Translation Practices during the Cold War: The Battle for Cultural Control in the Caribbean

This article focuses on the cultural Cold War in the Caribbean from the sixties to the nineties, when Cuba was a member the Soviet socialist bloc. During that period, both the United States and the Soviet Union deployed different strategies to control the area, economically, politically, and culturally. The triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 changed the Caribbean geopolitical map and allowed the Soviets to have a more definite point of entry to the region, while at the same time it represented a threat to US interests not only in the area but also in the rest of the continent. As this study demonstrates, the competing powers supported the production and distribution of periodical publications translated into the local language to promote their ideologies and ways of life. In the case of Cuba, a new cultural and translation system was created following the Soviet model. The translation practices implemented by both superpowers played not only a fundamental role in the circulation of a "high" literary culture, but they also promoted various forms of consumption of "popular culture".