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<p>The Cuban-born playwright María Irene Fornés (1930-2018) repeatedly dealt with migration in several plays throughout her long career in theater, sometimes presenting characters who were immigrants living in New York (<italic>Sarita</italic>) or resorting to correspondence between distant relatives separated in different countries (<italic>La Viuda</italic>, <italic>Letters from Cuba</italic>). <italic>Manual for a Desperate Crossing</italic> was her response to the Cuban Rafter Crisis of the mid-1990s. The article analyzes how the playwright makes use of a combination of objective and subjective strategies to counteract the dehumanizing effect of media coverage, shifting the focus to the individuals who risked their lives in the perilous crossing of the Caribbean Sea in rickety rafts from Cuba to the Florida shores. The emphasis on the transit as a theme and the mixture of instructional, technical discourses with highly stylized stage design and different audiovisual media forces us to look in a different, immersive way that generates empathy towards the refugees.</p>
</abstract>

The Cuban-born playwright María Irene Fornés (1930-2018) repeatedly dealt with migration in several plays throughout her long career in theater, sometimes presenting characters who were immigrants living in New York (Sarita) or resorting to correspondence between distant relatives separated in different countries (La Viuda, Letters from Cuba). Manual for a Desperate Crossing was her response to the Cuban Rafter Crisis of the mid-1990s. The article analyzes how the playwright makes use of a combination of objective and subjective strategies to counteract the dehumanizing effect of media coverage, shifting the focus to the individuals who risked their lives in the perilous crossing of the Caribbean Sea in rickety rafts from Cuba to the Florida shores. The emphasis on the transit as a theme and the mixture of instructional, technical discourses with highly stylized stage design and different audiovisual media forces us to look in a different, immersive way that generates empathy towards the refugees.

The Cuban Rafter Crisis on Stage: Humanizing the Experience of Refugees in María Irene Fornés’ <italic>Manual for a Desperate Crossing</italic>

American, British and Canadian Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Cuban Rafter Crisis on Stage: Humanizing the Experience of Refugees in María Irene Fornés’ 

The Cuban-born playwright María Irene Fornés (1930-2018) repeatedly dealt with migration in several plays throughout her long career in theater, sometimes...

The Cuban Rafter Crisis on Stage: Humanizing the Experience of Refugees in María Irene Fornés’ Manual for a Desperate Crossing

Publicado en línea: 15 feb 2023

Páginas: 100 - 120

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/abcsj-2022-0019

Palabras clave
María Irene Fornés, Cuban Rafter Crisis, refugees, migration, palimpsest

© 2022 Araceli González Crespán, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The Cuban Rafter Crisis on Stage: Humanizing the Experience of Refugees in María Irene Fornés’ Manual for a Desperate Crossing

Publicado en línea: 15 feb 2023

Páginas: 100 - 120

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/abcsj-2022-0019

Palabras claveMaría Irene Fornés, Cuban Rafter Crisis, refugees, migration, palimpsest

© 2022 Araceli González Crespán, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Palabras clave
María Irene Fornés, Cuban Rafter Crisis, refugees, migration, palimpsest