![]() ![]() Memory Trouble: Exploring the Boundaries of Fact and FictionĪlthough it is not the intention of this essay to provide a complete or definitive biography of Celia Sánchez Manduley, some discussion of what is considered common knowledge about her life seems merited. 6 In order to clarify the process by which this interaction takes place, the concluding remarks will reflect on the various intersections and/ or fissures between these public and private memories of Celia and the impact this process has had on the construction of a national blueprint for Cuba's New Woman. In fact, as we shall see, the two kinds of memory are highly interactive. It should be noted here that the decision to divide the essay into official memory and private memory sections was made purely for the sake of organization, and is not meant to imply that these two categories are mutually exclusive. In order to draw comparisons and contrasts, the third section highlights the array of memories of Celia that exist at the private or individual level. The second section then explores the process by which national leaders and government institutions created an official or public memory of Celia's role in the revolution in the years following her death. Thus, this discussion begins with an examination of some of the methodological difficulties incurred when embarking upon a study of gender and national memory. Specifically, we gain new insights into the ways in which the mythologized biography of an individual can become the embodiment of a geographical place, a collection of ideal human characteristics, and a way of life.īecause of the particular limitations of the sources concerning the life of Celia Sánchez Manduley-namely, their relative paucity and their commemorative nature-this essay necessarily approaches her biography through the lens of memory. ![]() By tracing the contours of the complex set of public and private acts of memory that have emerged in the twenty years since Celia's death, we can begin to establish the links between gender, revolution, and memory. ![]() In short, this essay is an attempt to highlight the array of memories that have emerged about Celia and the shaping force they have exerted on Cuban society. As we shall see, the act of memorializing Celia's death was causally linked to her subsequent mythification, and this process has had a tremendous impact on both official and popular imaginings of the ideal socialist revolutionary. 5 Utilizing official and unofficial memories of Celia Sánchez Manduley's contributions to the Cuban revolution as a case study, I will demonstrate that the act of memorializing deceased individuals is one key element of the politics of remembrance. Following the work of Miriam Cooke and Angela Woollacott, I contend that the experience of the Cuban revolution, more than any other event of the twentieth century, has influenced the discourse of masculinity and femininity in Cuban society at both the individual and collective levels. In turn, these memories have shaped a much larger, multifaceted national discourse concerning the relationship of the individual to the body politic, the definition of an ideal revolutionary cubanidad (Cuban national identity), and the proper role for women within Cuban society.Īs a study of the intersections of gender, revolution, and memory, 4 this essay will highlight the fact that memories are gendered and that the gendering of memory both reflects and shapes social spaces and expressive forms. The various "sites of memory" 3 that were produced subsequent to Celia's death, by national leaders, government institutions, and individual men and women, present particular memories of her contributions to Cuban society. For a nation coming to terms with a turbulent and often violent history, Celia has become the symbol of a revolutionary ideal. In his seminal work Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Benedict Anderson states that "the deaths that structure the nation's biography are of a special kind." 1 The death of Cuban revolutionary and Secretary to the President, Celia Sánchez Manduley on 11 January 1980, 2 was one such special historical event that has earned its place in the biography of Cuba. No one who lives in the people, Dies or ever will die.) (No one who exists in memory, No one dies if they are there. ![]()
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