Expanding the "exile model" race, gender, resettlement, and Cuban-American identity, 1959-1979

Scholarly writings on the first and second wave of Cuban refugees (1959-1979) rely too heavily on an "exile model" that presents Cubans as overtly political, highly educated, universally white, middle class, residents of Miami, and martyrs of Fidel Castro's socialist revolution. While there is some truth in this model, scholars who utilize the model produced a limited and monolithic understanding of immigration and exile during this period. In this dissertation I seek to de-center the "Cuban exile model" by expanding current narratives on the Cuban refugees of the 1960s and 1970s. This reassessment of the experiences and identities of first and second wave Cuban refugees begins with an examination of the Cuban Refugee Program's role in developing and perpetuating the "exile model." In addition to projecting overwhelmingly positive impressions of Cuban refugees, the Cuban Refugee Program also provided the refugees with financial and structural resources that ensured Cubans access to jobs and education needed to gain financial independence and some modicum of economic "success." Additionally, I will focus on the gendered and racialized experiences of both men and women in the West, Midwest, South and Northeast, regional areas that the "exile model" typically ignores. Finally, I will explore the changing dynamics of CubanAmerican identity through biography, literary narratives, oral histories, and novels. As a new generation of Cuban-American authors are crafting fictional accounts of the first and second wave of Cuban refugees that provide a much needed challenges to the static "exile model.