You are here

Voices from the distance: Radio Marti and the (pen)insular construction of Cuban identity

Download pdf | Full Screen View

Date Issued:
1992
Summary:
In May, 1985, the United States government inaugurated Radio Marti, a broadcast-to-Cuba project with the avowed intent of providing the Cuban people with objective news. In this study I argue that an important though tacit political aim of this project is the reconstruction of Cuban identity. I take a cultural-studies approach in my "situated interpretation" of Radio Marti transmissions, foregrounding the mutual, discursive constitution of meaning and self-understanding. Situating my own voice within the multiple discourses on Cubanness, I note how the transmissions construct the voice of the Cuban exile in Miami and evoke an image of a separated Cuban community. I argue that Radio Marti invites listeners in Cuba to see themselves as belonging to this separated community and to translate the exile sense of loss into political agency directed against Castro and the Cuban government.
Title: Voices from the distance: Radio Marti and the (pen)insular construction of Cuban identity.
77 views
21 downloads
Name(s): Saco, Diana.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Fejes, Fred A., Thesis advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 1992
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 199 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: In May, 1985, the United States government inaugurated Radio Marti, a broadcast-to-Cuba project with the avowed intent of providing the Cuban people with objective news. In this study I argue that an important though tacit political aim of this project is the reconstruction of Cuban identity. I take a cultural-studies approach in my "situated interpretation" of Radio Marti transmissions, foregrounding the mutual, discursive constitution of meaning and self-understanding. Situating my own voice within the multiple discourses on Cubanness, I note how the transmissions construct the voice of the Cuban exile in Miami and evoke an image of a separated Cuban community. I argue that Radio Marti invites listeners in Cuba to see themselves as belonging to this separated community and to translate the exile sense of loss into political agency directed against Castro and the Cuban government.
Identifier: 14823 (digitool), FADT14823 (IID), fau:11611 (fedora)
Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection
Note(s): Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1992.
Subject(s): Radio Martí Program (US)
Radio broadcasting--Cuba
Cuban Americans--Florida
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/14823
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author, with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.