Full Citation

Title: Introduction: If Elián Were Black?

Citation Type: Book, Section

Publication Year: 2016

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Abstract: This chapter is designed to draw the reader into the conceptual origins of the book using firsthand experience. As the son of “white” Cuban exiles, the conventional narrative about Cuban immigration to the USA has often been written in my favor (or from a white, privileged perspective), with romantic, rose-colored glasses void of any critical intra-group race-centered perspectives. Here I invoke a reflexive approach, taking the reader to my short time in Cuba as a visiting Master’s degree student in early 2000 amidst the Elián González international custody debacle, when a revealing bus stop conversation inspired me to explore how racial identities have been constructed in the Miami Cuban ethnic enclave and as to how they are related to disparate economic realities of Cubans based on race. I briefly explain the salience of this book, its overall contribution to the vast immigration literature, and describe the methodology and the organizational path (chapter summaries) for the rest of the book.

Url: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/978-1-137-57045-1_1

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Authors: Aja, Alan, A

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Pages: 1-26

Volume Title: Miami’s Forgotten Cubans

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Publisher Location: New York

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Other, Race and Ethnicity

Countries: United States