Seeds of Change in Little Havana: Fresh Perspectives Eventually Emerge in the Cuban Exile Community
Monday 18 October 2010
by: Nicky Pear
Havana, Miami, Washington: A Love/Hate Triangle
The Cuban exile community in the United States constitutes one aspect of a three-way relationship between Miami, Havana, and Washington. Since the revolution in 1959, the Cuban diaspora has been politically (and geographically) on the frontier of relations between Cuba and the U.S. Due to significant financial might and lobbying prowess, in addition to being primarily located in the crucial swing state of Florida, Cuban-Americans have obtained a considerable amount of political power. It is no exaggeration to suggest that U.S. policy towards Cuba since the revolution has largely been formulated in accordance with the wishes of the Cuban-American voting bloc. This has led to fifty years of confrontational policy vis-à-vis Cuba, ranging from an unsuccessful military invasion to over five decades of rigid economic embargo. These policies reflect the hard-line, anti-Castro sentiment that has been at the heart Cuban-American political culture.
For much of the second half of the 20th century, alternative opinions on Cuba were conspicuously absent in Miami. This was due in part to the threat of violent attacks posed by exile terrorist organizations. In the 1970s and early 1980s, groups like Alpha 66 and Omega 7 waged a war of vigilante justice on anyone advocating a sympathetic or even simply conciliatory position towards relations with Cuba. Cuban born academic Maria de Los Angeles Torres has stated that “communiqués were sent to the Miami offices of The Associated Press and United Press International vowing that any Cuban who traveled to Cuba would be killed.”<1> A climate of fear descended on Miami as bombs were planted in businesses and houses of those suspected of encouraging a more moderate stance towards Cuba. Fear of violent reprisals ensured that opposition to the hard-line approach remained minimal.
In recent years, however, as the community has evolved politically, traditional generalizations are no longer applicable. Demographic and generational shifts have diluted the hard-line voice in Miami, creating a community that is possibly more open to a change in policy direction towards Cuba than at any time in the past. On the streets of the Cuban-American neighborhood of Little Havana in Miami, debate now rages as to the value of the embargo and the future direction of U.S. policy. An acceptance of differences of opinion now exists, in contrast to the hard-line hegemony of earlier decades that left little room for alternative views to be aired. Today, “attitudes among the Cuban-American voters in Miami-Dade County have become increasingly complex,”<2> and while hard-line views still exist, they do so alongside other political standpoints.
The Impact of New Arrivals
The Cuban-American community in South Florida today is vast and varied. From the tree-lined opulence of Coral Gables, to the relatively impoverished neighborhood of Hialeah, Cuban-Americans live in many different social contexts. The success and power achieved by one subset of émigrés cannot overshadow the cycles of poverty and deprivation faced by others. Generally, “there is an inverse correlation between date of departure and social class of immigrant,”<3> and more recent arrivals have found it harder to adapt and succeed economically in the U.S. The oft-stated success of Cuban-Americans as an ethnic group has therefore only been part of the exile experience.
More:
http://www.truth-out.org/seeds-change-little-havana-fresh-perspectives-eventually-emerge-cuban-exile-community64318
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