Cultural Challenges of Return Migration

FAIN: FB-52460-06

Juan Flores
CUNY Research Foundation, Hunter College (New York, NY 10065-5024)

I plan to study the cultural impact of return migration as manifest in literature, music, and everyday life. I am especially interested in the ways in which this impact of what I term "cultural remittances" goes to challenge longheld assumptions and traditions of national cultures. My main focus will be on the Puerto Rican experience, but I will also consider other important examples, such as Dominicans and Mexicans. I will combine ethnographic, interpretive and theoretical analysis. I have a contract with Routledge for a book tentatively titled, "The Diaspora Strikes Back."

Associated Products

The Diaspora Strikes Back: Caribeño Tales of Learning and Turning (Book)
Title: The Diaspora Strikes Back: Caribeño Tales of Learning and Turning
Author: Juan Flores
Abstract: I introduce the concept of "cultural remittances" in discussing the challenges of return migration and of ideas and values from the diaspora as they are received in home countries. My main focus is on the Spanish Caribbean (Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba), and my work is based on a set of 22 life-stories arranged and analyzed. Much attention goes to what I call "style transfers," that is, the impact of forms of cultural expression (music, poetry and visual arts) in their flow from diaspora to home country.
Year: 2009
Publisher: Routledge
Type: Single author monograph

---