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Carnival, Feast Days, and House Parties: Cuban Celebrations in Louisiana after 1960 By Tomás Montoya González with contributions by T. Ariana Hall Translations by Lori N. Tyler and T. Ariana Hall Also See - Music and Dance in South Louisiana's Cuban Community Acculturation to Life in Louisiana Patriotic Celebrations As a result, the younger generations do not celebrate the 20th of May. Its symbolism has changed in their collective memory, because they grew up commemorating other historic occasions like the anniversary of the triumph of the 1959 revolution on January 1, which was established as the "true" independence day; May 1 for International Workers' Day; and July 26, the anniversary of the attack on the Moncada barracks, when Fidel Castro and his young followers tried to take over the military fort by force in 1953. This historic event began the Cuban revolution that ended in 1959 with the victory of the rebels. It is widely celebrated since 1959, as the Day of National Rebellion. New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, December 31 and January 1 are family celebrations, where friends and neighbors gather for food and drinks. With January 1 also commemorating the anniversary of the triumph of the 1959 Cuban revolution, this created an even larger celebratory context for Cubans from the younger generations. Younger Cubans show less inclination toward ideological celebrations. Geovanis Palacios, age 40, commented about these celebrations that younger Cubans do not celebrate. "The 20th of May is a front . . . . People in Cuba don't celebrate it. . . . Here the older white Cubans celebrate it because they see it as a victory . . . . They don't even call me for these parties. They don't even let me know about it even though they know me." Some of the elders hold the belief that the younger generations are apathetic about these traditions and endanger their survival since the older generation, which upheld these traditions for over 40 years, is passing away. There is a similar situation with the celebrations for Cuba's national hero, José Martí. He has become a politically charged symbol for both the Cuban Revolution and the Cuban exile community. Right now, the celebratory dinner for José Martí's birthday on January 28 is the oldest social gathering for the greater New Orleans Cuban community. Once again, the organizers and principal participants are from the elder generation. The majority of newer immigrants from the 1980s and 1990s are not interested in this celebration, because of ideological issues and other issues to do with racial and generational change. Bethsy Pizarro reveals more about this topic: At the annual Martí Dinner, Cuban émigrés commemorate the anniversary of the birth of this national hero. The 2008 celebration was held at Churros Café in Metairie. Bethsy Pizarro, one of the event's principal organizers who came to Louisiana in the 1960s, is widely-known and respected because of her efforts to unite, promote, and maintain Cuban culture in South Louisiana. Vivian Nieto is another principal organizer of the Martí Dinner. She and her husband are co-owners of Churros Café. Geovanis Palacios, a 40-year-old Afro-Cuban who came to the U.S. in 1994, noted that he was the only black man at the Martí Dinner. Palacios analyzes this racial issue as "there are few Afro-Cubans here [in New Orleans] from 1990s or later and a few from the 1980s. … The majority of black Cubans go to the North-New York, New Jersey, California." His comments underline the race, class, and generational issues at play in the local Cuban community. At the Martí Dinner the participants sing the national anthems of both Cuba and the United States in English and recite a Catholic prayer for Martí. This would be unthinkable in modern-day Cuba given the ideology of the Cuban Revolution. Cuban culture diverged on the island and in the Exile community after 1959. The new value system of the Cuban socialist government created new historical and ideological perspectives as well as new aesthetic and ethical norms, which marked whole generations of younger Cubans. This resulted in divergent cultural experiences, collective memories, ways of interpreting history, and, in the end, divergent methods and reasons for community celebrations. This does not mean that the younger immigrants do not participate frequently and in sizeable numbers in some of these activities. Rather, the symbolic connotation of these events is different for each generation, as is the establishment of any particular event as a priority or a celebration. Vivian Nieto, a member of the 1960s generation, gives her opinion of why the younger immigrants participate in these celebrations: "In reality, most participate not because of the significance of the event…but because they get homesick for what they left behind and look for any reason to get together and have a little fun."
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