If That Is Heaven, We Would Rather Go to Hell : Contextualizing US-Cuba Relations

The history of Cuba is one of conquest and rebellion. Since the arrival of Columbus, it has had two colonial masters: Spain and the United States. Spain, after the collapse of its empire, ceased to be a threat to the peoples of America. Now, the Spanish are among the principal investors in Cuba, and make up a high percentage of tourists to the island. The United States, engaged in empire-building as sole superpower and continuing to pursue a half-century-old policy of regime change in Cuba, is still seen by the Cubans as the greatest threat to their independence and sovereignty. This article reviews the history of relations between the two countries, seeking to contextualize their social origins and political evolution, concluding that an improvement in relations is unlikely absent a profound change in the political economy of either country, or of both, a change that could occur internally or be caused by external factors

If That Is Heaven, We Would Rather Go to Hell : Contextualizing US-Cuba Relations

The history of Cuba is one of conquest and rebellion. Since the arrival of Columbus, it has had two colonial masters: Spain and the United States. Spain, after the collapse of its empire, ceased to be a threat to the peoples of America. Now, the Spanish are among the principal investors in Cuba, and make up a high percentage of tourists to the island. The United States, engaged in empire-building as sole superpower and continuing to pursue a half-century-old policy of regime change in Cuba, is still seen by the Cubans as the greatest threat to their independence and sovereignty. This article reviews the history of relations between the two countries, seeking to contextualize their social origins and political evolution, concluding that an improvement in relations is unlikely absent a profound change in the political economy of either country, or of both, a change that could occur internally or be caused by external factors

A Hunger for Memory, A Thirst for Justice

This piece was originally presented November 7, 1992 as the keynote address for the Eighth Annual Juan Luis Tienda Scholarship Banquet presented by the Hispanic Law Students Association (HLSA). The author is now Professor of Sociology at Michigan State University. He also holds appointments at MSU\u27s Insitute of Public Policy and Social Research and at The University of Michigan\u27s Center for Research on Social Organization. At the time of this presentation, he was Professor of Sociology at San Diego State University and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at The University of California, San Diego

The Leavers and the Stayers. A comparative-longitudinal study of educational achievement and transitions to adulthood among youth in Mexico and the United States

Este trabajo examina de forma comparativa y longitudinal los logros educativos que han obtenido dos muestras de jóvenes: los que se quedaron con sus familias en su lugar de origen en México, y los del mismo lugar que emigraron a California o nacieron del otro lado de la frontera en los Estados Unidos. Los pocos estudios longitudinales de las trayectorias de hijos de inmigrantes, como CILS en Estados Unidos e ILSEG en España, comparan grupos de jóvenes en el mismo país. El presente estudio, denominado Estudio Longitudinal de Logros Educativos (ELLE) en México y Estados Unidos, no sólo compara con métodos cualitativos y cuantitativos la situación de jóvenes y de sus padres del mismo origen en dos países durante períodos de crisis entre 2008-2012, sino también compara familias de inmigrantes en California en calidad de indocumentados, documentados y ciudadanos americanos.This paper presents the results of a comparative longitudinal study of educational achievement between two samples of young people: those who stayed with their families in their home town in Mexico, and those from the same place who emigrated to California or were born to immigrant parents in the United States. The few longitudinal studies of the trajectories from adolescence to adulthood of children of immigrants, such as CILS in the U.S. and ILSEG in Spain, compare groups of youth in the same country. This work, the Longitudinal Study of Educational Achievement (ELLE) in Mexico and the United States, employs qualitative and quantitative methods not only to compare the situation of young people and their parents of the same origin in two countries during periods of crisis between 2008-2012, but also compares the outcomes of undocumented, documented and U.S. citizen youth in immigrant families in California.- Grupo de investigación Antropología y Filosofía (SEJ-126). Universidad de Granada. - Área de Antropología Social. Universidad de Jaén. - Laborarorio de Antropología Social y Cultural (HUM-472). Universidad de Almería. - Departamento de Filosofía II. Universidad de Granada