A Nation in Search of a State

the AZEL PERSPECTIVE Commentary on Cuba's Future, U.S. Foreign Policy & Individual Freedoms - Issue 11A   This Perspective was first published in 2015. Cuban Migration: A Nation in Search of a State Cubans in exile are best understood as a nation without a state, as an exclave that remains spiritually attached to Cuba. Share Tweet Forward A Nation in Search of a State is the title of a brilliant book by Orlando Gutierrez-Boronat that captures the plight of the seemingly unending waves of Cuban migration. Although in everyday practice the words “nation” and “state” tend to be used as synonyms, they represent different notions. A state is a geopolitical unit; a nation is a cultural and ethnic group. The concept of a nation-state infers that its population shares a common language, history, culture, and thus constitutes a nation. A legitimate nation-state relies on its geopolitical unit — the state — to promote national unity in economic and cultural life. These concepts can abet our understanding of the Cuban migration phenomenon and its relationship to the Castro-state and the Cuban-American community. Since the Cuban revolution in 1959, approximately 20 percent of the Cuban population has fled the Cuban state, and the migration trend has accelerated in recent years, overwhelmingly to the United States. This fact alone should serve to question the legitimacy of a regime that has promoted, not the unity, but the separation of the Cuban nation. The Castro-state has not been designed to attend the well-being of the Cuban citizenry, and the Cuban nation has expressed its political preferences voting the only way it can, by leaving. Legitimate nation-states shape the state from the nation. Castroism has sought to shape the nation from the state. A legitimate nation-state speaks on behalf its citizenry and seeks to protect them anywhere in the world independently of their political views. But since its inception, the Castro-state has done just the opposite. It has sought to stigmatize those leaving the island as no longer being part of the Cuban nation. This brings us to the current plight of Cuban nationals seeking to leave the Castro-state. Imagine for a moment thousands of US citizens stranded and mistreated in a foreign country as they, escaping perhaps from a great depression in the United States, attempted to make their way towards their perceived utopia. Would the US government seek to protect them, or would they be discarded as undesirable political enemies? The latter is what the Cuban regime has done with Cuban nationals for over 50 years. A legitimate nation-state defends its nationals without regard for their political affiliations. This understanding informs the historic Cuban American exile community as it speaks on behalf of new Cuban immigrants that they think “are not like us.” But a nation is a changing idea. A nation is always in the process of reevaluating its constituent elements. Each generation will affirm some, and discard others. And so it is with the new immigrants. Those leaving the island today may appear more like economic immigrants than political exiles, but this is a blurred distinction when applied to those leaving a totalitarian state that exerts engulfing control over both political and economic matters. Many, it can be assumed, were at one time supporters of the Castro regime. Some may even retain selected affinity for the statism under which they grew up. Nonetheless, they are part of the Cuban nation. For the Cuban immigrants of today — in fact, for most Cubans on the island — the Cuban-American community is their symbolic state, and their concrete economic state. Cuban immigrants are a nation repudiated by the Castro-state, but always embraced without an ideological litmus test by the historic exile community, albeit sometimes with reservations. Cuban Americans have made the United States their de jure nation state, while becoming themselves the de facto state for the Cuban nation. With this comes the citizen’s responsibility to articulate that abuses to US law and generosity must be vigorously condemned and criminal activity prosecuted. And yes, laws and regulations may need to be modified to fit the new reality of the Cuban nation as it continues to flee the Castro-state. Cubans in exile are best understood as a nation without a state, as an exclave that remains spiritually attached to Cuba. It is a nation that, with the passing of time, becomes more ideologically committed to individual freedoms. And so it will be with the latest immigrants, because nationhood is not a place, and the two fundamental mainstays of nationhood are nostalgia and solidarity. Please let us know if you  this article. We welcome your feedback. Abrazos, Lily & José (click on the name to email Lily or Jose) José Azel, Ph.D. José Azel left Cuba in 1961 as a 13 year-old political exile in what has been dubbed Operation Pedro Pan - the largest unaccompanied child refugee movement in the history of the Western Hemisphere.   He is currently dedicated to the in-depth analyses of Cuba's economic, social and political state, with a keen interest in post-Castro-Cuba strategies as a Senior Scholar at the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies (ICCAS) at the University of Miami and has published extensively on Cuba related topics. In 2012 and 2015, Dr. Azel testified in the U.S. Congress on U.S.-Cuba Policy, and U.S. National Security.  He is a frequent speaker and commentator on these and related topics on local, national and international media.  He holds undergraduate and masters degrees in business administration and a Ph.D. in International Affairs from the University of Miami.  Dr. Azel is author of Mañana in Cuba: The Legacy of Castroism and Transitional Challenges for Cuba, published in March 2010 and of Pedazos y Vacios, a collection of poems he wrote as a young exile in the 1960's. José along with his wife Lily are avid skiers and adventure travelers.  In recent years they have climbed Grand Teton in Wyoming, trekked Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Machu Pichu in Peru.  They have also hiked in Tibet and in the Himalayas to Mt. Everest Base Camp. They cycled St. James Way (El Camino de Santiago de Compostela) and cycled alongside the Danube from Germany to Hungary. They have scuba dived in the Bay Islands off the Honduran coast.  Their adventurers are normally dedicated to raise funds for causes that are dear to them.  Watch Joe & Lily summit Kilimanjaro. Books by Dr. José Azel Mañana in Cuba is a comprehensive analysis of contemporary Cuba with an incisive perspective of the Cuban frame of mind and its relevancy for Cuba's future. Buy now   Pedazos y Vacíos is a collection of poems written in by Dr. Azel in his youth. Poems are in Spanish. Buy now To friend, follow or forward email click on the icons below: Copyright © 2015 Azel & Associates, All rights reserved. If you are receiving this email it is because we met you at some point on an adventure. Our mailing address is: Azel & Associates 440 Sawgrass Parkway, Suite 106 Sunrise, FL 33325