The October Crisis Revisited: Some Archaeological and Anthropological Examples

Abstract

This text presents findings from a contemporary archaeology project that has been exploring the October Crisis (1962) and its material and immaterial remains in Cuba since 2005. The project is a cooperation between Swedish archaeologists and Cuban archaeologists, anthropologists and historians, and its primary aim is to complement the dominant narrative of the crisis with material and immaterial remains and memories in a way that approaches and explains the event “from below”. The current text focuses on the US Marston mats that can be found at a number of locations in farmsteads and villages surrounding the former missile sites in the Los Palacios and San Cristóbal areas, as well as on a photo of a Russian girl that was a gift from a Russian soldier to a Cuban peasant during the crisis. These objects present the reader with new material and human insights concerning the crisis that until now have been more or less concealed and unknown, contributing new complementary dimensions to the understanding of the October Crisis while also challenging the stereotypes constructing the dominant narrative.