Periodically the question of whether “gusano”, Spanish for “worm”, is a slur or not is raised pretty much solely because a particular streamer has disingenuously convinced their cult following to repeat that as a way of smearing people on the left they don’t like. They’ve admitted they do this kind of thing intentionally, and the less naïve of the cultists know it as well. The aim is to successfully create suspicions of racism around figures they don’t like. It’s childish, it’s asinine, and to be expected from this crowd.
Anyway, that’s all not particularly interesting. The interesting part to me is the linguistic aspect. The question of whether gusano used as a pejorative is a slur or not is irrelevant, it’s about whether it’s a racist slur specifically. The case for it is that it refers to Cubans, therefore it’s racist. This is so laughably false and absurd on its face that it suffices to show it’s just a cynical incompetent smear job.
First of all, “Cuban”, which as I shall elaborate shortly is not in fact the determinative designator of meaning for its use as a pejorative, is a nationality, not an ethnicity or race. There are white Cubans, 64.1% of the population according to the 2012 census, Mulatto/Mestizo Cubans, 26.6% of the population, and finally black Cubans, comprising 9.3% of the population. There are also East-Asian, Indian, and other ethnic background Cubans as well, though not in large numbers. There’s also a variety of religious denominations, and of course atheists. Any of these backgrounds make them liable to be called gusanos. It is not attached to any one of these ethnic, racial or religious characteristics specifically, like whites, blacks, mulattos, East-Asians, Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, or Hindus.
So that’s one layer of separation from gusano used as a pejorative to any specific ethnic, racial or religious background.
But as I mentioned there’s an additional layer, one that determines nationality, the category that includes all this aforementioned variety, to be an insufficient condition by itself to earn the designation of gusano as a pejorative. This is the most important, defining aspect that gives it its meaning: political ideology. Specifically, anyone who is explicitly opposed to the Cuban Revolution and its government, and, as I shall detail shortly, by extension anyone hostile to governments in the Global South considered to an Official Enemy of and hence targeted by the US State Department.
Some, because they felt cornered and forced to add additional caveats, have added that it also includes an additional layer of meaning, namely of socio-economic or class background, so they have to have been wealthy to fit its proper usage. But that’s completely unnecessary and veers into the realm of the silly as the smear cultists eagerly point out whenever this is brought up, because you obviously can’t know the intricate socio-economic backgrounds of every single person you’re calling a gusano as a political pejorative.
And it’s just totally unnecessary. It is already clear that there are two distinct layers that prevent it from being a racist slur, as it removes any immutable characteristics from being either the necessary and sufficient condition for its use.
And actually it’s even more remote from being a racist slur, because the second layer of political ideology is the primary one in the determination of its meaning as a pejorative over the first layer of nationality (which, again, includes a variety of ethnic/racial/religious backgrounds), and by virtue of this expands its scope further outward from merely the Cuban national context. Gusano can be and has also been used as a political pejorative against those who are from South and Central America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and who meet that primary criterion of meaning of adopting a particular political ideology, namely being hostile to leftist governments in the Global South. And even that is more expansive: it can also be in reference to any kind of government designated as an Official Enemy by the US State Department. So people who are exiles and advocate for an invasion of that country or economic terror against it by the US can be and have been called gusanos, like Iraqi, Iranian or Korean gusanos. To anyone who knows what gusano means as used as a pejorative, which is the relevant linguistic community here as their use defines its meaning as such, it’s immediately obvious what you are referring to when you call someone like Ahmed Chalabi or Andy Ngo a gusano. But we can agree that it’s most typical usage is in the context of Latin America given its Hispanic linguistic marker and origins, which of course comprises an immense variety of ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds that far exceed that of Cuba alone.
So the use of the term as a political pejorative defines its meaning, and we can trace this back to its origins, which has a surprising twist. It originated with Castro referencing counter-revolutionaries who were working with the CIA and mafia to overthrow the revolutionary government, engaging in propaganda, terrorism, sabotage, economic warfare, assassination attempts, all with the aim of turning Cuba back into a fascist neo-colony of the US empire. Here’s a PDF with a brief overview of these terrorist actions they undertook, and I also recommend the chapter on Cuba from Killing Hope, as well as the Blowback podcast series on Cuba. And here is Castro’s speech where he uses the phrase as a political pejorative:
Once it was used in this fashion by Castro, it was mostly contained within the Cuban community for some time until it began to spill over into the wider anti-imperialist left, who as noted began to use it as a political pejorative not only against counter-revolutionary Cubans or anyone from Latin America, but also more generally anyone from the Global South promoting US imperialist efforts to overthrow the governments of their countries of origin.
Now I said there was a twist to the story of gusano’s origins as a political pejorative, and it’s a pretty amusing one. If you read any of the resources I mentioned on the US and gusano effort to destroy the Cuban Revolution, you will know what Operation Mongoose is. It was an extensive CIA program, in collaboration with gusanos and the mafia, to engage in actions varying from propaganda to biological and chemical terrorism and assassinations, with the aim of destabilizing and overthrowing the Cuban government. One of the propaganda parts of the project was actually concerned with the term gusano. After Castro had coined it to refer to counter-revolutionaries, making it a political pejorative identified with supporters of the Revolution, the CIA and its gusano participants thought it was a perfect opportunity to proudly adopt the label as a means of self-identification, and to turn it into a source of pride. To be a gusano was to be anti-Castro, and hence something good and positive which surely the broad Cuban masses (again, of any ethnic, racial and religious background) would undoubtedly rally behind. It almost sounds too absurd to believe, but it’s right there on the State Department’s own page for Operation Mongoose:
I repeat: “CIA plans a coordinated campaign to popularize, exploit and encourage the use of “Gusano Libre” (don’t laugh!) as the symbol of resistance to the Cuban regime.”
Well, it didn’t quite turn out like that, and now they’re all doing the swole vs cheems doge meme where they’re pretending like “gusano” is some horrific hate speech, putting their parents and grandparents to shame. But I’ll keep their memory alive along with others on the anti-imperialist left by calling them what they are: GUSANOS.
I have recently began reading a smidge of history regarding Cuba. So far, seems like the Castro regime/administration wasn't super great for the common peeps. I'll keep an open mind as I continue to explore the topic. Was it really all bc CIA=bad? Iono but nice effort-post, its cool to read your perspective. Take care:)
thanks for being such a reliable source for leftist analysis. you've really helped me understand the whole sphere! keep it up <3