Escape to Miami : an oral history of the Cuban rafter crisis / Elizabeth Campisi.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Campisi, Elizabeth, 1961- author.

Series:

Oxford oral history series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp--Biography.

Guantánamo Bay Detention Camp.

Cubans--Florida--Miami--Biography.

Cubans.

Boat people--Cuba--Biography.

Boat people.

Refugees--Florida--Miami--Biography.

Refugees.

Noncitizens--Cuba--Guantánamo Bay Naval Base--Biography.

Noncitizens.

History.

Psychic trauma.

Cuba--Guantánamo Bay Naval Base.

Cuba.

Florida--Miami.

Oral history.

Psychic trauma--Case studies.

Adjustment (Psychology)--Case studies.

Adjustment (Psychology).

Cuba--History--1990---Biography.

Miami (Fla.)--Biography.

Miami (Fla.).

Genre:

Biographies.

Case studies.

Physical Description:

xii, 214 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2016]

Summary:

"Escape to Miami is an oral history of the experience of detainees from Guantanamo during the 1994-1996 Cuban Rafter Crisis. Through life history interviews, the book offers the gripping stories of twelve rafters while also providing a study of group-level trauma and coping. Though important as an oral history, the examination of camp culture makes the project an innovative contribution to the field of anthropology as Campisi argues that coping with trauma experiences as a group can create new cultural forms"-- Provided by publisher.

"While the Naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is well-known for its infamous prison camp, few people are aware of its prior use as an immigrant detention center for Haitian and Cuban refugees. Beginning in August 1994, the United States government declared that thousands of Cubans who had launched themselves into the Florida Straits on rickety rafts were 'illegal refugees' and sent them to join over fifteen thousand Haitians already being held on Guantánamo after fleeing a violent coup in Haiti. Escape to Miami recounts the gripping stories of the rafters who were detained in Guantánamo during the 1994-1996 Cuban Rafter Crisis. After working in the camps for a year as an employee of the U.S. Justice Department, Elizabeth Campisi conducted life history interviews with twelve of the rafters, chronicling their departures from Cuba, their rafting trips, life on the base, and their initial experiences in Cuban Miami. Through these remarkable narratives, the book details the ways in which the rafters used creative expression, such as performance and artwork, to cope with the traumas they experienced in the camp. Campisi explores these coping mechanisms, showing that, when people work through individually-traumatic experiences as a group, the new meanings they create during that process can come together to change existing cultures or create new ones. Vivid and engaging, Escape to Miami gives voice to the untold stories of Guantánamo. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in policy, Latin American history, and human rights"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

No more Mariels: history and the rafter crisis

Post-Cold War Cuba: the special period, disaffection, and esape

GITMO: from Navy base to immigration detention center

Coping in the camps: toward individual and collective resilience

Creative expression in the camps

Resolving a different kind of rafter crisis.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 189-206) and index.

ISBN:

9780199946877

0199946876

OCLC:

932116091

Publisher Number:

99967842098