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Cubans in Puerto
Rico
Ethnic Economy
and Cultural Identity
by José A. Cobas and Jorge Duany
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this Book now
In the first detailed portrait of the Cubans of Puerto Rico,
José Cobas and Jorge Duany study the Cubans’ reception and
social mobility beginning with the first wave of migration to
Puerto Rico in the early 1960s. Exploring the ways in which Cuban
immigrants have assumed the minority role of the "classical
middleman," the authors describe the combination of
characteristics typical of such a group. They then delineate
characteristics that distinguish the Cubans of Puerto Rico from
the model.
Predominant among the distinguishing characteristics is the rapid
rate of Cuban integration into the larger Puerto Rican community.
The authors attribute this difference to a number of societal
factors, including similarities of culture, language, and
religion and a greater willingness on the part of Cubans to
out-marry. Moreover, most immigrating Cubans have higher levels
of schooling and income than the island’s population and so
tend to gravitate to the upper strata of society.
As a result, the authors argue, Cubans in Puerto Rico will remain
in the middleman position for a shorter period of time than is
typical, ultimately merging into the larger society and
disappearing as a distinct ethnic group, much as the immigrant
German population did in Czarist Russia. This volume constitutes
an important addition to the growing body of literature on Cuban
immigration and will appeal, more broadly, to students and
scholars of race, ethnicity, multiculturalism, economics, and
immigration policy.
José Cobas is professor of sociology at Arizona
State University, Tempe. Jorge Duany is
associate professor of anthropology and director of the Revista
de Ciencias Sociales at the University of Puerto Rico in
Río Piedras. He is coauthor of El Barrio Gandul: Economía
subterránea y migración indocumentada en Puerto Rico
(1995).
1997. 176 pp. 6 X 9.
24 tables, notes,
bibliography, index.
ISBN 0-8130-1499-9
Cloth, $55.00
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"This work is an important contribution not only to the literature on Cuban Americans but on Puerto Rico as well." --
Florida Historical Quarterly
"Cubans in Puerto Rico makes a number of valuable contributions. Cobas and Duany usher in a discussion of Puerto Rico as an immigrant destination; they propose an agenda for comparative work on the Cuban exile experience moving to separate the tangle of misperceptions and evidence that has shaped inaccurate notions of 'gusanos' and 'golden exiles'; and, finally, they invite us to consider the impact that the migration of Caribbean peoples may have for others within a region already shaped by countless diasporas. . . . the volume should also prove a valuable teaching tool offering students a synthesis from which to launch discussions regarding the variety of Latin American migratory experiences and varying constructions of group identity, among other
topics."--H-Net Reviews
"An important contribution that has been a long time in
coming."--Walter P. Zenner, State University of New York,
Albany
"This volume enhances our capacity to understand . . . [and]
our need to develop different theoretical models with which to
explain different [ethnic] experiences, as well as the extent to
which different experiences are shaped by historically contingent
factors. . . . A very solid contribution."--Silvia Pedraza,
University of Michigan
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