Shiksa Speaks: A White, Non-Jew’s Understanding of the Cuban Jewish Diaspora and Its Legacy focuses on Cuban Jews, or Jewbans, whose family emigrated from Eastern Europe to the island in the 1920s then again to the US after the 1959 revolution in which Fidel Castro took power. It highlights the historical, social, cultural, and political experience of Jewbans as well as the narratives they have passed along to subsequent generations residing largely in South Florida. This “double diaspora,” as it has been called, is of personal and scholarly interest. This book is mix of history with personal narratives shared in interviews with Jewbans across three generations.
After an introduction and brief history of the Jewban diaspora, the book is organized into two parts. Part One is organized around themes that emerged from personal interviews as well as from prior research. Part One includes five chapters: identity, community, family, work ethic, risk-taking and resilience, and idealized Cuba. In Part Two, themes that have been identified in other research but that were minimally noted by interviewees form the basis of the chapters. These are privilege and politics today. The book concludes with personal commentary from the perspective of the daughter of an immigrant with a significantly different trajectory and offers thoughts on what the Jewban story offers to the areas of immigration studies and diasporas as well as the ways the narratives told by the Jewban double diaspora do and do not help promote a more peaceful and just world.