Networks, remittances, and family restaurants: The Cuban diaspora from a transnational perspective

Networks, remittances, and family restaurants: The Cuban diaspora from a transnational perspective Book Chapter

Duany, J. (2007). Networks, remittances, and family restaurants: The Cuban diaspora from a transnational perspective . 161-175.

In the foreword to the book that inaugurated the dominant model in transnational migration (Schiller et al. 1992), Lambros Comitas pointed to the theoretical antecedents of that paradigm in the work of Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz. The concept of transculturation especially suggested key elements for the contemporary study of transnational communities. Among them, Ortiz emphasized the flow, through geographic borders, of cultural practices from different sources and the emergence of a new hybrid culture through successive migrant waves. However, the rest of the volume edited by Nina Glick Schiller and her colleagues did not explore systematically the points of convergence and divergence between transculturation and transnationalism in the context of current migration to the United States. Furthermore, none of the works compiled in this volume deal with the Cuban case as a typical example of transnationalism, although several chapters focus on the experiences of Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and other Caribbean nations. This theoretical and empirical absence of the Cuban Diaspora is repeated in more recent discussions of transnational migration (see Basch et al.; Smith and Guarnizo), where Cubans usually appear as the exception to the rule of population flows. © 2007 State University of New York. All rights reserved.