Cuban Americans

I

Introduction

Cuban Americans, residents of the United States who trace their ancestry to Cuba. Before 1959 fewer than 35,000 Cubans lived in the United States. Today, with a population of more than 1.2 million, Cuban Americans make up the third-largest group of Hispanic Americans, after Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans. About three-fourths of all Cuban Americans were born in Cuba, and most arrived in the United States after January 1, 1959, when Fidel Castro took control of Cuba’s government and established a Communist dictatorship. Although the number of Cubans entering the United States has fluctuated through the years, the exodus from the island has continued to the present day. Many Cuban Americans, even those who are U.S. citizens, do not regard themselves as typical immigrants, but rather as political exiles.

Although the largest migration of Cubans to the United States has occurred since 1959, the Cuban presence in the United States goes back several centuries. The earliest white settlers of the southeastern United States were Cuban—that is to say, they were Spanish explorers who lived in Cuba and launched their expeditions from the island. Many Spanish place-names in Florida, including the name of the state, reflect this early Hispanic presence.

II

History

Beginning in the 19th century, the southern United States became a convenient place of refuge for Cubans fleeing political persecution or economic hardship. As early as the 1830s, there was a significant Cuban colony in Key West, Florida. Later in the century, as Cubans struggled to free themselves from Spanish rule, substantial communities of political exiles arose in Tampa, Florida; New Orleans, Louisiana; and New York City.

The Cuban wars of independence, the Ten Years’ War (1868-1878), and the revolution of 1895-1898 destroyed many tobacco plantations in Cuba. Many of the early Cuban immigrants were cigarmakers who took up their trade in Tampa and Key West. Ybor City, Florida, bears the name of one of the most prominent of these cigar manufacturers, Vicente Martínez Ybor. Many other important figures in Cuban history also had long stays in the United States during this period. José Martí, a writer and patriot who led the final insurrection against Spain in 1895, lived in the United States in the 1880s and early 1890s. Tomás Estrada Palma, who became Cuba’s first president in 1902, resided in the United States for over 20 years.

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During the first half of the 20th century, Cuban immigration to the United States varied according to the political and economic conditions on the island. Because of a highly unstable political climate, several thousand Cubans immigrated during the 1930s. Among these immigrants was Desi Arnaz, who later achieved fame as Ricky Ricardo in “I Love Lucy,” one of the most popular television series of all time. In the late 1950s, during the turbulent last years of the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, about 30,000 Cubans left the island for the United States.

Soon after Castro’s takeover in 1959, the number of Cuban immigrants rose sharply. From 1959 to 1962, more than 200,000 people left Cuba for the United States. Approximately 125,000 more left Cuba on so-called freedom flights, daily flights from Havana to Miami between 1965 and 1973. A similar number were transported to the United States in the summer of 1980 by the Mariel boat lift, an informal fleet of fishing boats and pleasure craft sent by Cuban exiles to pick up relatives from the Cuban port of Mariel. From 1959 onwards, thousands of other Cubans reached the United States in small boats and homemade rafts. Many others lost their lives in the waters of the Straits of Florida.

III

Culture

More than half of all Cuban Americans live in Miami-Dade County, Florida, concentrated in an area of Miami that has come to be known as Little Havana. Although there are large Cuban communities in New York City, northern New Jersey, and Los Angeles, California, southern Florida’s warm climate and its proximity to Cuba have made this area particularly attractive to Cubans. Many Cubans who originally resettle elsewhere eventually end up in Miami. As a result of the influx of Cuban exiles, Miami-Dade County has undergone a dramatic transformation. Before 1959 Miami was a resort city heavily dependent on the tourism industry. Although tourism is still important in the local economy, the city has become a thriving banking and commercial center with strong ties to other Hispanic American communities and to Latin America. According to a 1987 government study, Cuban Americans had the highest rate of business ownership among Hispanic groups, with approximately 1 ethnic-owned enterprise for every 16 Cuban Americans. In the early 1990s there were over 55,000 Hispanic owned businesses in Miami alone.

Because most Cuban Americans arrived in this country not as immigrants but political refugees, their culture has a strong nostalgic strain. This nostalgia influences Cuban Americans’ choice of foods, music, and marriage partners. Among Miami Cubans the rate of intermarriage with other ethnic groups is low. Many Cuban Americans still practice traditional Cuban customs such as quinces, lavish coming-out balls for teenage girls. Cuban American families often include not just parents and children but also older relatives, such as widowed or dependent grandparents.

Little Havana, the Cuban enclave in Miami, retains a distinctly Hispanic flavor. The heart of Little Havana is Calle Ocho (Eighth Street), a busy thoroughfare lined with restaurants, groceries, funeral parlors, doctors’ offices, and pharmacies. In Little Havana, Spanish is the dominant language. It has often been said that an individual who lives in Little Havana can be delivered by a Cuban obstetrician, buried by a Cuban undertaker, and in between lead a perfectly satisfactory life without needing to go outside the Cuban neighborhood.

Young Cuban Americans have begun to make their presence felt in Cuban American culture. These American-born Cubans or “ABCs,” as they are sometimes called, are more likely to prefer communicating in English, to listen to rock and rap music as well as to Cuban music, and to depart from traditional courtship and marriage patterns. Unlike their parents, most members of this younger generation regard themselves as Americans or Cuban Americans. Well-known performers such as singer Gloria Estefan, actor Andy Garcia, and television personality Daisy Fuentes belong to this generation.

As the older generation of Cuban exiles passes away, younger Cuban Americans will find it necessary to redefine their relationships to Cuba and the United States. For many, this will require distancing themselves from the culture of their parents and grandparents. For others, it may mean seeking nourishment and identity from their Cuban heritage.

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