{"id":39617,"date":"2015-01-21T22:57:58","date_gmt":"2015-01-21T22:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=39617"},"modified":"2016-03-21T00:39:57","modified_gmt":"2016-03-21T00:39:57","slug":"black-cubans-restoring-us-ties-is-cool-but-america-keep-your-hang-ups-about-race-at-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=39617","title":{"rendered":"Black Cubans: Restoring US Ties Is Cool, but America, Keep Your Hang-Ups About Race at Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Black Cubans: Restoring US Ties Is Cool, but America, Keep Your Hang-Ups About Race at Bay<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Root<\/a>
\n2015-01-21<\/p>\n

Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele<\/strong><\/a>, Staff Writer<\/p>\n

Will the current racial tensions in America seep into Cuba and awaken a sleeping giant? Black Cubans say probably not.<\/em><\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t matter how much Cuba\u2019s<\/a> culture changes now that the U.S. has restored diplomatic relations; if you\u2019re waiting for black Cubans to set off some sort of racial revolution, don\u2019t hold your breath.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to some black Cubans who shared their thoughts on race with The Root<\/em> in the edited Q&A below.<\/p>\n

Omar Diaz is a 28-year-old black Cuban actor living in Miami<\/a> who immigrated to the U.S. when he was 4 years old. He said that while he\u2019s rooting for a democratic Cuba, he hopes that black Cubans will continue to benefit from the Castro revolution\u2019s<\/a> decree that Cubans prioritize nationalism over race.<\/p>\n

Ruben*<\/sup> is a 52-year-old black photographer and book publisher. He is the only interviewee still living in Cuba. Even though he spoke passionately about racial inequality in Cuba, he explained why he and most black Cubans don\u2019t quite see themselves as Afro-Cuban or black Cuban\u2014just Cuban.<\/p>\n

First cousins Elia E. Espuet and Sira Perez, on the other hand, both strongly identify as Afro-Cubans. Both women, ages 63 and 62 respectively, immigrated to the U.S. when they were teenagers in the late 1960s, Fidel Castro<\/a> having assumed power in 1959. They could easily pass as African Americans, though they vividly remember how they were advised not to, in order to escape the brutality facing black Americans fighting for civil rights. That distinction\u2014Cuba\u2019s kind of racism versus America\u2019s kind of racism\u2014stuck with them. They maintain that black Cubans have it better in some ways on that front.<\/p>\n

Georgina Rodriguez, 53\u2014their mulatto<\/a>, as she describes herself, cousin (who was categorized as \u201cwhite\u201d in Cuba when she was born)\u2014doesn\u2019t want Americans spewing their \u201cracial framework\u201d and \u201cneoconservatism<\/a>\u201d all over Cuba. She argues that the former doesn\u2019t account for all of Cuba\u2019s ethnicities, and the latter will only widen the inequality gap…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Black Cubans: Restoring US Ties Is Cool, but America, Keep Your Hang-Ups About Race at Bay The Root 2015-01-21 Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele, Staff Writer Will the current racial tensions in America seep into Cuba and awaken a sleeping giant? Black Cubans say probably not. It doesn\u2019t matter how much Cuba\u2019s culture changes now that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,21,13743,8,26,394],"tags":[673,19129,19130,19128,19131,19133,19134,19132,3234],"class_list":["post-39617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-latincarib","category-interviews","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-socialscience","tag-cuba","tag-diana-eromosele","tag-diana-o-eromosele","tag-diana-ozemebhoya-eromosele","tag-elia-e-espuet","tag-georgina-rodriguez","tag-omar-dia","tag-sira-perez","tag-the-root"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46140,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39617\/revisions\/46140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}