Cuban Miami [Hardcover]

Robert M. Levine (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

While Cuban culture is an everyday feature of life in Miami, the economic influence of Cubans in Florida's largest city is truly a phenomenon. Cubans flocked to the United States in the years after Fidel Castro's revolution, with nearly 300,000 arriving between 1965 and 1973. From May to September 1980, another quarter of a million people fled Cuba, most to south Florida's "exile capital," Miami. Such is the strength of their cultural heritage that most Cubans living in Miami hold tightly to their Cuban identity, even though generations of them have never set foot in Cuba. Levine (history, Univ. of Miami), who has written numerous books on Cuba, and As!s, a social services administrator in Florida, document the rich Cuban American cultural experience as well as the political and economic clout of Miami's Cuban population. Although there is little mention of poverty among the city's Cubans, the book is an intriguing mix of over 180 annotated photographs with a lively text. Recommended for all public and academic libraries.
-Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., AL
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

For two centuries, Cuban exiles have found their way to the United States, especially to Florida. But since Castro's victory in 1959, Miami has seen about one million Cubans arrive by sea and air. The impact on South Florida has been enormous. Miami-known as the "exile capital" - has a greater cultural affinity to Havana and the rest of the Latin American than to Tallahassee, Florida's capital.

Cuban Miami is the first analytical, photographic record of Cuban migration to the city. Robert M. Levine and Moises Asis have interviewed members of every sector of the Cuban exile community, from the first pioneers to the mass waves in the early 1960s to those who arrived by raft during the late 1990s. In their wide-ranging investigation of Cuban-U.S. history, the authors touch upon all aspects of Cuban influence: politics, cuisine, music, religion, and everyday life. The city has been fertile ground for germinating a unique synthesis of Cuban and American art and music. The authors also remind us that, while Cuban Americans are the most prosperous immigrant group in the United States today, this success has come at a price- living in exile can exact a personal and political toll.

Cuban Miami is a feast for the eyes, including over 180 photographs plus original cartoons drawn for the book by Jose M. Varela, a well-known artist in the Cuban-American community.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (June 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813527805
• ISBN-13: 978-0813527802
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,321,274 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent! A great analysis of Cuban-Americans in Miami., June 20, 2000

By 

jazzi - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cuban Miami (Hardcover)

Excellent! This book manages to provide a comprehensive textual documentary of the Cuban exile experience in Miami in an easy-to-read manner. It accomplishes this with its great visual exposition of photographs ranging from the early 1900's to the present time, as well as a thorough analysis of this group's migration to this country.

For those interested in understanding the Cuban-American experience, especially after the Elian Gonzalez events, this book is a must. Ironically, and it gives it more credibility, this book was written prior to the Elian saga. Yet, I think it can help answer to others why this group of opinionated, passionate, and often stubborn Cuban-Americans have reacted the way they have on the Elian debate. It indeed answers a lot of questions regarding the political, economic, and social idiosyncrasies of Cuban-Americans. Answers to such questions as why Cuban-Americans are the only Hispanic group (and probably only "minority" in this country) with an overwhelming Republican Party affiliation? Why economically Cuban-Americans have been such great implementers of the "American Dream" in such a short amount of time? Why socially Cuban-Americans are closer to the American family and religious values held in the 1950s in this country?

The authors have done a wonderful job of capturing and reporting a sense of a Cuban-nostalgic state-of-mind that only exists in the Cuban-Americans' psychic, almost frozen in time. It is a testimony of perseverance and survival to the older and first generation of Cuban exiles that arrived in this country. Their main accomplishment has been to be able to pass this "dream" or state-of-mind to the next generations. The book's last page states - "In Miami, but not in Havana, you can buy a "Cuban sandwich" and "Cuban bread," Bacardi rum and Hatuey beer." This I find ironic and hopefully fitting. Who knows? It is, I think, in the end this kind of Cuban-American capitalistic mentality which might bring back to Cuba itself a sense of Cuban identity at some point in time. Not to mention of course a sense of family and religious believes kept alive by that first generation of exiles. A sense of family and religious believes that unfortunately no longer exist in that island.

Like other groups of immigrants to this country, this book shows the Cuban-American experience as homage to the human spirit, survival, and a great tribute in itself to this great country of ours. If you're of Cuban descent and live in exile, this book will make you proud, sad, and also hopeful. If you're not of Cuban descent and living in this country, this book will make you better understand that other group of Americans residing in "Cuban Miami". And yes, it should also make you very proud of this country.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great photo book of the history of the Cuban community, September 21, 2001

By 

Jose Zalvidar (Pembroke Pines, Fl.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cuban Miami (Hardcover)

This book by one of the authors of Secret Missions, offers a pleasant and often poignant glimpe of the history of Miami's Cuban community. Rather than books of this kind, the author shows his respect for Miami's Cuban community although he does not emphasize the glittering success of its most powerful indivuduals. Rather, the book covers everyone from Peter Pan arrivals to Mariel boat people and rafters. A model study, and illustrated with wonderful cartoons and photographs.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasantly surprised, March 12, 2007

By 

S. Porretta (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cuban Miami (Hardcover)

This book exceeded my expectations. Being from Hialeah, what I consider to be the current heart of Cuban Miami - as the book mentioned, Little Havana, the old enclave of the Cuban exile, is slowly being overtaken by Central Americans - I was pleasantly surprised to see several pictures of Hialeah included (and not of the racetrack like many other books focus on, but of actual shopping centers and streets that residents can recognize).

The book does a good job at summarizing the exile experience in Miami, from the first wave of the 1960's to the Balseros of the 1990's. I wish that they would have spent as much time studying the Marielitos as they did with the first wave of exiles, though. I also like how they mention not only successful Cubans but those of the lower and working classes, though more attention should be given to them as well, as not every Cuban is living the "American Dream" and owns their own business, or even their own home. Studying poverty in the Cuban community is essential, and not just the poverty of the recent Balseros but of older immigrants who just never assimilated enough to succeed. Success stories are great and all, but there are other realities to explore as well.

I also enjoyed that the book is not just a study of Cuban immigrants but of how they have changed the culture of Miami. I especially liked how it mentions our traditions and products. As a Cuban-American, I found myself relating to a lot that the book had to say and recognizing many of the traditions, places, personalities, foods/restaurants, and stores mentioned.

I would have liked that the pictures be in color, as they were all in black and white, but this is a minor gripe.

A personal suggestion to the authors: you should write a book about Cubans in Hialeah, they are a case study onto themselves! I would also love to see an updated version showing all that has changed since the book was published in 1999, though it can still be considered current.