Re-reading Cuba in London: Media and Identity in the Cuban Diaspora

This article examines issues of identity formation within Cubans in London and how news media figure in this process. It is argued that news media consumption plays a pivotal role in constructing knowledge about Cuba and how this new knowledge contributes to form notions of identity and nation amongst the emigrants. In diaspora, news media are used to validate a relationship with the emigrants’ past and future. Past events are reviewed by a critical use of media, by acknowledging the potential bias of homeland media and the way Cuba was portrayed in the host country. I discuss how media influence the migrants’ future, because notions of nation and culture gained from media access actively intervene in the emigrants’ subject construction. The construction of knowledge through media represents an ongoing process that also influences identity formation. Accessed media reports can be internalised through renovated reading practices, especially for those who lacked the habit in the homeland, to re-define notions of belonging and claims of loyalties to Cuba. The article is based on a series of qualitative interviewing. From the data analysis, narratives of belonging and self-consciousness suggest that notions of nation and national identity are constructed differently in the Cuban diaspora than in the homeland