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For more than 40 years the Cuban-American
community has played an active role in the American political scene.
From the moment Fidel Castro's revolutionary forces seized control
of Havana in January, 1959, there has been a steady flow of legal
and illegal `exiles' crossing the 90 miles of sea between Cuba and
south Florida. The continually increasing numbers of Cubans
populating the Miami metropolitan area (and later other regions)
have almost always spoken with one voice and fought for one cause:
maintaining or strengthening the U.S. embargo imposed on Castro's
government in 1960.
Immediately after Castro took power he began the process of
nationalizing foreign-owned property and businesses, a move that led
President Eisenhower to initiate an economic embargo that continues
to the present day. In 1962, after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion,
President Kennedy ordered increased restrictions within the embargo,
including an absolute ban on all Cuban imports and a ban on
re-exportation of U.S. products to Cuba. This last policy adjustment
would largely stand unchanged for the next 30 years, enjoying
general support from the American people and enthusiastic support
from the growing Cuban-American community.
Feeling little but animosity toward Fidel Castro, the man who in
their eyes caused them to be exiles from their own country, the
majority of Cuban-Americans have been loyal supporters of policies
that could potentially harm or weaken his government. Many of the
first families to flee Cuba were wealthy and successful capitalists
who began building new business empires in south Florida. Over the
past 40 years, these families have provided much of the financial
support to press their case, and that of other Cubans who arrived in
the wake of Castro's revolution. Their money and enterprise, along
with the traditional anti-communist policies of successive American
administrations, have given the community considerable political
clout in Washington. When the reality of their largely unilateral
voting bloc in south Florida is also taken into account, there can
be no doubt that this community exerts significant influence on the
outcome of any and all Cuba-related legislation in Congress.
Next: The
Patterns in Cuban-American
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