Who Are the Black Revolutionaries? Resistance in Cuba and the State Boundaries That Endure

Join Danielle Clealand, associate professor of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, as she explores the theories, concepts and histories of black revolutionaries in and out of Cuba at this event hosted by the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies.  

To be a black revolutionary, defined as someone who fights for black equality, progress, and power, has always accompanied a contentious relationship with the Cuban state. Nonetheless, those that are defined as black revolutionaries are often those that are aligned with the state. Clealand calls for a wider definition of this term to include those outside of Cuba, those who are independent and critical of the state as well as Cubans that remain in private spaces, outside of the public sphere. In addition, she asks what have been the boundaries since 1959 in which black revolutionaries have had to live, act and dialogue? The growth of social media and increased networks coupled with the worsening of racial inequalities due to economic reforms suggest that the state is at a critical juncture. Black progress will not come without resistance from the ground and these new, independent dialogues serve as the foundation to black resistance.