Cuban American Communities And South Florida

Following the overthrow of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista’s totalitarian regime by insurgent groups during the six-year Cuban Revolution, lasting from 1953 to 1959, a radical collectivist government was put into place. In the following years, most notably during the Cold War, the Communists isolated the Cuban economy from Western, Capitalist, ideals, and its citizens were left poor and malnourished, surviving on only the bare essentials as a series of famines and food shortages left many struggling to survive. Cuba’s attempts to alleviate the tensions brought by the United States’s trade embargoes, initially a simple restriction against arms trade, but later extended to encompass the vast majority of goods produced inside the borders of the

The Cuban Revolution lasted from 1953 to 1959 and brought power to Fidel Castro. Castro intended for the United States to lose influence over Cuba's politics and economy. Castro pursued an absolute revolutionary overhaul of Cuban society, going beyond the reforms supported by populists. Castro pushed for significant economic changes to assist the urban poor, including rent controls and land redistribution. Castro’s actions came at the expense of the United States.

The terrible conditions that many Cuban citizens lived under during the Batista regime was unacceptable. The Cuban Citizens wanted a change and started a revolution. To find out why we go all the way back to 1868 when the United States defeated the Spanish Army giving Cuba its independence. The Cubans elected Fulgencio Batista who did not allow any more elections to take place. This angered many and a new revolution leader formed, Fidel Castro. Fidel overthrew the Batista Regime and named himself dictator. He started close economic ties with the Soviet Union. Shortly after this the United States ended any ties with the Cuban government. The causes of the Cuban Revolution were terrible conditions under the Batista regime, the spread of Communism, and the Spanish-American war. The effects of the Cuban Revolution were the downfall of the economy, Cuban missile crisis, and end of any diplomatic relations with the United States. The Cuban Revolution connects to Global citizenship because the citizens fought for their rights which ended up helping their daily life but hurting their economy.

In 1959, Batista himself was victim of a coup, led by Fidel Castro. Batista was very unpopular, as a fourth of the population was unemployed, the average wage was six dollars a week, and running water was scarce. President Kennedy advocated in campaigning to win the hearts and minds of the Cubans through aid programs. However, the CIA had a different plan.

People began migrating from Cuba after a man named Fidel Castro overthrew the previous dictator of Cuba in 1959. Fidel Castro promised democratic policies but soon after taking control he began making the government totalitarian and everyone who opposed him was imprisoned. Castro became even more totalitarian and communist because he wanted complete control of Cuba. Because of this relations between Cuba and the United States worsened. At one point Castro nationalized American businesses without compensation. After this a complete embargo was put into effect. The embargo caused there to be more poverty in Cuba. Cuba became more allied with the soviets. The embargo caused many Cuban citizens to flee Cuba

The Cuban revolution took place in January of 1959 when the guerilla army under the control of Fidel Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista. Batista was supported by the United States but only because of the fact that he believed in a democratic run government. However, the president at the time, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, let the revolution play out because he believed that Batista was making Cuba an “embarrassing,” ally towards the United States, he would later realize that he made a

Cubans have had a long history of migrating to the United States, often for political reasons. Many Cubans, particularly cigar manufacturers, came during the Ten Years' War (1868-1878) between Cuban nationals and the Spanish military. Yet the most significant Cuban migrations have occurred in the last 35 years. There have been at least four distinct waves of Cuban immigration to the United States since 1959. While many, perhaps most, of the earlier migrants were fleeing Cuba for political reasons, more recent migrants are more likely to have fled because of declining economic conditions at home.

On January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro and his band of rebels overtook the Cuban government. Their Revolution was based on massive agrarian reform and equality throughout. It was not based on Communism or communistic ideals. The US government was against the rise of Castro and his people. They had been able to control the Cuban government by controlling the successive presidents, since the Spanish-American War early in the 20th Century. The rise of Castro was undertaken with a distinct anti-American flavor to it. Castro was able to expand his popularity by fusing the anti-American fever with massive reforms intended to give social and economic equality to all Cubans. The economic presence, of the US, within Cuba was great at the time of Castro’s

Between the month of April and the month of September in 1980 more than 125,000 Cubans fled communism embarking from Port of Mariel to south Florida, United States. More than 1,600 boats were involved in the exodus. When the Peruvian Embassy opened its doors, the government did not anticipate the repercussions that it would bring. In just 48 hours more than 10,800 people, including children and the elderly, entered its borders. So many people came that there wasn't even anywhere for people to sit down. Faced with this situation and overwhelmed by the pressures of international support for refugees’ embassy, the government of Fidel Castro had no alternative aside from allowing a new mass exodus of Cubans to the United States. Small yachts with

In order to understand the complex relationship that Cuba has with the United States and the nature of Cuban American immigrant communities that exist in South Florida, it is necessary to first understand the unique circumstances that led to the large influx of Cuban immigrants.

In 1959, the revolt in Cuba had many affluent upper or middle-classed citizens fleeing their country for the United States migrating to Miami, FL primarily. The next wave of Cuban immigrants begins arriving in the United States during the cold war. In the beginning, the United States graciously accepted Cuban immigrants. The immigrants immediately started receiving social security benefits, money, permanent legal residency after being in the country one year and allowed to establish businesses, re-qualify for their professional credentials (Stepick, A., & Carol, D. S., 2009). The United States government provided substantially to its new citizens who allowed them to achieve economically and put them in local politics. For 20 years Cuban immigrants

Cuban citizens were not allowed to speak up or go against Batista’s rules. In the Green Left Weekly, Jill Hickson in 1996 states that “He answered any opposition with assassination, breaking strikes with machine-gun fire, and using repression against the Cuban people” (No.239). He being Batista shows that Batista was oppressing the Cuban people by not allowing freedom of speech. Therefore, the solution for Batista had to be using violence. This evidence shows how cruel Batista was to the Cuban society. The violence Batista caused only resulted into oppression from the Cuban society. Fidel Castro one of the leaders of the revolution was not going to stand by Batista’s cruel rules. Castro attacked the Moncada army barracks in Santiago. According to Batista, Jerry A. Sierra states that “Batista sent General Martin Tamayo, the military commander of the district, a note ordering him to "kill ten rebels for every soldier killed" in the attack.” (paragraph#4). This evidence shows that Batista has caused people to rebel against him by not having freedom. Also Batista is not afraid to treat other to the point that he needs to kill. The social oppression in the Cuban Revolution relates to my social oppression in my life because both do not have freedom. In the Revolution Batista does not allow people to stand up for themselves or else they

Manuel Urrutia, a very liberal Cuban lawyer and politician, was placed as president of Cuba, and Castro was placed in charge of the military. However, by July of 1959, Castro had easily and effectively taken over as leader of Cuba, which he would remain as, for the next four decades. (See figure 2) With close ties to his brother, Fidel put Raúl in charge of the military, allowing the Castro family to have most of the control over Cuba. In Castro’s beginning years as Cuba’s ruler, he made several radical and significant changes in Cuba, including collectivizing agriculture, nationalizing industry, and seizing and eliminating most American-owned businesses, factories, and farms. Fidel taxed American products so heavily that U.S. exports halved in just two years, making the United States put heavy

Thesis: The Cuban Revolution pre-1959 was caused by a many political, economic and social factors such as: Cuba’s separation from Spanish rule in 1898, the American interest and influence on Cuba and, the social unrest that Batista’s policies and relationship with the Mob caused, which ultimately led to Castro’s fight and overall succession in 1959.

Castro and his 26th of July Movement took over Cuba’s streets in January 1959. Though Castro’s charismatic and vibrant personality quickly won him astonishing support, he knew that he had to consolidate his political power by ensuring the trust of the population. The consolidation of Fidel Castro’s power between 1959 and1961 was more of a result of domestic issues rather than United States economic policies.