Stories of Cuban-Americans Living and Learning Bilingually

STORIES OF CUBAN-AMERICANS LIVING AND LEARNING BILINGUALLY By Natasha Perez A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education – Doctor of Philosophy 2017 ABSTRACT STORIES OF CUBAN-AMERICANS LIVING AND LEARNING BILINGUALLY By Natasha Perez This study explores the interplay of bilingualism, identity, literacy and culture for Cuban- American students in the Cuban diaspora. I contextualize their experiences within the social, historical, and political background of Cuban immigration, situating their stories within the conflicting narratives of Cuban-American imagination in the U.S., to explore how manifestations of Cubania shape the language and literacy practices of Cuban-American youth across generations and contexts, within three U.S. states. Inspired by traditions of phenomenology and narrative inquiry (Clandelin & Connoly, 2000), this study is an intentional narrative “reconstruction of a person’s experience in relationship both to the other and to a social milieu” (CC 200-5), drawing from three narratives of experience, including my own. The three narratives are based on the experiences Cuban- American adolescent girls growing up in different contexts, in search of answers to the following questions: a) For each participant in this study, what are the manifestations of Cuban identity, or Cubania? b) What are the factors that sustain different or similar manifestations of Cubania, both within and across generations of immigrants? c) How, if at all, do manifestations of Cubania shape the language and literacy practices of Cuban-American youth? The narratives in this study demonstrate how language, collective memory, and context become semiotic resources that come to bear on the diasporic identities of the participants. Our ideas about Cuban-ness, as well as our experience of Cuban-ness, are somewhat different, because of the ecologies in which we experienced the culture, as well as our unique family history with Cuba. The relationship between each family and their history with Cuba also shapes what Cuba is to these individuals, making it possible to have different imaginaries of Cuba, as they construct their Cuban identities based on the physical, historical, and emotional sediment that they stand on. Translanguaging emerges as a language practice that provides key opportunities to enact Cuban identity, as well as to feel connected to Cuban-ness. During times of developing proficiency, translanguaging becomes a scaffold that facilitates inclusion in conversations in their midst. For two participants, their experiences reading and discussing the bible in two languages through translanguaging serves to build and reinforce their Spanish literacy and fluency, as they use their academic language of English to inform their understanding of the Spanish bible. Thus translanguaging and religious literacies emerge as funds of knowledge and a bridge to biliteracy. However, constraints to translanguaging emerge for one participant, who has little opportunity to navigate spaces of Spanish use on her own, and becomes limited in her ability to hold conversations with Spanish speakers who cannot translanguage. This research on Cuban American students is timely, considering that Hispanics are the majority minority in public schools, and largest minority in at least twenty-two states, including states that previously had little contact with immigration at all (Pew, 2013). Such an in depth look at a small sample of students is helpful in teasing out the nuances that exist in areas that are known to be both foundational and meaningful to student success in school, such as identity and culture. However, these are nuances that are easily rendered invisible with when we engage in the project of categorization that essentializes all students as one thing or another, in this case, Spanish language heritage students as “Hispanic” or “Latino”. Copyright by NATASHA PEREZ 2017 This doctoral dissertation is dedicated to Carmen and Gonzalo, in appreciation of their effort and sacrifice to ensure that I received the best possible education. I also dedicate it to Antonio y Cuca, for their constant love, support, and sacrifice as well. Lastly, to all of the Cuban immigrants who have had to leave their homeland behind to start anew elsewhere. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the following people for their support throughout the writing of this dissertation. First, my mother, for always believing in me, and for being the role model of what it takes to be a dreamer and a fighter, and then persevere in making those dreams come true. Everything I am is because of her. Close behind, is my sister, who has been guiding me since I became her shadow in the first grade. Ever since then, she has shown me how to step boldly into new experiences and opportunities. Seeing her accomplish so much while balancing work and family inspired me to believe in myself, even when things seemed no longer possible. Right next to her is my brother in law, whose generosity, love, and humble support never fail. To STTO, for their hugs and kisses, laughter, late-night giggle sessions, for lending me their bed, their desks, for just being who they are, and giving me another reason to persevere. My good friend Marlene, who could not possibly be more generous with her love, time, and resources. My friend, you were always a light at the end of a dark tunnel. Thank you for not giving up on me, for the pep talks, for the last minute editing, and for finally flying to Michigan. Ricky and D, who so generously invited me into their home so that I could have a space to finish dissertating in style while replenishing my spirit by the ocean. Thank you Lansing friends, Lorena, Tara, Bella, Gerardo, Yun, and many others, for your love, for believing in me, for being near to me during the struggle. Bella, thank you for sharing your home and friendship with me in those last months—I will never forget it! Tara, thank you for being present, like an angel, in those key moments of the journey. Lorena, I have no words to describe how meaningful your friendship has become in my life; I am so blessed to count you as a friend and colleague. Thank you, thank you for being a compass during the stormy nights of the journey. vi I thank Rosaura and Sara for sharing their stories with me. I would like to thank my committee: Mary, Kyle, Ellen, Peter, and Jeff. Mary, thank you for believing in me, for your words of encouragement, for your patience, and for seeing me through. Kyle, I will never forget your kindness, your phenomenological spirit, and the generous bouts of time that you gave to support me, at every stage of the journey. I am grateful to the College of Education at Michigan State University for supporting my research through numerous fellowships. I am the proud recipient of the Urban Education Recruitment and Retention Fellowship (2010, 2013), the Fellowship for Global Understanding in Botswana (2011), the Summer Recruitment Fellowship (2010), the Summer Research Grant (2013), and the College of Education Fellowship (2015). I am deeply grateful as well to Michigan State University at large for supporting my work through the Janice Marston Endowed Scholarship (2014), and the Nickerson Fellowship in Cultural Diversity and Minority Concerns (2013). I appreciate as well the Graduate School for their fellowship support (2015). I am particularly grateful for the support of the University of Miami Cuban Heritage Collection (CHC), where my early inquiry into my family’s connection to the historical Cuban imaginary took root and began to flourish through the Cuban Heritage Collection Pre-Prospectus Fellowship (2012). Likewise, I am grateful for the Tinker Fellowship for Pre-Dissertation Fieldwork in Cuba (2013), where my inquiry into Cuban culture blossomed. Finally, I thank God for everything that I am, for showing me that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, and that His strength and mercy is greater than the sum of my fears. vii PREFACE Thoughts on Remembering I am the keeper of negatives. Proofs carefully preserved in endless attempts to capture ephemeral moments, storied visions Re-visioned. Living with them, through them, from them. Characters flicker on the wall five sisters laughing, singing dancing, sometimes all at once Accented beauties, who dreamt their stories viii leaping through life with their children, who were everybody’s children (we had five mothers)... I never saw Cuba, except in the Super-8 reel of my mind Neighbors like family, El Malecon, bodeguitas, dulcerias, Ine running into the street to catch Juancho selling pan de gloria from his cart on Saturday mornings; Sofia’s flirtation with Pancho; And there is that picture of mom in her communion gown, one of the few relics that survived Evidence of an ancient world where kids ate helado de mantecado and guava from trees (not out of a box, like me). Sometimes I remember these stories as if they were my own; ix snapshots strung together, portraits of things past, developed in my soul. I have edited the reel, as we do with all memories, in service to ourselves, and our experiences. In the retelling, we create new fictions that tell old truths . x TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES…….……………………………………………………………..……….….xv LIST OF FIGURES……………………………………………………………………………..xvi Chapter 1: Logistics of the Study………..………..…………….…………………………………1 Introduction…………...……………………………………………………….…………………..1 Positionality…………...………………...…………………………….…………………..1

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