Miami’s Forgotten Cubans : Race, Racialization, and the Miami Afro-Cuban Experience

This book explores the reception experiences of post-1958 Afro-Cubans in South Florida in relation to their similarly situated "e;white"e; Cuban compatriots. Utilizing interviews, ethnographic observations, and applying Census data analyses, Aja begins not with the more socially diverse 1980 Mariel boatlift, but earlier, documenting that a small number of middle-class Afro-Cuban exiles defied predominant settlement patterns in the 1960 and 70s, attempting to immerse themselves in the newly formed but ultimately racially exclusive "e;ethnic enclave."e; Confronting a local Miami Cuban "e;white wall"e; and anti-black Southern racism subsumed within an intra-group "e;success"e; myth that equally holds Cubans and other Latin Americans hail from "e;racial democracies,"e; black Cubans immigrants and their children, including subsequent waves of arrival and return-migrants, found themselves negotiating the boundaries of being both "e;black"e; and "e;Latino"e; in the United States.