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of immigration one belongs to, or as Rothe and Pumariega put it, like the
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shutting off of a water faucet, depending on the political climate or
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ions” between the United States and Cuba. Those that left the island early
after the Revolution have assimilated the most into American culture. Their
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allowed them strength in numbers as well as upward mobility. They also
‘white’. The next big wave of immigration was from the Mariel Boatlift
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t brought the working class who were disillusioned with the Revolution and
ical unwanted. An estimated 71% of the 124,000 that left were blue-collar
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workers. After the collapse of the USSR and the end of its support for Cuba, many left
on makeshift rafts in order to escape the economic crisis. Known as balseros, these were
mainly the poor, black or mulatto that the Revolution had tried to help. It is estimated
that 37,000 Cubans left the island in this way. Since then, Cuba and the United States
have negotiated a quota allowing 20,000 Cubans to immigrate each year (Rothe and
Pumariega).
What is Cubanness? What is it to be Cuban? Oftentimes it is not a choice. Cubans
have always been victims in that they have never had the opportunity to choose for
themselves. Since the Spanish colonization/invasion, Cubans have been forced to
conform to one way of life or another. First, Cubans were forced into Christianity: early
Cuban religious identity was chosen for them and not by them. Second, they were forced
into slavery meaning that freedom was taken from them. In both cases they were not
free to choose their own way of life. After the Spanish experience came American
manipulation management and Cubans were forced to become Westernized. Lastly,
Cuban life has been influenced, directed, and molded by Castro and his ideologies.
Enduring slavery, Americanization, and Castroism has not been so much a choice but
rather a necessity to survive and/or become part of mainstream Cuban society. In Cuba,
in essence, Cubanness could be defined as submission and conformity. While in Cuba,
Cubans have not been given a chance to express themselves freely or been allowed to
invent their own identity. Outside of Cuba, Cubanness has meant a form of assimilation
and hybridity. Either way, they have been forced once again to adopt characteristics of
the dominant culture. Cubanness, simply stated, is Otherness.
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CALLEJO-PÉREZ David, “Enacted Curriculum and the Search for Identity: Angst and the Cuban
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Notes
1 Some examples of words that can be traced to their Taíno roots are huracán, hamaca, canoa,
barbacoa, tatuaje and tuna.
2 Ulf Hannerz is a leading specialist in urban anthropology and local, transnational, and
cultural processes as well as globalization.
References
Electronic reference
Mica Garrett, “Cubanness Within and Outside of Cuba”, Revue LISA/LISA e-journal [Online], Vol.
XI – n° 2 | 2013, Online since 30 June 2013, connection on 12 March 2022. URL:
http://journals.openedition.org/lisa/5332; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/lisa.5332
About the author
Mica Garrett
niversity (USA). Mica Garrett received her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska. She has published articles on Juan de Mena and Spanish Golden Age poets
Vega, Fernando de Herrera, and Luis de Góngora. She has also published an
n exile Chely Lima’s novel Confesiones nocturnas. In addition, Dr. Garrett coThis site uses cookies
t revisionary
and
book He Said, She Says: An RSVP to the Male Text (Fairleigh
s, 2001).
Garrett has been teaching at Murray State University in Kentucky
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