The declining symbolic significance of the embargo for South Florida's Cuban Americans

Abstract

The latest survey -in a series extending from 1991 to 2008 -shows for the first time that the US trade embargo no longer enjoys majority support among South Florida's Cuban Americans. This erosion of support may not be entirely a result of the failure of the embargo to accomplish its proclaimed goal. Nearly 50 years of economic sanctions against Cuba have not precipitated the Castro regime's compliance or collapse. Yet, majority support for the embargo was sustained across all Cuban American immigration cohorts and generations in a 2004 survey (N ¼ 1807). Significantly, the same survey shows that specific components of a full embargobanning or restricting food, medicine and travel -obtained no more than minority support in any cohort arriving after 1981. This apparent discrepancy suggests that the embargo -embedded in an ''exile ideology'' -had become a more palatable, overarching anti-Castro symbol than have specific anti-Castro sanctions. Logistic Regression results show that with respect to anti-Castro measures, sanctions incurring tangible costs generate the greatest disagreement among South Florida's Cuban Americans. Ultimately, in December 2008, even a largely symbolic expression of the exile ideology, Republican registration, was no longer embraced by a majority of Cuban Americans who had either recently immigrated or were born outside Cuba.

Before the Thaw: The Transnational Routes of Cuban Popular Culture

“…Instead of advocating for travel restrictions and the embargo, recent arrivals are more likely to build and strengthen connections with the island. Although the Cuban diaspora across the generational spectrum has grown more open to engagement in the twenty-first century, the widest gap between supporters and detractors has predictably fallen across generational lines, pre-and post-1980 arrivals (Girard, Grenier, and Gladwin 2010;Grenier et al 2007). 6 As the twenty-first century has progressed, arrivals since the 1990s have been at the forefront of developing and maintaining transnational relationships with the island culturally and economically.…”

Do All Evangelicals Think Alike? An Examination of Religious Affiliation and the Partisan Identification of Latinxs

“…Upon arrival, Cubans began the process of becoming racialized in the U.S. context, a process fraught with tension, negotiation, and movement (De la Garza 1994). And, anti‐Castro politics and the embargo have declined in significance among Cuban Americans (Girard, Grenier, and Gladwin, ). As a younger Cuban electorate replaces the older cohort, it is thus reasonable to expect a more sizeable proportion of this ethnic group to support the Democratic Party (Krogstad, 2012; Girard, Grenier, and Gladwin, ; Moreno and Warren, ; Hill and Moreno, ).…”

Cuban Miami on the Air: Narratives of Cubanía

“…Susan Eckstein has studied how more recent arrivals in the USA are transforming life in Cuba today as a result of the 'social and economic ties across borders' that have 'eroded socialism as the islanders knew it ' (2009, 4). Girard et al (2010) have chronicled the 'declining symbolic significance' of the embargo among Cuban Americans in south Florida. Yet the mainstream narrative of Cubans in the USA as a homogeneous group united in its conservative politics has been resistant to change: 'Because exile serves as such a powerful unifying experience for a people, the tendency has been to categorize all Cubans living in exile as sharing the same political identity and political culture' (Grenier et al 2007: 94).…”

“…In fact, many support the idea of an invasion backed by the US government (Florida International University Poll 2007). With that said, the US-born generation is more open to dismantling the embargo, allowing travel, and engaging the Cuban government in dialogue than their parents and grandparents (Girard et al 2010). But while there is a wealth of polling information, analysis of changes in political opinions across generational cohorts (Hill and Moreno 1996;Grenier, et al 2007;Bishin and Klofstad 2011) and studies of US policy shifts on Cuban migration (Henken 2005;Duany 2011), there is relatively little scholarly coverage on how different generations of Cubans in Miami represent each other and the hardline exile politics that were once so dominant in the media, radio in particular.…”