The Cuban Defectors Speak, a Demystified Viewpoint: Political Disaffection and Dissatisfaction in Post-Revolutionary Cuba

My dissertation on Cuban defectors (primarily based on their own respective testimonies) will combine critical elements of pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary political, military, economic and social history as a means of evaluating the character and extent of political and social disaffection and dissatisfaction in the post triumph of the Movimiento 26 de Julio - 26 July Movement Revolution period in Cuba. I will establish Cuba’s unique brand of defection as predication to question the success of the revolutionary goal of redefining modern Cuban identity or Cubanidad. Cubanidad is a term commonly translated into “a sense of what it means to be Cuban.” I will divide my focus into four individual periods chronologically identified and presented in an effort to show that Cuban defection in the post-revolutionary period was never a product of a single government political shortcoming. Rather that defection is an accurate barometer on many levels, of a sustained (within the Cuban people) disagreement with revolutionary ideology, policy and philosophy and a refusal to accept the post-revolutionary version of Cuban identity or Cubanidad.