Cuban Diasporic Formations: A Poetics of Movement and Indeterminacy

Abstract

Using a variety of theoretical perspectives, this essay approaches the phenomenon of the Cuban diaspora through the lens of visual culture. More specifically, it explores fundamental issues regarding diasporic identity formation through an examination of a non-conventional, ongoing, and itinerant exhibition of Cuban diasporic art titled "CAFÉ: The Journeys of Cuban Artists." In her essay, the author posits Cuba not as a fixed cultural or geographical site, but rather as a traveling, moveable nation. Through an examination of the CAFÉ artists‘ work, she takes account of the fluid and relational aspects of identity and culture and troubles traditional concepts of spatiality, while acknowledging, simultaneously, that they are localized and positioned both historically and geographically.