Cuban Americans

Early Migration and Settlement

By the end of the 19th century, Cuban communities had been established in New York City, Key West, Tampa, and New Orleans. Tampa and Key West quickly became major centers of Cuban cigar production in the United States, with numerous cigar factories in both cities that employed thousands of workers. The migration of Cubans continued during the early decades of the 20th century, with an estimated 25,000 Cuban migrants settling in the nation during the 1920s and 1930s.

More than 25,000 Cubans entered the United States in the 1940s, followed by nearly 80,000 during the 1950s. Employment opportunities in the shoe and leather industries attracted many Cubans during this time, while professional baseball teams began seeking talented players from Cuba. Cuban Americans gained a national face during the 1950s with the dawn of the television age and the popularity of I Love Lucy. The classic comedy program starred Anglo comedienne Lucille Ball alongside her real-life husband, Cuban-born Desi Arnaz, in the two lead roles.

Fleeing Castro's Communism

The largest waves of Cubans to the United States occurred after Fidel Castro's overthrow of Fulgencio Batista on January 1, 1959. Once in power, Castro established the Caribbean island as a communist dictatorship backed by the Soviet Union. These developments set in motion the dynamics of Cuban migration to American shores over the [Page 629]past half century. During the height of the Cold War, the early waves of Cuban refugees fleeing the Castro regime in the 1960s were generally welcomed by Americans and extended benefits, including financial and nonfinancial assistance, by the federal government that eased their transition to life in the United States.

The first wave of Cuban refugees included former officials and administrators from the deposed Batista regime, followed by a larger influx of upper-middle-class and highly educated professionals with entrepreneurial or technical skills, such as merchants, bankers, businesspeople, engineers, physicians, attorneys, teachers, and professors. A third wave of refugees, many of whom already had relatives in the United States, entered the country between 1965 and the late 1970s.

The vast majority of post-1959 Cubans entering the United States chose to settle in southern Florida, particularly within the Miami metropolitan region. Located only 90 miles from Cuba across the Florida Straits, Miami shared a sunny tropical climate identical to the refugees’ homeland. Miami's proximity to Cuba also allowed exiles to retain a strong sense of Cuban identity, as many people during the early years of the Cuban influx aspired to return to Cuba once Castro had been removed from power.

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