Life on the Hyphen
The Cuban-American Way
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- $37.99
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- $37.99
Publisher Description
An expanded, updated edition of the classic study of Cuban-American culture, this engaging book, which mixes the author’s own story with his reflections as a trained observer, explores how both famous and ordinary members of the “1.5 Generation” (Cubans who came to the United States as children or teens) have lived “life on the hyphen”—neither fully Cuban nor fully American, but a fertile hybrid of both. Offering an in-depth look at Cuban-Americans who have become icons of popular and literary culture—including Desi Arnaz, Oscar Hijuelos, musician Pérez Prado, and crossover pop star Gloria Estefan, as well as poets José Kozer and Orlando González Esteva, performers Willy Chirino and Carlos Oliva, painter Humberto Calzada, and others—Gustavo Pérez Firmat chronicles what it means to be Cuban in America.
The first edition of Life on the Hyphen won the Eugene M. Kayden National University Press Book Award and received honorable mentions for the Modern Language Association’s Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize and the Latin American Studies Association’s Bryce Wood Book Award.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
From Desi Arnaz, arguably still the most famous Cuban to hit U.S. shores, to current pop star Gloria Estefan, Cuban Americans have had to balance life within two cultures, one representing their past, one their present and future. While acknowledging that a Cuban presence has flourished in the U.S. for more than 400 years, Perez Firmat directs his attention toward what it means to be a Cuban American in the second half of this century, when a recognizable ``hyphenated'' culture has emerged. Firmat, who teaches Spanish at Duke, seamlessly weaves both personal observances and scholarly analysis of television programs, such as I Love Lucy , music, literature and movies to prove his point: that members of the ``1.5 generation,'' those Cubans who came to the U.S. as children or adolescents, are neither fully Cuban nor fully American, but a dynamic combination of both. Exploring in-depth the art and lives of several Cuban American cultural icons, including Arnaz, author Oscar Hijuelos, poet Jose Kozer, musicians Estefan, Perez Prado and Jon Secada, as well as the mambo and conga dance crazes, Firmat vividly demonstrates how Cuban Americans, while battling assimilation and regression, have greatly enriched popular culture in the U.S. Photos.
