Universität zu Köln, Arbeitskreis Spanien - Portugal - Lateinamerika
Abstract
Concerned with questions arising from the very concept of pueblo (“people”), this article starts exploring related implications in the frame of revolutionary nationalist thinking in Cuba from José Martí to Fidel Castro. Martí's thoughts were embedded in the major theoretical currents of the newly rising anti-imperialist interpretation of Hispano-Americanism, like those of José Enrique Rodó. This article then looks at the transfer of Martí's concept of pueblo to
revolutionary Cuba of 1959, concentrating on the discursive use of its mobilizing dimension performed by Castro. Castro’s efforts are shown as having been shaped by the changing composition of the popular base of support of the revolution, as well as by Castro’s strategy of creating a revolutionary unity. This had a polarizing effect, as he used the concept of pueblo to establish political and ideological markers of belonging and national identity. Finally, the article concludes that Castro successfully connected the aims of the revolution and its popular support to the task of national liberation of and equality for the Cuban people already envisioned by Martí, hinting at the assumption that the concept of pueblo not only responded to patterns of social stratification, but also received constant political and ideological redefinitions
