Main objectives 1. To examine different perspectives used to
define “The Caribbean” 2. To establish a pertinent
framework to define the Caribbean for International Relations
experts in the context of globalization
Question for debate What is the Caribbean? ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0UtUmzxI0I Speakers: Neville
Duncan, Ken Post, Angel Quintero-Rivera, Eric Wolf
Defining the Caribbean IDENTITY
The Caribbean identity easily seen by: • Geographic
proximity and sharing of a common water resource (Caribbean Sea)
• Perceived cultural and anthropological affinities such as
food, music… (local music is identified with the beat of
Afroantillean drums and beats, but there are different rhythms)
• Christian religions incorporate animistic and polytheistic
traits from the African Diaspora and indigenous populations, but
Santería is not equivalent to Voodoo • Food is
prepared from similar ingredients, but all are articulated in
different ways across countries and across language-defined
regions
What is the Caribbean?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0UtUmzxI0I Speakers: Neville
Duncan, Ken Post, Angel Quintero-Rivera, Eric Wolf
• • Caribbean Basin • • Defining the
Caribbean: Geographic proximity • Antilles: from the
mythical Antilia, the island of the seven cities linked to the
myth or legend of Atlantis West Indies: Columbus mistaken
Caribbean Sea Caribbean, to originate Wider /Greater Caribbean
with the Caribs, the indigenous population that most fiercely
resisted European colonization Geopolitics (from Colonial World
to post WWII)
Defining the Caribbean: Colonial history and plantation
territories 1. It was colonized by European nations 2.
Importation of working force: Europe, Africa and Asia 3.
Extermination of native population The Caribbean is a case for
which mestizaje is not an accident but rather the essence, the
central line.
The Americas: a culture of descendants Simón
Bolívar, Message to the Congress of Angostura (1819)
Social Structure • Rigid • Stratified • Organized
by the racialization of the social relations • Signed by
slavery • Abolition in the Caribbean 1. Haiti (1804) 2.
English colonies (1833) 3. Dominican Republic (1844) 4. French
colonies (1848) 5. Dutch colonies (1863) 6. Puerto Rico (1873) 7.
Cuba (1886)
Defining a Caribbean Identity Shared History ? Ethnography ?
Demography ? Plantation economy ? Slavery experience Caribbean,
from the Caribes Indigenous population exterminated; new blend
with Europeans, Africans and Asian components; specific
socioeconomic organization Own Cultural Expressions
Defining the Caribbean: Denominations (Andrés
Serbín) ?English ?French ?Spanish Plus intraregional
differences stemming from the local languages, pidgins, Creole
and Papiamento ?Dutch Linguistic-Colonial Heritage
Defining the Caribbean: Denominations (Charles Wagley)
Euro-America Indo-America America of Plantation (Central
Afro-America) Cultural-Historical
? Beyond differences, there are main common experiences
Plantation colonies Insular/Smaller condition Which are the
limits?
Different perspectives • Eric Williams: From Columbus to
Castro: History of the Caribbean, 1492-1970 • Juan Bosch, De
Cristóbal Colón a Fidel Castro: El Caribe, frontera
imperial
Question for debate An insular or continental Caribbean? ?
Differences between island and continental territories •
Many of the continental countries that border the rim of the
Caribbean Basin define their identities not as Caribbean but as
Andean (Venezuela and Colombia), Central American (Costa Rica,
Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua) or North American
(Mexico). Latin- American countries. • For these countries
the Caribbean is but a sub region, often marginalized. •
Territorial disputes such as Venezuela’s claims over the
Essequibo region of Guyana, and Guatemala’s claims on
Belize (Latin American countries and CARICOM, English speaking
countries)
Guatemala’s claims on Belize
http://www.banrepcultural.org/blaavirtual/ayudadetareas/materias/geografia/cartograf%C3%
ADa/conflictos-territoriales-actuales
Venezuela’s claims over the Essequibo region
http://www.banrepcultural.org/blaavirtual/ayudadeta
reas/materias/geografia/cartograf%C3%ADa/conflic
tos-territoriales-actuales
Defining a Caribbean Identity Economic exchange The creation of
Regional Economic Communities After WWII development and
reconstruction economics advocated the creation of regional
economic communities as a means of taking advantages of economies
of scales and complementarities to further economic
reconstruction and development (Pantojas, 2008).
• At the economic level, the Caribbean continues divided by
economic competition and political rivalries (no economies of
scales nor complementarities) • Economically, the Caribbean
includes oil producing countries (Trinidad and Tobago,
Venezuela); industrialized economies (Jamaica, Puerto Rico,
Dominican Republic); international service centers focused around
tourism and offshore banking (The Bahamas, Cayman Islands).
• Similarity of the Caribbean Basin economies: tourism,
agriculture and assembly manufacturing for export (maquiladoras)
are axes of the region’s economies
Regional integration schemes • 1968: Caribbean Free Trade
Association • 1973: Caribbean Economic Community (CARICOM)
• 1994: Association of Caribbean States (ACS)
http://mundinews.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Caricom44.jpg
In the Caribbean Culture, geography and history produce a clearly
identifiable regional complex But at the political and economic
levels heterogeneity prevails over synthesis
• Politically the Caribbean is made up of independent
countries, non independent territories and regions or provinces
of independent countries. • Some countries are republics
(Santo Domingo), other are Westminster style democracies, while
other are socialist states (Cuba).
There are still ethnic and xenophobic prejudices •
Dominicans refer to Haitians as “blacks” (negros),
while the lighter-skin black Dominicans are referred to as
Indians. • Puerto Ricans refer to migrants or visitors from
the Eastern Caribbean as “those people from the
islands” (los de las islas). • History of mistrust
among “West Indians” and “East Indians”
(people of Indian descent) within the English speaking
Caribbean.
The Caribbean was defined (in the 20st century) by: New
Geopolitical circumstances • The irruption of USA in the
area as an imperial power in 1898 -Cuba and Puerto Rico- (Antonio
Gaztambide- Geigel) Intellectual construction • Its many
dimensions: language, culture, racial mix, migration, geography,
colonialism, plantation economy (plural, multiethnic, hybrids
societies) • Cultural affinities at the popular level have
advanced by increased interisland migration, regional tourism and
TICS.
Defining the Caribbean, nowadays, is usually linked to a very
specific goal Pushing forward REGIONAL INTEGRATION Forging a
shared Caribbean identity is, or may be, a necessary precondition
to articulate a political project of regional integration
(Pantojas, 2008).
Newer approaches towards regional integration through regional
identity • Institutional • Social/Individual
subjectivity • Cultural production Regional sciences focused
on geography and economic, demographic, political and
institutional linkages and interactions in defining the makeup of
a region (Pantojas, 2008).
Variables are rethought and mixed GEOGRAPHY + POLITICS
ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURES + SIZE CULTURE + ECONOMY
Understanding the Caribbean: Institutions Norman Girvan,
“Reinterpretar al Caribe”, Revista Mexicana del
Caribe, No 7, 2000
New regional organizations • PETROCARIBE • CELAC •
ALBA – TCP • SIDS (Group of 77) Latin American
presence Developing Countries/ Third World Presence
Intuition? Emotions? • The Caribbean is an emotional
federation (Derek Walcott) • Caribe: es el único
mundo en que no me siento extranjero y donde pienso mejor
(Gabriel García Márquez)
Defining the Caribbean DIVERSITY Multiple Identities Its
DIVERSITY (fragmentation / balkanization /insular condition/
diaspora)
The “analogous differences” • There is not an
identifiable single homogeneous Caribbean identity. Rather, there
are shared regional customs, practices and beliefs characterized
by “analogous differences”. • The concepts of
Caribbean and “caribeñidad” (Caribbeanness)
are problematic (Antonio Benítez Rojo). • Within
distinct and conscious national and or sub regional identities,
there is a shared experience that can be said to be the basis of
a Caribbean identity.
Is there a Caribbean? Frank Moya Pons establishes that the
Caribbean only exists for three kind of people: 1. Sales managers
2. Politicians 3. Academicians Frank Moya Pons. Historia del
Caribe: azúcar y plantaciones en el mundo
atlántico. Santo Domingo, Editora Búho, 2008
Looking for a definition will allow to have an analytical unit:
politics, scholars, economists, citizens, common people…
How to do it?
Its destiny Past: Boundaries of empires (history) “El
Caribe está entre los lugares de la tierra que han sido
destinados por su posición geográfica y su
naturaleza privilegiada para ser fronteras de dos o más
imperios. Este destino lo ha hecho objeto de la codicia de los
poderes más grandes de occidente y teatro de la violencia
desatada entre “The Caribbean is among the places on earth
that have been intended by its geographical position and its
privileged nature to be boundaries of two or more empires. This
destination has made it subject to the greed of the greatest
powers of the West and theatre of the violence between
them.” ellos”. Juan Bosch. De Cristóbal
Colón a Fidel Castro. El Caribe frontera imperial. Casa de
las Américas, La Habana, 1981.
Its destiny Future: A community of diverse peoples (political
will) “(1) Reiteramos que la unidad y la integración
de nuestra región debe construirse gradualmente, con
flexibilidad, con respeto al pluralismo, a la diversidad y al
derecho soberano de cada uno de nuestros pueblos para escoger su
forma de organización política y económica.
(4) Subrayamos nuestro propósito de continuar avanzando
unidos en la concertación y la integración
latinoamericana y caribeña, y la consolidación de
nuestra Comunidad, conforme los ideales y sueños de
nuestros libertadores y próceres.” “(1)
Reiterate that the unity and integration of our region must be
built gradually, with flexibility, with respect for pluralism and
the sovereign right of each of our peoples to choose their own
political and economic system. (4) Stress our purpose to continue
working together for Latin American and Caribbean integration and
coordination as well as for the consolidation of our Community in
keeping with the ideals and dreams of our liberators and founding
fathers.” Declaración II CUMBRE DE LA CELAC, 28 y 29
de enero de 2014, La Habana.
http://celac.cubaminrex.cu/sites/default/files/ficheros/havana_declaration_celac.pdf
Drugs traffic Climate change Solving the common problems Open
economies Migration
The “certain kind of way” (Antonio Benítez
Rojo) “Fue una hermosísima tarde de octubre, hace
años (…) parecía inminente (…) la
catástrofe nuclear (…) dos negras viejas pasaron
‘de cierta manera’. Sólo diré que
había un polvillo dorado y antiguo entre sus piernas
nudosas, un olor a albahaca y hierbabuena en sus vestidos, una
sabiduría simbólica, un ritual en sus gestos y en
su chachareo. Entonces supe de golpe que no ocurriría el
apocalipsis.” “It was a stunning October afternoon,
years ago (…) nuclear catastrophe seemed imminent
(…) two old women passed ‘in a certain kind of
way’; I will say only that there was a kind of ancient and
golden powder between their gnarled legs, a scent of basil and
mint in their dress, a symbolic, ritual wisdom in their gesture
and their gay chatter. I knew then at once that there would be no
apocalypse.” Antonio Benítez Rojo. The Repeating
Island. Duke University Press, 1996 (2006)
Question for debate How to conceptualize the Caribbean from an
International Relations’ perspective? ?
Concluding… • The Caribbean understanding, its
definition, is a ground of permanent construction and
confrontation. • Definitions will depend on backgrounds,
purposes, theoretical frameworks (History, Geography, Politics,
Geopolitics, Anthropology, Cultural Studies) • Its
conceptualization will respond to the efforts of understanding
internal process as well as the external influences and its
impacts on the region. • In the economic and political
sense, the Caribbean does not constitute an integrated complex.
• Nowadays definitions need to consider the integration
schemes and international organizations' visions, as well as the
growing importance of Caribbean diaspora.
Core readings • Eric Williams: From Columbus to Castro:
History of the Caribbean, 1492-1970 • Juan Bosch, De
Cristóbal Colón a Fidel Castro: El Caribe, frontera
imperial
Globalization and its impacts in the Caribbean
After WWII and before neoliberal globalization
After WWII and before neoliberal globalization
Question for debate What major changes can be recognized in the
Caribbean as a result of the current phase of globalization?
?
Bibliography in Spanish 4. Norman Girvan, “Reinterpretar al
Caribe”, Revista Mexicana del Caribe, Nº 7, 2000 5.
Joaquín Santana Castillo, “Repensando el Caribe:
Valoraciones sobre el Gran Caribe Hispano”, in El Caribe a
los cincuenta años de la Revolución Cubana, Havana:
Ciencias Sociales, 2011 6. Milagros Martínez Reinosa and
Félix Valdés García, “¿De
qué Caribe hablamos?”, in El Gran Caribe en el Siglo
XXI : crisis y respuestas, Buenos Aires: CLACSO, 2013 7. Antonio
Gaztambide-Geigel, “La invención del Caribe a partir
de 1898”, in Tierra Firme, Caracas, Año 21 – Volumen
XXI, Nº 82, April-June, 2003 8. Johanna Von Grafenstein
Gareis, “El Caribe como región: un acercamiento
historiográfico, en América Latina y el
Caribe” in Tzintzun Revista de Estudios Históricos
Nº 21, January-June, 1995