Approaching Guantanamo Bay as a key discursive site in a global network of U.S. imperial power, this presentation uses the edited volume Guantdnamo and American Empire: The Humanities Respond (Walicek and Adams, 2018) to discuss the infractions on freedom that have taken place within and around the bay since it was seized by U.S. troops in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. Described in terms of longitudinal patterns of violence, erasure, and hope, the analysis of these infractions assists in understanding the impact that the naval base known as "Gitmo" has had on economic, political, and social life in the U.S. as well as in Cuba, Haiti, and other parts of the Caribbean. Special attention will be given to two topics: the U.S. military's detention of migrants, asylum-seekers, refugees, and suspected terrorists; and the censorship of artistic and literary works created by those held in the base's detention facilities, including the Muslim men that the U.S. government has treated as enemy combatants.
