Beneath the Veneer of Paradise: the Struggle Over Cuban Ethnic Identity and Place in Key West

Abstract

n the dead of night before Key West’s masked bacchanal of Halloween Fantasy I Fest 1994, a ’Key West Cuban’ wielded a sledgehammer against the huge old wooden door of the freshly renovated San Carlos Institute. In the name of recapturing the building for the ’Miami Cubans’, he smashed the lock and marred the wood. Down the street in the Hog’s Breath Saloon rumours began flying of Cuban spies capturing the San Carlos, and of a rival Cuban being chained to the San Carlos door as one more incident in a long series of symbolic acts of war between Key West and Miami Cubans. The incident epitomizes the ardent contest for control of place, the old San Carlos Institute in downtown Key West, and the struggle over ethnic identity in the island community of Key West. This paper examines ethnicity and place among the Key West Cubans, whose lack of unity in presenting their history is reflected in their struggle with the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), the influential and politically well-organized group of Miami Cuban exiles from Castro’s Cuba.