Knowing the Place for the First Time: A Cuban Exile's Story

Wyndham, MM; Milanes, R

Knowing the Place for the First Time: A Cuban Exile's Story

Wyndham, MM

Milanes, R

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Publisher:: UTSePress
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Portal Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, 2009, 6 (1), pp. 1 - 19
Issue Date:: 2009-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Wyndham, MM https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6496-8753	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Milanes, R	en_US
dc.date.issued	2009-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Portal Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies, 2009, 6 (1), pp. 1 - 19	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1449-2490	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/10657
dc.description.abstract	Playa Abierta is a modern beach-side resort, one hundred kilometres west of Havana. Developed as a private resort in the 1950s, it was seized by the new revolutionary Cuban government in 1959 after its owner fled precipitately to Miami. This autobiographically centred and personally narrated paper reviews the history of Playa Abierta 1956 2006 through the eyes of a Cuban New Zealander `Marta whose uncle first developed the estate. In 1956 her holidays spent at Playa Abierta as a little girl were her most treasured Cuban moments. `At this altar, she says, `my uncle was the high priest. In 1996 - after a 36-year absence from her native land - she returned for a visit, the only member of her extended family to have done so. Boldly and unannounced she walked through her uncles house by then converted into a military recreational camp. On a subsequent visit, she met with members of her uncles domestic staff whose relationship to that same loved beach was by then of many decades. Whose Playa Abierta was she re-visiting now? Who were the true claimants to that family sacred site? Today as she reflects on the private and public meaning of Playa Abierta, her exultation has given way to more complex feelings. The wonder at re-discovering the beachs beauty was overladen with the guilt of returning to Cuba while still under Castros communist rule. Her sense of belonging was later undermined by a sad realisation that those who had stayed behind were also Playa Abiertas claimants. Above all, she is torn between family loyalties and the promise of a Revolution betrayed.	en_US
dc.publisher	UTSePress	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Portal Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies	en_US
dc.title	Knowing the Place for the First Time: A Cuban Exile's Story	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	1	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	6	en_US
utslib.for	2005 Literary Studies	en_US
utslib.for	2002 Cultural Studies	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/e-Press
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - CPCE - Centre for Creative Practices and the Cultural Economy
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.consider-herdc	true	en_US
pubs.issue	1	en_US
pubs.volume	6	en_US

Abstract:

Playa Abierta is a modern beach-side resort, one hundred kilometres west of Havana. Developed as a private resort in the 1950s, it was seized by the new revolutionary Cuban government in 1959 after its owner fled precipitately to Miami. This autobiographically centred and personally narrated paper reviews the history of Playa Abierta 1956 2006 through the eyes of a Cuban New Zealander `Marta whose uncle first developed the estate. In 1956 her holidays spent at Playa Abierta as a little girl were her most treasured Cuban moments. `At this altar, she says, `my uncle was the high priest. In 1996 - after a 36-year absence from her native land - she returned for a visit, the only member of her extended family to have done so. Boldly and unannounced she walked through her uncles house by then converted into a military recreational camp. On a subsequent visit, she met with members of her uncles domestic staff whose relationship to that same loved beach was by then of many decades. Whose Playa Abierta was she re-visiting now? Who were the true claimants to that family sacred site? Today as she reflects on the private and public meaning of Playa Abierta, her exultation has given way to more complex feelings. The wonder at re-discovering the beachs beauty was overladen with the guilt of returning to Cuba while still under Castros communist rule. Her sense of belonging was later undermined by a sad realisation that those who had stayed behind were also Playa Abiertas claimants. Above all, she is torn between family loyalties and the promise of a Revolution betrayed.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/10657