Guantánamo in the Eye of the Hurricane

Abstract

Spanning a period that begins in the eighteenth century and extends to the present, this chapter offers a chronology of events related to the U.S. military’s presence in Guantánamo Bay as well as shifts in Cuban attitudes toward the base there. It integrates information from key documents seldom discussed in recent literature on Guantánamo (Spanish-language primary source archives and scholarship published in Cuba). The author shows that the installation has differentially impacted the inhabitants of Caimanera (the town bordering the base), Guantánamo City, and Guantánamo Province. Sharing reflections drawn from his long career as the state historian of Guantánamo City, his discussion relates anti-imperialism and other concerns shaping the Cuban state’s party line to ideas about justice and freedom fundamental to scholarly inquiry in the humanities. While the chapter was translated from Spanish, it is interspersed with Spanish-languages passages from a 2015 interview that the volume’s editors conducted with the author. These excerpts, which include comments on the chapter and the author’s life and professional inspiration, imbue the work with a dual vocality that derives meaning from the linguistic, cultural, and ideological differences that separate Cuba and the U.S.

Translated by

Andrew Hurley, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico andrewhurley@languageartsinc.com

[Editors’ Note: The italicized passages interspersed in this chapter consist of untranslated statements from an interview that the editors completed with the author, José Sánchez Guerra, in Guantánamo City during July of 2015.] Nací en San Antonio (hoy Manuel Tames), poblado del extremo oriental del valle de Guantánamo, y desde una de las alturas de la Sierra del Maguey, que bordean el vecindario, observaba en los años de adolescente los verdes cañaverales del valle y en la distancia, en el extremo sur, a 12 km, la bahía azul, despertando el seno marino mi curiosidad, que amplié con las conversaciones que escuchaba, entre ellas, la de un tío que laboró en la BNYG, relatos que ampliaron mis ansias de conocimiento de la otrora base de operaciones de piratas y moradas de bucaneros y traficantes de todo tipo.