The Cuban Americans - Essay Example

The Cuban Americans Introduction Cuban Americans are one of the most successful and stable United s of America’s immigrants.This paper examines their history of migration, their challenges within America, their community and individual achievements in America and their influence to the American culture. Cubans’ migrations to America started in the 19th century between the years 1868-1867. Since then, there have been significant numbers of Cubans moving to America. These early migrations of Cubans to the United States of America were mostly political, with their first significant migrations taking place from the year 1959 when a Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro took over power in Cuba.

The Cuban government allied itself to the Soviet Union and introduced communism in Cuba. Fidel Castro was also a dictator who imprisoned or executed those opposed to his rule (Anderson, 2007). To deliver his promises of making the lives of Cubans better, he redistributed land to ensure that those who had small pieces of land got bigger pieces while reducing the sizes of land owned by the wealthy people. His actions caused those opposed to his rule, those who had lost some land and businesses, to flee the country for safety.

This wave of migration that saw over quarter of a million migrants caused the United States to block its borders to Cubans. Between the years 1965 and 1973, the United States’ government and that of Cuba reached an agreement allowing Cubans with relatives living in the United States to be transported the United States (Pando, 1998). This saw about 300,000 migrants transported to America using boats and later using airplanes. Another wave of migration to the United States was to be experienced in the year 1980 after the Cuban president, Fidel Castro, had allowed Cuban Americans to visit their relatives in Cuba.

By this time, Cuba was not doing well economically and the sight of well to do relatives from the United States enticed many Cubans to seek for greener pastures (Pando, 1998). About 125,000 immigrants took advantage of Fidel Castro’s permission to Cubans willing to go to the United States to use boats from Mariel port. Cuban Americans have continued to grow in numbers ever since and the 1990 census in the US showed that there are about 860,000 Cuban Americans in the US. Most of them live in Dade County in Florida (about 541,000), while others are found in California, New Jersey and New York.

The community of Cuban Americans assimilated well in the United States (Anderson, 2007). Cuban Americans enjoyed a good relationship with the United States’ communities that hosted them because of their acceptance by the United States government. This has however continued to change, with conflicts arising between Cuban Americans and United States, as well as other communities. African Americans and Cuban Americans have antagonized each other for a long time in Florida where Cuban Americans have dominance in politics as well as economically.

African Americans have accused Cuban Americans of locking them out of politics and the tourist industry (Stoner, 2000). The aforementioned clashes resulted in African Americans’’ boycotts on all businesses related to tourism in Miami area in the year 1991, when they accused five Cuban American mayors from Dale county of not officially welcoming Nelson Mandela, the then president of South Africa and a former freedom fighter. Cuban Americans also witnessed few cases of discrimination by the Whites in the United States.

In a survey done in the year 1989-1990, while 82.2 percent of Cuban Americans said they had not experienced discrimination themselves, about 47 percent surveyed were of the view that there was discrimi8nation against Cuban Americans (Spickard, 2007). Cuban Americans have many achievements collectively as well as individuals do. In politics, they have been able to send representatives to the congress as well as to the national legislature. These leaders include Lincoln Diaz who was the Florida republican member of congress, Robert Mendez who was the first Cuban American national legislature democratic representative, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen the first Cuban American woman to work in the United States’ senate (Bryan, 2003).

Other individual achievements by Cuban Americans have been realized in music where Celia Cruzgloria and Estefan, among others have enjoyed numerous awards and fame. In sports, Tony Olivia, a baseball player won three American league titles in medicine. Moreover, Doctor. Pedro Jose Greer Jr is famous for his homeless medical care and has won several awards. Cubans have also had several awards in education, literature, business and economics. Collectively they have been doing well politically and are among the best economically stable community of all the world’s immigrants living in the United States of America (Anderson, 2007).

Cuban Americans have made a considerable influence on the culture of the United States. They have intermarried with the American citizens with a survey carried showing that about 30 percent of Cuban Americans born in the United States are likely to marry white Americans. Some Native Americans have also enjoyed Cuban cuisine and have integrated it to their food. Cuban Americans are predominantly Catholics and have been able to influence some white Americans as well as African Americans. Music, poetry, literature and art of Cuban Americans have also earned some following within the US natives and other immigrants (Spickard, 2007).

Conclusion Apparently, Cuban Americans are enjoying a good relationship with the American natives and their importance in building the economy of America over the years is evident. They have made substantial contributions to America and have become so helpful that no one can ignore them. In fact, Cuban Americans are part of America’s decision-making processes, and they enjoy success and power inside America than Cuba could give them. References Anderson, D. (2007). Cuban Americans. Milwaukee, WI: World Almanac Library. Bryan, N. (2003).

Cuban Americans. Edina, Minn: Abdo Pub. Pando, M. (1998). The Cuban Americans. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. Spickard, P. (2007). Almost all Aliens: Immigration, Race, and Colonialism in American History and Identity. New York: Routledge. Stoner, K. (2000). Cuban and Cuban-American Women: an Annotated Bibliography. Wilmington, Del: Scholarly Resources.