Abstract Nineteen 1999

GLOBAL

DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

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Volume One Winter 1998-Spring 1999 Numbers 3-4.

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INCENTIVES AND IMPEDIMENTS TO CUBAN NATIONAL RECONCILIATION

Holly Ackerman

School of Social Work and

Center for Latin American Studies

Tulane University

New Orleans, Louisiana 70118

Published online: December 15, 2016

ABSTRACT

This article asserts that processes of Cuban national reconciliation have been underway for twenty years. In addition to defining "national reconciliation," the article re-examines the history of political conflicts and challenges some of the commonly held assumptions in the United States about the nature of ongoing relations between islanders and those living outside Cuba. The major contribution of this article is the specification of the dimensions of incentives and impediments, not only intransigent government postures but also simplistic media images that impede the dissolution of the remaining barriers between the Cuban exile and the island population.