Cuban Americans

By Lisandro Pérez and John Beierle

Cubans, cubanos

Cubans living in the United States originate in Cuba, the largest island in the Caribbean Sea and the one closest to the North American continent. By the twentieth century, the island's population was a mixture of the different peoples who arrived in successive migrations over the past five centuries. Migrants from Spain have represented the most dominant component of the ethnic composition and culture of the Cuban nation. The settlement of Spaniards in Cuba, which started not long after the discovery of the island by Christopher Columbus in 1492, caused the virtual decimation of the island's relatively small indigenous population. Cuba remained a Spanish colony for four centuries until 1898, but even during the Cuban Republic (1902-1958), Spaniards accounted for most of Cuba's immigrant population. The forced migration of African slaves started early in colonial times, but it was not until the beginning of the nineteenth century that it intensified significantly with the large-scale expansion of the sugar in dustry. The relatively late arrival of a massive African presence had a great impact on the culture of the island, and by the twentieth century Cuba's population was a mixture of primarily Spanish and African elements. To that mix has been added important immigrant groups that arrived primarily in the first half of the twentieth century from China, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. A majority of Cubans in the United States (55 percent) live in the Greater Miami (Florida) area. Elsewhere in the U.S., Cubans live almost exclusively in large metropolitan areas, especially Greater New York City-New Jersey, and Los Angeles. Those two metropolitan areas, together with Miami, contain more than three-fourths of the Cuban American population.

There are nearly 1,200,000 persons in the U.S. who identify themselves, in accordance with the terminology of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, as being of Cuban "origin or descent." By far the bulk of that population were born in Cuba and migrated to the United States since 1960. Cubans represent the third-largest single national-origin group within the Hispanic or Latino population of the United States, outranked by Mexicans and Puerto Ricans. Research shows that there are relatively few problems in enumerating the Cuban-origin population through the usual self-identification techniques used by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Largely because of their foreign birth and their insular origins, Cubans tend to have a strong sense of ethnic identity and unequivocally and consistently identify themselves as being of Cuban origin.

Although immigrant populations tend to be young and composed primarily of men, this does not apply to the Cuban American population, which is characterized by atypically high proportions of the middle-aged, elderly, and women. Both in terms of median age and the ratio of women to men, Cuban Americans far exceed the U.S. population. These age and gender characteristics are understandable only in the context of the special conditions of Cuban migration. The Cuban government has largely prohibited the emigration of males of military age. That restriction had a particular impact on the age and gender composition of the migrants arriving between 1965 and 1973 through the airlift (see below). It caused an extraordinarily high ratio of women to men among those who were between 25 and 40 years of age in 1980. The high proportions of elderly and middle-aged persons are also rooted in the conditions of migration. During the 1960's, young families, with household heads in their late 20's and early 30's, predominated in the exodus from Cuba. This is a large cohort that is now in their 50's and 60's. Additionally, the elderly represented one of the groups most alienated by the sweeping changes introduced by the Cuban revolution. Because this age group was largely a dependent population, the Cuban government facilitated its departure, especially during the airlift. The proportions of the elderly and the middle-aged are also boosted by the relatively small proportion of children, a result of the low birth rate. Cuban American women have children at a rate that is significantly lower than all women in the United States.

Cubans speak Spanish. Cuba's non-Spanish immigrant populations in the twentieth century undoubtedly retained their native languages for use in private settings. But every indication seems to point to a widespread adoption of Spanish for public use, so that multilingualism has not been an evident feature of Cuban society in this century. The importance of the U.S. in the economy of the Cuban Republic, especially tourism and corporate investment, resulted, by the middle of this century, in a noticeable use of English as a second language, especially in the capital and among the upper socioeconomic sectors. Cuban Spanish is also peppered with words and idiomatic expressions that are clearly African in origin. The Yoruba language of West Africa is reportedly spoken as a second language among some descendants of African slaves and is also used in religious rituals of African origin.

Among Cuban Americans there appear to be, as expected, substantial differences between generations in the use of Spanish. Those born in Cuba and who arrived in the U.S. as adults are more likely to have Spanish as their primary language. In Miami's large Cuban enclave, in which the first generation still predominates, Spanish is a very public language, widely used in business and the media. The size and importance of the Miami enclave has also affected the second generation, which exhibits a tendency to acquire Spanish and to speak it at home with their parents. Research shows, however, that despite the second generation's ability to use Spanish, their language of preference is English.

From the early nineteenth century to the present time, the United States has been the principal country of destination for Cuban emigrants. The development of close economic, political, and cultural relations between the two nations, even when Cuba was still a Spanish colony, attracted to the U.S. Cubans who felt compelled to leave the island, especially for political reasons. By the 1820's there was a significant community of Cubans residing in New York City, the center of Cuban emigre activity throughout the nineteenth century. Most were intellectual and political figures who lived in exile due to their support for Cuban autonomy from Spain. The most important figure of the early New York community was a Catholic priest, Félix Varela y Morales, who arrived there in 1823 and remained there almost until his death in 1853. He became an important leader and builder of the Catholic diocese of New York .

Cuban emigres who supported annexation of the island to the United States formed a small but politically-active community in New Orleans during the 1840's and 1850's. The growing North-South conflict in this country fueled support among Southern planters for the annexation of Cuba, since it would have entered the Union as a slave state. The planters supported efforts by the Cubans in New Orleans to prepare insurgent activities against Spanish control of the island. The intensification of the Cuban independence movement after 1868 increased the number of Cuban exiles residing in the U.S., especially in New York. That movement culminated at the end of the century with the war against Spain and the end of the colonial era in 1898. During the 1880's and 1890's New York was the center of the movement led by José Martí to take the struggle for Cuban independence to the island. Martí, regarded as the most important forger of the Cuban nation, lived in New York for nearly fifteen years in a fairly large community of fellow expatriates.

The turmoil caused in the island by the independence movement compelled many cigar manufacturers to move their operations to Florida. They relocated their factories in Key West, only 90 miles north of Cuba. In 1886, Vicente Martínez Ybor, manufacturer of the "Prince of Wales" brand of cigars, opened his factory in the outskirts of Tampa, Florida, in what become known as Ybor City. Other manufacturers followed him, so that by the 1890's, Ybor City grew to become the largest community of Cuban Americans in the nineteenth century. The cigar factories in Ybor City depended on the importation of both tobacco leaves and cigarworkers from Cuba, and the community, founded entirely by Cuban immigrants, flourished. The manufacturers did not just build factories, but also housing for the workers, infrastructure, and supported the active social life of the community. By the 1920's, however, Havana regained its position as the center of cigar manufacturing, and many manufacturers and their workers returned there. Y bor City declined in importance as a Cuban American community.

The decades of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s witnessed a tremendous movement of people across the Strait of Florida between the U.S. and Cuba. The close economic and political ties between the two countries during the first half of the twentieth century had profound cultural and social implications. Havana became one of the foremost foreign destinations for U.S. tourists. At the same time, many Cubans traveled to the U.S. on a temporary basis. Some did so as students at American universities and others were businessmen involved in the growing flow of capital and goods to Cuba. Yet others, professionals in sports or music, sought to develop their careers in the U.S. The presence in the U.S. of Cubans among the ranks of professional boxers and major league baseball players became notable. Exponents of Afro-Cuban music, especially percussionists, had a significant influence in the development of both "Big Band" music and jazz in the United States.

In 1959, a process was initiated that in a few years would totally alter Cuba's social, economic, and political institutions. The government which rose to power that year rapidly transformed a dependent capitalist economic system, closely intertwined with the United States, into a centrally-planned system presumably guided by Marxist-Leninist principles, in conflict with the United States and in close alliance and dependence with the Soviet Union. Such a radical transformation prompted an unprecedented exodus from the island to the United States. Never before in the long history of Cuban migration to this country had the flow of persons attained the levels reached in the four decades that followed 1959. Four major waves have taken place during four distinct time periods: 1) 1959 to 1962, when regular commercial air traffic still moved between the U.S. and Cuba and brought approximately 200,000 people to this country; 2) 1965 to 1973, when 260,500 Cubans arrived through an airlift, or "freedom flights," sponso red by the U.S. government and operating on a regular basis during those years from Cuba to Miami; 3) nine months in 1980, when the notorious Mariel boatlift brought some 125,000 Cubans to the U.S. in a dramatic fashion; and 4) the 1994 rafter crisis, when nearly 36,700 persons left Cuba for the U.S., most of them in makeshift rafts. Migration from socialist Cuba to the United States has been viewed as heavily influenced by social class and described as a successive "peeling-off," starting at the top, of the layers of the prerevolutionary class structure. This was especially evident in the first migration wave, which was characterized by the exodus of the island's elite. That elite possessed a set of abilities, attitudes, qualifications, and orientations that formed the basis for the relatively successful socioeconomic adjustment of Cubans in the U.S. in recent decades.

As noted earlier, the settlement of Cubans in the United States has occurred almost exclusively in large metropolitan areas, with Miami, New York-New Jersey, and Los Angeles accounting for three-fourths of the total Cuban-origin population of the United States. Miami is the undisputed Mecca for Cuban Americans: nearly 56 percent of them live in southern Florida, and that proportion has been increasing during the past two decades. In 1970, only 40 percent of Cubans in the United States lived in Greater Miami. The concentration of Cubans in Miami originated in the initial dispersion caused by the U.S. Government's Cuban Refugee Resettlement Program. With the goal of easing the pressure of Cuban immigration on Miami, the program scattered some 300,000 Cubans throughout the United States in the period from 1961 to 1978. Families arriving from Cuba were given assistance if they immediately relocated away from Miami. The assistance included transportation costs to the new destination, help in finding housing and em ployment, and financial assistance until such time as employment was secured. The bulk of the resettlements took place during the early years of the airlift in the 1960's. Almost immediately after the inception of the program, a "trickle-back" to Miami was underway, and the concentration in Miami continues to this day. The data show that the communities that received the largest number of resettled Cubans are precisely the communities that have recently been losing a large number of Cubans to Florida.

Miami's Cuban community is regarded as the foremost example in the United States of a true ethnic enclave. The basis of the enclave is highly differentiated entrepreneurial activity. Miami is the U.S. metropolitan area with the highest per capita number of Hispanic-owned businesses. The community's entrepreneurial base was established largely by the Cuban immigrants who arrived in the 1960's, the entrepreneurial class displaced by the socialist revolution. They possessed the complex of skills and attitudes that eventually made possible their successful entry into a wide-range of self-employment. There are three sectors of Miami's economy in which Cuban American entrepreneurship is especially evident and which represent the principal spheres of Cuban American economic participation: construction and real estate development, professional services, and international trade and commerce. Strong and diversified entrepreneurial activity is responsible for the enclave's most important feature: institutional complet eness. Cubans in Miami can literally live out their lives within the ethnic community. The wide range of sales and services, including professional services, available within the community makes possible its completeness. In terms of economic activities, the completeness of the enclave means that many recent Cuban immigrants enter the U.S. labor market through the large number of businesses that are owned and operated by members of their own group. Compensation is usually not higher in the enclave, but ethnic bonds provide for informal networks of support that facilitate the learning of new skills and the overall process of economic adjustment. The enclave's positive implications for economic adjustment are seen as a factor that has maintained the relatively high socioeconomic position of Cuban Americans.

The marital status composition of Cubans in the U.S. shows a relatively high proportion of married, divorced, and widowed persons, with a correspondingly low percentage of persons who have never married. This is not surprising given the relative importance, noted earlier, of persons who are elderly and middle-aged among Cuban Americans. Cuban-American marriages may be subject to particular pressures that lead to higher rates of marital conflict and dissolution. One pressure originates in the success orientation and family work ethic that have resulted in high rates of female labor force participation. The definitions of the male role have not totally adjusted to the realities of female employment so as to permit greater sharing of household tasks. Consequently, Cuban women have the double burden of employment and domestic responsibilities. A high proportion of divorced persons is most evident among women. The usual gap between the genders in the percent who are divorced is especially pronounced among Cuban A mericans. Although this may well be the result of a high divorce rate, it may also reflect the relative disadvantage that a divorced Cuban-American woman faces if she wishes to remarry within the group given the relative abundance, noted earlier, of women in cohorts that have recently passed through the prime marital ages. That numerical imbalance between the sexes may have also influenced the incidence of intermarriage. Studies have shown that Cubans, in comparison with many other immigrant groups in the United States, are more likely to marry outside their particular group.

Among Cuban Americans the high proportion of divorced women does not translate itself into household characteristics usually associated with a high divorce rate. Cuban have a relatively high proportion of children under 18 living with both parents and a fairly low proportion of families headed by women with no adult male present. The divorced Cuban woman tends to return to her parents' household and, given the relatively low birth rate, is not likely to be accompanied by children, a factor that favors her return to the parental home.

One of the most distinctive features of the Cuban American household is the relatively widespread existence of the three-generation family. Compared with other populations in the U.S., the Cuban elderly are not likely to be heads of households and much more likely to live with their children. It is also clear that they tend not to live in nursing homes, especially in comparison with the total elderly population of the U.S. Many Cuban Americans believe it is disgraceful to have a widowed parent living alone or in a nursing home. Furthermore, because many of the Cuban elderly arrived in this country past their working ages, they were in an especially vulnerable situation in adjusting to life in this country, both economically and culturally. It would have been difficult to face that adjustment living alone or as heads of households.

Political institutions and political behavior represent the most salient and noticeable features of the Cuban American community, especially in Miami. Although almost four decades have passed since the Cuban Revolution, many Cuban Americans remain "exiles," focused on the political status of the homeland. The principal focus of political discourse and mobilization is still Cuba, and the goal is the overthrow of the current Cuban government. Consequently, the principal voluntary associations within the Cuban community are usually centered on organizing opposition to the Cuban regime through tactics aimed at isolating the Havana government. One paradox of Cuban American political organization is that despite the manifest emphasis on the affairs of the homeland, the community, especially in Miami, has developed a strong participation in the U.S. political system at the state and local levels. Starting in the late 1970s Cubans started occupying important elected and appointed positions in various government enti ties in southern Florida. By the middle and late 1990s, Cuban Americans represented the predominant force in the political landscape of the region. Most of the mayors and commissioners of the cities located within the Greater Miami metropolitan area were Cuban Americans. The public school system, the county administration, the largest institutions of public higher education, and the county police were all headed by Cuban Americans. The majority of Florida's state legislators from Greater Miami are Cuban American, and three persons of Cuban origin serve in the U.S. Congress (two from Florida and one from New Jersey).

As in most of Latin America, the predominant religion in Cuba during the last five hundred years is Roman Catholicism. Throughout most of its history in Cuba, however, the Church has not had the influence it enjoyed throughout the rest of the continent. Cuba's role in the Spanish Empire was almost exclusively centered on Havana as a pivotal port city in Spain's trade system. Since its establishment, the Cuban capital has had a distinctly secular character, and observers have long noted the lack of religiosity among the inhabitants of the island. Most Cubans, therefore, can best be described as nominal Catholics.

The influence of Catholicism was further weakened in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the entry of large numbers of non-Catholics. Of special importance were the large migration flows of African slaves during the first half of the nineteenth century. The cults from West Africa eventually blended with many Catholic practices, resulting in a religious syncretism that is the basis of the religious beliefs of many Cubans, especially in the lower socioeconomic sectors. Religious heterogeneity was furthered by U.S. influence early in this century as a number of Protestant denominations made successful inroads in the island. During the twentieth century there were sizable migration flows to Cuba from China, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the English and French Caribbean, all of which served to increase the non-Catholic population. Cubans in the United States reflect the island's religious traditions. While most are nominal Roman Catholics, there is also evidence of substantial heterogeneity in religi ous beliefs. The Cuban tradition of secularism continues in the U.S. Religion does not constitute the basis for the principal organized voluntary activities among Cuban Americans. The principal institutions in the community are almost exclusively political and economic, not religious.

Drawing upon a dynamic artistic and cultural tradition that flourished in Havana during the first half of the twentieth century, Cubans in the U.S. have made important contributions in the arts. A sizable group of Cuban American painters have produced works that are in high demand in the art world. These painters span several generations and include the established artists that migrated from Cuba in the early 1960s as well as a younger generation that left the island in the 1980s and 1990s. In Miami, Cubans have made an indelible mark on the artistic and cultural programs of the city. This is true not only in painting, but also in film festivals, theater, dance, and architecture.

Documents referred to in this section are included in the eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The Cuban Americans file consists of twenty-two documents, all in English.The time coverage for the file ranges from approximately 1959-1990s, with some historical background information going back to the mid to late nineteenth century. The primary focus of this file is on the Miami metropolitan area of Dade County, Florida (fourteen of the twenty-two documents), with secondary foci on West New York, New Jersey and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas -- three of the principal population centers for Cuban Americans in the United States. Probably the most comprehensive study of the Cuban Americans is that found in Boswell and Curtis (1984, no. 3), which provides comparative ethnographic information on Cuban Americans in West New York, New Jersey and Miami, Florida. This work presents an abundance of data on major social, economic, political, and geographical topics relating to Cuban settlements and culture in the United States. The two works by Rogg (1974, 1980, nos. 1 & 5), focusing on Cuban Americans in West New York, New Jersey, and the study by Boone ( 1989, no. 2) on the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region, supplement to a large extent comparable information found in Boswell and Curtis (1984, no. 3) relating to the essentially homogenous Cuban American population in the United States. Nearly all the documents in this file deal in a greater or lesser degree with Cuban immigration to the United States, and problems of adaptation, acculturation and assimilation. This is particularly to be noted in the works by Garcia on the south Florida region (1996, no. 4), on Florida and the United States in general by Pérez (1992, 1986, nos. 6 & 8), and in West New York, New Jersey by Rogg (1980, no. 5). The remaining documents in the file cover a wide range of ethnographic topics, ranging from labor organization (Grenier, 1992, no. 10), to politics (Stack, 1990, no. 11; Leyva de Varona, 1991, no. 19) to art and music (Pau-Llosa, 1991, no. 19; Lizaso, 1991, no. 18).

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in this file, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.

The culture summary was written by Lisandro Pérez in April 1997. The synopsis and indexing notes were written by John Beierle, also in April 1997. The Human Relations Area Files wishes to acknowledge with thanks the assistance of Lisandro Pérez in the preparation of a working bibliography for use in the selection of documents for the Cuban Americans file.

• attempts to overthrow the Castro government by counter-revolutionary forces -- category 648

• Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba -- category 648

• BRIGADA ANTONIO MACEO -- category 814

• CASA CUBA -- a Cuban political action group --categories 668, 575

• CENTRO HISPANO CATÓLICO -- categories 794, 747

• CHISMOSAS -- an individual who disseminates news and information through the "grapevine" -- categories 554, 203, 521

• CÍRCULO DE CULTURAL CUBANA -- category 814

• Community Refugee Center -- categories 167, 657, 746

• CRIADA -- a maid -- category 357

• Cuban American National Federation (CANF) -- a Cuban American lobbying group -- categories 664, 668

• FIESTA DE QUINCE AÑOS -- a celebration of a girl's fifteenth birthday and her attainment of maturity -- categories 527, 881

• grapevine -- a communication network among high status Cubans -- categories 5654, 203, 521, 626

• INSTITUTO DE ESTUDIOS CUBANOS -- category 814

• Migration and Refugee Services -- categories 794, 747

• Municipalities in exile (MUNICIPOS EN EL ELILIO) -- voluntary sociopolitical organizations -- category 575 (sometimes with 747)

• Office of Immigration Services -- categories 794, 747

• Office of Refugee Resettlement -- categories 794, 747

• SANTERÍA religious cult -- category 794

• Spanglish -- a mixture of Spanish and English -- category 198

• TÍA -- a combination house-keeper, nurse, or dependent -- categories 592, 554