Exiled Counterpoints: Cuban Exiles, Media Activism, and Latina/o Conservativism

Abstract

This dissertation examines the Truth About Cuba Committee (TACC) and their calculated attempts to manage the distribution of information about Cuba to Americans from 1961 to 1975. The TACC lead Cuban exile media activism by disseminating anti-Cuban Revolution information and thwarting what they deemed to be communist propaganda. In doing so, the TACC orchestrated political campaigns to alter the U.S. news media landscape and to pit sectors of the U.S. against the Castro regime. To investigate this phenomenon, this study is guided by the following questions: what strategies, rhetoric, and coalitions did the TACC develop to shape U.S. public opinion and pit the U.S. against the Cuban state? How did the TACC lead other Cuban exile organizations and influential Americans, particularly ones with conservative values, in this endeavor? How does the TACC represent an engagement with conservative politics, which was unorthodox for their Latina/o activists contemporaries? In seeking out the answers to these questions, this dissertation argues that the TACC compelled news media professionals, U.S. authorities, organization leaders, and educators to exercise their authority to prohibit pro-Revolution portrayals and to send anti-Castro messages to audiences, the state, organizations’ networks, and U.S. students. In sum, the TACC sought to tarnish the reputation of the Revolution by facilitating the production and dissemination of anti-Castro information, for example, persuading news media professionals, or by prohibiting the distribution of pro-Revolution portrayals, like provoking U.S. officials to act as a regulatory body. To increase their chances for success, the TACC purposefully targeted and eagerly emboldened anti-communists, Republicans, and Cuban exiles. In order to rally their support, the TACC formed race-, gender-, and class-based solidarity with Americans and utilized exile camaraderie with Cuban organizations. Without a megaphone of their own, the TACC relied on established networks, like broadcast media and national organizations, to relay their anti-Revolution message and hinder the dissemination of pro-Cuban state messages.