A Return to Roots: Cubajans in Barbados - Softcover

Marshall, Sharon Milagro

Softcover

ISBN 10: 9766408815 ISBN 13: 9789766408817

Verlag: University of the West Indies Press, 2022

Inhaltsangabe

Whenthousands of working-class Barbadians left for Cuba in search of bettereconomic opportunities during the early twentieth century, most of them did sowith the expectation that they would eventually return to their home. They maintainedmany of the cultural traditions of their homeland, and they immersed theirCuba-born children in Barbadian culture by exposing them to the type ofeducation which they themselves had received in Barbados and teaching themEnglish to prepare them for life “back home”.

Althoughmany of the migrants were not able to achieve this dream of returning home,some of their children and grandchildren have managed to retrace theirancestors’ journey and find their roots in Barbados. This “reverse migration”is driven as much by economics as by sentiment for the ancestral homeland. Thebasis of that sentiment has sometimes been called into question, since these“CuBajans” have not always been regarded as true Barbadians by some among thelocal population.

TheCuBajans themselves have a sense of pride in what they have been able toachieve in Cuba, and they count themselves fortunate in having two homelands.With relatives still in Cuba, they maintain links through frequentcommunication, remittances and travel back to the island. In A Return to Roots: “CuBajans” in Barbados,these migrants tell their own stories through oral testimonies, which SharonMilagro Marshall frames within the context of Barbadian and Cuban history.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Sharon Milagro Marshall
is an award-winning broadcast journalist, public relations executive and author
from Barbados. She is the author of Tell
My Mother I Gone to Cuba: Stories of Early Twentieth-Century Migration from
Barbados.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

PREFACE

 

 MY BOOK TELL MY MOTHER I GONE TO CUBA: Stories of Early Twentieth-Century Migration from Barbados (2016) chronicles the movement of Barbadians – and other British West Indians – to Cuba in an era when the expansion of sugar cane cultivation there created work opportunities for the migrants.

At the official launch of Tell My Mother I Gone to Cuba, Francisco Fernández Peña, then Cuban ambassador to Barbados, said to me that I needed to write a second book about the Cuban-Barbadians¹ in Barbados. Since I was dealing with the stress of launching and marketing that first book, I did not pay too much attention to that proposal at the time. But little did I know       that the seed had been planted then. It has since grown and evolved, seemingly of its own volition.

 

This book – A Return to Roots: “CuBajans” in Barbados – captures the narratives of descendants of some of those Barbadian migrants to Cuba – the sons and daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren – who have settled in Barbados, closing the circle of migration. As the interviewer, I  began this publication project with the idea of maintaining a professional distance from my subjects.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University of the West Indies Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 9766408815
• ISBN 13: 9789766408817
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 230
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Mare Nostrum Group B.V.; gpsr@mare-nostrum.co.uk; ; Doelen 72; Breda; 4831 GR; Niederlande