Silvia Pedraza - Böcker

The Cuban exodus is estimated to consist of around 12 percent of the country's population. It harbors several distinct waves of migrants, alike only in their final rejection of Cuba. Silvia Pedraza links the revolution and exodus not only as cause and consequence but also as profoundly social and human processes that were not only political and economic but also cognitive and emotive. Ironically for a community that defined itself as being in exile, virtually no studies of its political attitudes exist, and certainly none that encompass the changing political attitudes over 47 years of the exodus. Through the use of two major research strategies - participant observation and in-depth, semi-structured interviews - Pedraza captures the processes of political disaffection and emphasizes the contrasts among the four major waves of the exodus not only in their social characteristics but also in their attitudes as members of different political generations.

The Cuban exodus is estimated to consist of around 12 percent of the country's population. It harbors several distinct waves of migrants, alike only in their final rejection of Cuba. Silvia Pedraza links the revolution and exodus not only as cause and consequence but also as profoundly social and human processes that were not only political and economic but also cognitive and emotive. Ironically for a community that defined itself as being in exile, virtually no studies of its political attitudes exist, and certainly none that encompass the changing political attitudes over 47 years of the exodus. Through the use of two major research strategies - participant observation and in-depth, semi-structured interviews - Pedraza captures the processes of political disaffection and emphasizes the contrasts among the four major waves of the exodus not only in their social characteristics but also in their attitudes as members of different political generations.

Comparing two consequential movements that shed light on the nature of revolution>Revolutions in Cuba and Venezuela compares the sociopolitical processes behind two major revolutions—Cuba in 1959, when Fidel Castro came to power, and Venezuela in 1999, when Hugo Chávez won the presidential election. With special attention to the Cuba-Venezuela alliance, particularly in regards to foreign policy and the trade of doctors for oil, Silvia Pedraza and Carlos Romero show that the geopolitical theater where these events played out determined the dynamics and reach of the revolutions.Updating and enriching the current understanding of the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutions, this study is unique in its focus on the massive exodus they generated. Pedraza and Romero argue that this factor is crucial for comprehending a revolution’s capacity to succeed or fail. By externalizing dissent, refugees helped to consolidate the revolutions, but as the diasporas became significant political actors and the lifelines of each economy, they eventually served to undermine the social movements.Using comparative historical analysis and data collected through fieldwork in Cuba and Venezuela as well as from immigrant communities in the U.S., Pedraza and Romero discuss issues of politics, economics, migrations, authoritarianism, human rights, and democracy in two nations that hoped to make a better world through their revolutionary journeys.Publication of this work made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.