Reconstructing the Patriarchy within the Enclave: The Cuban Case Revisited

Abstract

My intention when landing at Miami International Airport, was to interview Cuban women who had recently emigrated to the United States and found employment. My previous work history with Miami-Dade County's Head Start program helped to provide access to women who worked, used public services to enhance their family's quality of life, and lived within the ethnic and geographic boundaries of the "Little Havana" neighborhood. I had hoped to explore the experiences of the new Cuban émigrés who came by raft or were smuggled to the United States. After all, they had lived most if not all of their lives in communist Cuba and, unlike their predecessors, were coming for economic as well as political reasons. I could not foresee the effect one small child could have on galvanizing this aging community. The events surrounding Elian Gonzalez would change my view of this community, but more importantly my view of myself as a Cuban and a woman raised far from the political turmoil that has been Miami's history.