20th Century Cuban Immigration

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Cuban Nationalism
For several reasons, Cubans have a very strong sense of "Cubanidad," cultural identity. This sense of cultural identity comes partially from a sense of placeCuba as an island has clearly defined boundariesand partially from the homogeneity of language and shared culture. It is a major factor in the relative stability of the revolutionary government in Cuba and in the stability of the Cuban community in the United States.
Despite the fact that within the Cuban-American community there is a great deal of political contention, the community forgets its differences in taking care of its own. One of the practical problems service providers face in working with newly-arrived Cubans is that they can function so comfortably within the Spanish-speaking Cuban-American communities: There is little motivation to learn English or move away to areas where there are better jobs.
Cuban Immigration to the United States
Given the closeness of Cuba to the United Statesboth geographical and, before the 1959 revolution, economicit is no surprise that there has always been movement of people between the countries. The 1910 census showed that there were officially 15,133 Cubans living in the United States, and a report on immigration to Congress at the time included data on 44,211 Cubans. In 1959, an estimated 124,000 Cubans were living in the United States. In the early years of the revolutionary government, an additional 215,000 moved here, and now the Cuban community is well over a million. As we mentioned above, the center of that community is in Miami, but there are sizable communities in other cities in Florida and in New York, Illinois, and California as well.
The existence and size of the Cuban community in the United States is a result of both "push" and "pull" factors. The revolutionary government's inflexible attitude toward dissent, and its imperviousness to demands that dissenters make, probably constitute the greatest...