The idea of the Cuba de ayer (lit. 'Cuba of yesterday') is a mythologized idyllic view of Cuba before the overthrow of the Batista government in the Cuban Revolution. This idealized vision of pre-revolutionary Cuba typically reinforces the ideas that Cuba before 1959 was an elegant, sophisticated, and largely white country that was ruined by the government of Fidel Castro. The Cuban exiles who fled after 1959 are viewed as majorly white, and had no general desire to leave Cuba but did so to flee tyranny.
Cuban exiles who uphold this image of the Cuba de ayer view their version of Cuban culture as more desirable than American culture, and that it is best to recreate their lost culture of the Cuba de ayer in the United States. Proponents of the image of the Cuba de ayer also view Cuba as a more worthy country to live in than the United States and hope to return Cuba to the Cuba de ayer after the hoped for fall of the government of Fidel Castro. Critics of the idea of the Cuba de ayer claim it is a nationalist myth created for white Cuban exiles that ignores the reality of Cuban life before 1959, and embraces an exotic vision of Cuba.[1][2][3]
- ^ De La Torre, Miguel (2003). La Lucha for Cuba Religion and Politics on the Streets of Miami. University of California Press. pp. 31–34. ISBN 9780520930100. Archived from the original on 2022-07-19. Retrieved 2022-07-19.
- ^ Avalos, Hector (2021). Introduction to the U.S. Latina and Latino Religious Experience. Brill. pp. 77–79. ISBN 9789004496583. Archived from the original on 2022-07-19. Retrieved 2022-07-19.
- ^ Aja, Alan (2016). Miami's Forgotten Cubans Race, Racialization, and the Miami Afro-Cuban Experience. Palgrave Macmillan US. pp. 180–199. ISBN 9781137570451. Archived from the original on 2022-07-19. Retrieved 2022-07-19.