Cuba No; Miami Sí: Cuban Americans Coping with Ambiguous Loss

Abstract

This study explores the lifelong loss that Cuban émigrés experienced after leaving Cuba following the 1959 revolution. Many left thinking they would remain in exile for a brief period, but a return no longer seems possible. Nevertheless, their attachment to the lost homeland persists. The annual Cuba Nostalgia event at the Miami Expo Center attests to this enduring sense of attachment. Employing a phenomenological framework, we interviewed 10 older attendees who left Cuba between 1959 and 1979. Themes that emerged from the interviews are consistent with ambiguous loss theory and also reveal positive coping skills and resilience.

A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Latino Immigrant’s Ambiguous Loss of Homeland

“…Cubans leaving their homeland under the traumatic and confusing circumstances of the 1959 revolution have been described as living in the United States with chronic uncertainty about whether they would ever return (Perez, 2013(Perez, , 2015. Many kept their homeland psychologically close throughout their lives alongside concurrent feelings of helplessness, sorrow, and heartache that required lifelong coping (Perez, 2016).…”

“…They are expected to have a closer connection to their CO and may be more likely to separate. However, Perez (2013Perez ( , 2015 noted that Cuban Americans showed evidence of living with both the experience of loss and a concurrent connection to the homeland all the while adapting successfully to life in the United States. Cubans might claim they long for the beautiful beaches of Cuba while being grateful for the opportunities in the United States.…”

“…For example, Cuban Americans from the initial waves of the exodus that followed the 1959 revolution are described as having similar immigration experiences, yet vary in their intensity of loss as well as their coping approaches. Differences were observed in how much they experience nostalgia, how haunted they were with questions that defy closure, whether they yearned to return home again, and their use of a wide number of coping styles ranging from cultural and linguistic maintenance, and a constant holding on to the past, to putting the loss behind and focusing on the benefit of their ordeals for the betterment of future generations (Perez, 2013, 2015, 2016). Also, Van Tilburg, Vingerhoets, and Van Heck (1997) in a study on homesickness found that the amount of time participants focused on homesickness, the meaning they attributed to the loss experience, and the intensity of their feelings surrounding the loss were related to the strategies used to cope.…”

Lifelong Ambiguous Loss: The Case of Cuban American Exiles

“…All names of interviewees are pseudonyms. Across three studies, conducted between 2011 and 2013, each with a purposive sample, 38 individuals from 65 to 97 years old were interviewed in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and Miami (Perez, , , ). These Cuban Americans revealed that for the nearly half century that they have been in exile, they have maintained a continuing psychological connection to their homeland.…”

“…However, previous interviews did include a hypothetical question about what might happen if Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl Castro, now president of Cuba, were no longer at the helm of Cuba's government. Responding to the hypothetical question, the overwhelming majority of those Cuban Americans living in Miami opted to remain in Miami (Perez, ). Similarly, those living outside of Miami generally opted not to return to Cuba, citing their adaptation to the United States as a reason for staying.…”