Framing the Cubas narrative: The American dream and the capitalist reality

Communication Studies, Summer 2002 by Nomai, Afsheen J, Dionisopoulos, George N

This paper analyzes news coverage of Major League Baseball agent Joe Cubas and his clients, defecting Cuban ballplayers. Based on the political, economic and social orientation of the media, we argue that the stories about Cubas are framed in a way which reifies the dominant ideology of the materialist mythos of the American Dream. This analysis of more than 30 news stories suggests that the "Cuban Narrative" presents anecdotal evidence justifying the American "rags-to-riches" Dream, framed against a vilified Communist Cuba. We suggest that the processes of selection, emphasis, and exclusion are employed in the Cuban Narrative to marginalize any aspects of the story which call that Dream into question. An alternative framing for the Cuban Narrative would illustrate a reality in which freedom and opportunity are accorded to those who can advance a multi-billion dollar business, while denied to those who cannot. We conclude that the Cuban Narrative provides a poignant example of how the news media's framing process can contribute to the reification of dominant ideology necessary to normalize and rationalize some inequitable aspects of capitalism.

Joe Cubas is an American sports agent who has "shepherded two dozen Cuban defectors to baseball contracts in the United States" (Anderson, 1999, p. 135). According to Fainaru (1998b), Cubas helped over half of the ballplayers and coaches that defected from Cuba between 1991 and 1998. His success has been described as stealing "some of Cuba's most precious resources" (Baxter, 1998, p. 22), and he has been personally denounced by Fidel Castro (Winegardner, 1998). His professional life is one "of international intrigue, covert activity and danger" (Cohn, 1999), played out on "one of the last battlefields of the cold war" (Baxter, 1998, p. 22). He is characterized as driven by "a love for baseball and a hatred for communism" (Ramirez, 1998), and labeled variously, the "anti-Castro" (Anderson, 1999, p. 135), and the "Don King" of Cuban baseball (Ramirez, 1998).

On March 17, 1998, Cubas held a press conference at Victor's Cafe, a popular Cuban restaurant near Little Havana in Miami. The press conference formally announced the arrival of Cuban pitcher Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez to the United States. Cubas had secured for Hernandez a four-year, $6.6 million contract with the New York Yankees. "When I was a child," Hernandez was reported saying that evening, "I followed the Yankees. They are the signature team of the major leagues. To play for them is a dream come true" ("Cuba's O. Hernandez. . ." 1998, p. 3E).

The previous few months had been very busy for Cubas and Hernandez. In January of 1998, after sailing from Cuba, Hernandez was released from a Bahamanian detention center after Cubas obtained a Costa Rican visa for the ballplayer. Then the agent showcased Hernandez's talents to more than 19 Major League Baseball (MLB) team scouts, prompting a bidding war eventually won by New York. The preceding years, Cubas had had great success in signing some of the most prominent Cuban ballplayers to major league contracts.

The story of Cubas' success at "helping Cuban baseball players escape from Castro to become major-league millionaires" has made him a "highly visible" media figure (Chastain, 1998). This paper offers an analysis of how the story of Joe Cubas has been presented in the media. We maintain that a case study of what we label the "Cubas Narrative," offers an excellent opportunity to examine how media frames perpetuate dominant ideology. Specifically, we suggest that the Cubas Narrative is framed within familiar concepts of the American Dream. The stories which comprise this narrative present anecdotal evidence which reifies the tenets of the materialist mythos of the American Dream: the "rags-to-riches" story that America is a land of boundless freedom and economic opportunity. The promise and the glory of the mythical America presented in the Cubas Narrative is made even more dramatic through a juxtaposition against a vilified Communist Cuba. Finally, we suggest that as presented, the Cubas Narrative fails to address a critical disjunction between the popular mediated American Dream and capitalist reality.

We offer three justifications for our study. First, this case study can help further illuminate the role of the media in perpetuating and reifying dominant ideology within society. Specifically we offer here an analysis of how that ideology permeates this story through the use of a media frame grounded in a mythical America which would be readily acceptable and accessible to an engaged public. Second, we suggest that although frames clarify certain elements of the narrative, they also marginalize or indeed obfuscate other elements which arguably should be featured. Finally, this case study merits attention because it illustrates that more than a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, media coverage of Cuba- even what is essentially a sports story-is often still grounded in cold war doctrine.