Like all ethnic groups in America, Cuban Americans experience the same problems as any other group, including teen pregnancy, youth incarceration, and substance abuse. With Miami being the most prominent home base for Cubans when they come to America, or where many have settled for years, it is a melting pot that offers both the good and the bad, issues ranging from cultural problems to the importance of keeping the culture alive.
The Pew Hispanic website notes that more than two-thirds of Cubans, or 68 percent, live in Florida, which is home to about 990,000 Cubans overall. Outside of Florida, New Jersey has 81,000 Cubans and the State of New York 78,000, as well as smaller percentages beginning to move to areas like California, Texas, and Georgia. It is also interesting to note that more than a third of all Cubans, or 37 percent were born in the United States, and of the approximately 913,000 Cubans who were foreign born, 30 percent entered the United States before 1980, 12 percent entered between 1980 and 1990, and 21 percent entered after 1990.
One of the characteristics of the Hispanic population in the United States overall is that Latinos tend to be younger than the rest of the U.S. population, but this is not the case with the Cuban population. Among Cubans, only 29 percent are under 25, compared to 46 percent of all Hispanics, and 31 percent of non-Hispanic whites.
The Every Culture website says the Cuban American community is well assimilated in the United States. Moreover, because of its size, Cuban Americans control significant political influence. In 1993, the Cuban American National Foundation lobbied against and successfully prevented the Clinton administration from appointing an undersecretary of state for Latin American affairs that it opposed. In fact, 78 percent of Cuban Americans were registered to vote in 1989 and 1990, compared to 77.8 percent of non-Hispanic white Americans.
The site also notes that Cuban Americans enjoy greater economic security than other Hispanic groups. In 1986, the median family income of Cuban Americans was $26,770. The Cuban American family is also different in many ways from the Cuban family in general, which means that Cubans have integrated themselves so well into the Unites States that numbers often skew as to the ethnic problems these families face including teen pregnancy, incarceration, and substance abuse. For the most part, it appears this group falls more in line with the Caucasian numbers versus the Latino in these areas.
As quoted from the Every Culture website, “The Cuban family is characterized by patriarchy, strong parental control over children's lives, and the importance of non-nuclear relationships for the nuclear family. In the United States, these elements have become less characteristic among families of Cuban descent. For example, the Cuban tradition of selecting godparents for a child who will maintain a close and quasi-parental relationship with the child has begun to decline in the United States. Compadres, or godparents, are less likely to play a significant role in the lives of Cuban American children.”
Cuban American women are also more likely to have greater authority in the family than in Cuba, in part because Cuban women are more likely to work in the United States. Authority in Cuban American families has changed as well, for example that same website notes too that children have greater freedom in the United States than in Cuba. For example, in Cuba young people are traditionally accompanied by an adult chaperon when dating, but not so much in the United States where young people often go out unaccompanied on a regular basis.
ABC News says it best, “Fusion is what the new generation of Cuban-Americans is all about.”
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Sources:
www.pewhispanic.org
www.abcnews.com
www.everyculture.com