UC Merced

Popular understandings of the 1959 Cuban Revolution have often explained it as the outcome of the armed insurgency guided by Fidel Castro. Scholars have overlooked the role in the revolutionary triumph of the long-term clandestine resistance against Fulgencio Batista’s authoritarian regime. To address this gap, I utilize longitudinal archival data, which include police and judicial records of the criminal prosecution of political activism occurring from 1952 to 1958 in Havana. Drawing on content analysis and historical comparison, I examine how frames and narratives used by the protesters and the state varied over time. I focus particular attention on the impact of their cultural and socio-political context. My findings suggest similarities and differences in the discursive strategies of these actors across seven years while highlighting that a particular revolutionary identity was built through the discursive contentions that occurred in legal settings. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of how framing interactions can lead to successful revolutionary mobilizations in authoritarian environments and the overlaps between social movements and revolutions. Moreover, through the examination of the criminal prosecution as a complex site of repression and contention, I advance a socio-legal comprehension of the Cuban revolution.