Havana USA: Cuban Exiles and Cuban Americans in South Florida, 1959-1994

by María Cristina García

In the years since Fidel Castro came to power, the migration of close to one million Cubans to the United States continues to remain one of the most fascinating, unusual, and controversial movements in American history. María Cristina García―a Cuban refugee raised in Miami―has experienced firsthand many of the developments she describes, and has written the most comprehensive and revealing account of the postrevolutionary Cuban migration to date. García deftly navigates the dichotomies and similarities between cultures and among generations. Her exploration of the complicated realm of Cuban American identity sets a new standard in social and cultural history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Politics

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 30, 1996

About the author

Maria Cristina Garcia is an historian, currently the Howard A. Newman Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. Her work focuses on the history of immigrants and refugees in the Americas.

Garcia received her B.A. from Georgetown University and her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of American Historians. She is a recipient of a 2016 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. She was also a former fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.

Reviews

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yo, el cubano. The title of this superb study of the most prosperous immigrant group to ever come to the United States is meant to be taken literally. In Miami Cuban exiles from Fidel Castro's 1959 Revolution built not an American city, nor a replica of the Hana they had left behind but a Havana of their dreams, which they proceeded to turn into concrete reality. Eighty percent of Miami-Dade County is Cuban-American and eighty percent of Cuban-Americans live in Miami-Dade. (I did not, growing up in Southern California, so I don't talk like Tony Montana.) What was most important to the Cubans was to transform Miami's politics into a facsimile of pre-Castro Cuban politics. Anyone to the left of Attila the Hun automatically gets labeled a Communist. (Cuban Democrats do exist, but they are like black swans.) This took one generation, but in 1983 Miami elected its first Cuban Mayor, Xavier Suarez, and has elected only Cubans to that post, including the incumbent Mayor, Xavier's son.) The corruption that bedeviled Cuba before the Revolution simply crossed the 90-mile Strait of Florida. Xavier once tried for re-election, won, and then got tossed out of office by a federal judge when the Miami D.A. proved many of his votes had come from non-existent voters. (Is this where George W. Bush got the idea of how to win in Florida in 2000? Fidel Castro thought so. He blamed "the Miami mafia" for Bush's victory.) All that political power translated into Cuban American monopolies over the South Florida media, real estate, banking, etc. Miami really is its own separate country, with the occasional pain-in-the-ass intrusion of federal law and IRS audits of politicians. Considering the current governor of Florida one may expect the whole state to resemble Miami in two years, and then, who knows, the whole country?

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

An even-handed and informative survey. She's strongest when writing about politics. Her commentaries on Cuban exile culture and Cuban-American literature were dry and lacking in humor (although still informative). For a lay of the land, this is a useful intro.

[Dom Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good and readable study of an under explored topic. Literary section in particular was good and gave lots of suggestions for Cuban American authors, plays, and novels.

Would love to see an update given the impact Miami Dade county and the Cuban American / exile community have continued to have on US politics / culture