A Haitian-Cuban Supercentenarian

This article analyzes the repetitive stories that Cuban journalists, community members, and others have told about Emilio Duanes Duvarcer, the Haitian who migrated to Cuba in his youth and allegedly lived to be 120 years old. Although underemphasized by international journalists, Duanes’s Haitian birth and history of migration were crucial to his claim of longevity, since they were responsible for the archival and cultural conditions that made his claim plausible and impossible to (dis)prove. However, the appeal of his story required transforming him into a Cuban through journalistic repetitions and statements, symbolically linking him to canonical moments in Cuban history. By analyzing repeated stories, their variations, and their slippages, this article provides insights into the racism that continues to affect Blacks and immigrant descendants in Cuba—not to mention efforts to challenge these stereotypes. It ends with reflections about which stories and identities are highlighted in Cuba’s burgeoning digital media landscape and which are overcrowded by traditional repetitions of Cuban revolutionary nationalism.