In this article, the author draws on memory to relive interactions with his mother and his wife as well as his own experiences before his arrival to the United States in 1960. His autoethnographic writing is an attempt to understand his departure from Cuba and his relationship with his mother and his wife. He discusses concepts of collective unconsciousness and the reluctant immigrant and how historically constituted power relations define the identity of Cuban exiles. He highlights the battle of the politics of passion and the politics of affection—two polar opposites. As the politics of affection undermine the goals of the politics of passion, the moral imperative of what ought to be is not achieved and becomes an antecedent to exile.
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