Dennis Merrill explains that American tourists and their respective hosts from Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico “negotiated…national and international identities” of both themselves and of each other in attempts to improve their standings in the world (1). These attempts often conflicted with one another and resulted in culture clashes, revolutions, and accommodation. Merrill differentiates the United States’ “soft power” as the cultural forces carried by visiting tourist agents from the “hard power” of forceful military interventions (11-14). Merrill’s thesis is that American tourists “have indeed helped to Americanize the rest of the world, but they and those who have hosted them have also internationalized America” (242). Merrill organizes his work into three case studies, including the chronological developments of American tourism in Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. In between the preface, introduction, and conclusion, he dedicates two chapters to each case study.
Titled “Lone Eagles and Revolutionaries,” Merrill explains that both American tourists and Mexican hosts used multilateral forces of soft power during the 1920s (31). As more American men visited Mexico in order to escape the illegalization of alcohol and the legalization of women suffrage in the United States, these masculine “Lone Eagles” nostalgically viewed Mexico as the “mythical Old West” filled with adventure, alcohol, and traditional female gender roles (37-38). Amid the influx of American tourists, Mexicans responded with their own displays of soft power with anti-Americanism protests. Despite the conflicting interests of American hegemony and Mexican nationalism, the “increased cultural interaction” between Americans and Mexicans “enhanced each side’s ability to endure disagreements” as they sought “solutions through diplomatic channels” in lieu of violence (62-63). Thus, Mexicans and Americans renegotiated their relationship before Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Good Neighbor Policy” claimed to establish cordial relations (63).
In “Containment and Good Neighbors,” Merrill explains that American tourists of the 1930s “demanded more of their Mexican hosts” than the Lone Eagles had in the 1920s (74). In response, Mexican hosts and hospitality workers exhibited soft power resistance in order to renegotiate their roles. For example, Mexican taxicab drivers often swindled American tourists for higher rates than their Mexican contemporaries (86-88). Despite mutual displays of soft power, Merrill claims that “U.S.-Mexican relations had become more cordial than ever” and tourism flourished as hotels, restaurants, and roads expanded to meet the increased demand (67-79). Although the United States had repealed Prohibition and Mexico had banned gambling, American tourism rose throughout the 1930s due to President Lazaro Cardenas’s media campaigns that painted Mexico as romantic, modern, and peaceful (89-93). Mexicans’ soft power combined with Cardenas’s efforts reshaped Mexico’s identity among Americans as a “land of rural calm” (66). Despite daily soft power conflicts and negotiations, both tourists and hosts had “learned to appreciate the perspective” of each other and their cultures (99). Although the United States and Mexico began their relationship with border disputes and war, Mexicans and Americans resolved their differences and became familiar with each other through tourism and an alliance in World War Two (100-102).
Throughout “The Safe Bet,” Merrill contrasts the Mexican-American accommodation with the gradual regression between the United States and Cuba. Like Mexico, American “mass tourism” in Cuba “coincided with Prohibition in the United States” as Americans flocked to the Cuban “casinos and booze” during the 1920s (107). But Cuba’s tourism suffered from a “lack of investment and overall neglect” during the next two decades due to Mexico’s tourist allures, legalized alcohol in the U.S., economic depression, and World War Two (112). In response, Cuban Dictator Fulgencio Batista “set out to restore the island’s former glory” by inviting American investors to construct modern hotels, casinos, and restaurants and advertised the tropical Cuban nightlife via the American media (112-113). However, Cubans opposed the infiltration of American culture that threatened Cuban heritage (122). Moreover, most Cubans remained in poverty as American investors and Cuban elites earned the profits (127). Significantly, “the unchecked soft power of tourists…aroused deep animosity in the Batista regime” and resulted in a “strengthened Cuban nationalism” in the early 1950s that aimed to renegotiate the relationship between Cubans and Americans (135).
Merrill explains in “Paradise Lost” that the unequal balance of soft power under Batista’s regime that had “bled Cuba of millions of dollars” resulted in Fidel Castro’s 26th of July Movement in 1953 (142-143). Castro declared that he would execute “Batista’s leading cronies” in order to rebuild Cuban nationalism with moralism, “a response no doubt to the demeaning constructions of identity imposed on Cuban…tourists” by Batista (153-154). Thus, Castro “worked steadily to establish a new visitor-host system” that benefitted Cuban soft power over tourists (166). Unable to predict Castro’s intentions, concerned Americans responded by ending their Cuban vacations short and by planning their vacations elsewhere (168). Unable to renegotiate, Castro’s Cuba looked to the Soviet Union as a sugar customer and arms supplier in order to defend an expected U.S. intervention in Cuba (170). Despite Castro’s “efforts to reimagine and restructure” Cuban soft power, the United States’ trade embargo and the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 exposed the American plot to reestablish rule over Cuba, which ruined any chance at accommodation (170-176).
In “Bootstraps, Beaches, and Cobblestones,” Merrill explains that while Cuba and Puerto Rico had been United States territories, they experienced different fates. He contrasts Batista’s oppression of the Cubans’ soft power with Governor Luís Muñoz’s elevation of the Puerto Ricans’ soft power. Merrill argues that Muñoz carefully plotted the travel industry to favor Puerto Ricans (201). For example, American hotels in Puerto Rico were private-public deals that yielded Puerto Rico a majority of the profits. In addition, Puerto Rico had a hand in the advertisements and labor relations in order to depict Puerto Rico in a positive light (189-200). Muñoz also invited the American media to vacation at Puerto Rican beaches so that they would spread favorable reviews throughout the United States and he avoided Cuban dependency on American tourism by diversifying the economy with sugar and industrial production (184-196). But Americans viewed Puerto Rico’s economic growth as a result of American influence due to Puerto Rico’s commonwealth status (180-194). However, Merrill credits Muñoz’s leadership and Puerto Ricans’ soft power for using their commonwealth status “as a means of gaining a degree of control” over Americans (209).
Titled “A Cold War Mirage,” Merrill explains that the United States promoted Puerto Rico’s economic success as an international display of soft power against the expansion of communism (213). In reality, Puerto Rico profited from Cuba’s fall in tourism. Muñoz’s leadership and Puerto Rico’s beautiful beaches also helped to develop a favorable reputation among Americans (215-217). Nonetheless, many Puerto Ricans grew resistant to Americans as they polluted beaches, caused traffic jams, and disregarded the Spanish language. Worse, Americans perceived Puerto Rican hospitality workers with a “stigma that equated tourism with colonialism” (224-225). In response, Puerto Ricans renegotiated their soft power by glorifying their “multicultural past” while Muñoz proved to “manipulate U.S. hegemony” to benefit Puerto Ricans (238). Although the back-and-forth display of soft power between American tourists and Puerto Rican hosts produced some “antitourism sentiment” in Puerto Rico, Muñoz’s leadership avoided “the type of cataclysm that subsumed Cuba” (230). Merrill provides an intelligible and interesting work that explains the inextricable relationship between Mexico, Cuba, and Puerto Rico with American tourism.
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