A perceptive appreciation of Miami and what makes it tick, from a
pair of sociologists who understand that anecdotal evidence can be
as illuminating as statistical, abstracts. Drawing on demographic
data, personal observations, interviews, newspaper articles, and
allied sources, PoNes (Johns Hopkins Univ.) and Stepick (Florida
International Univ.) profile a city in which cultural diversity is
a convulsive reality. Noting that Miami has become the Caribbean's
de facto capital in the more than three decades since Castro seized
Cuba, the authors point out that political events, rather than
economic or geographic advantages, have made Miami a world-class
entrepot - a reversal of the way in which America's urban centers
usually develop. After providing a brief history of the Sunshine
State and its settlement, Portes and Stepick offer detailed
human-scale accounts of the immigrant groups that changed a sleepy
winter resort into a teeming year-round metropolis with a Hispanic
cast. Bourgeois Cubans bent on escaping Castro's Communism were the
first to arrive in force. While restructuring their adoptive city's
socioeconomic and political institutions, these exiles were joined
by less favored compatriots (the so-called Marielitos), Haitians,
and Nicaraguans fleeing the Sandinistas. By 1990, 49.2% of greater
Miami's population was Latino, up from 4.0% in 1950, by contrast,
Anglos (the local name for whites) represented but 30.3% of the
total, with blacks (native-born or otherwise) at 19.5%. As the
authors make clear, the shift in the ethnic balance of power has
not been without serious frictions - but they conclude that, once
Castro leaves the stage, assimilation pressures could prove
stronger than the ties that now bind and divide Miami's disparate
communities. A municipal report that offers clues to what could be
in store for other of America's border towns. A fine complement to
David Rieff's The Exile (p. 773). (Kirkus Reviews)
"The authors reveal how the Cuban success story has transformed the
character of Miami while delineating more sharply the identity of
other ethnic communities." --"New York Times Book Review"
"Makes a case for the importance of political capital . . . in
building ethnic solidarity."--"Contemporary Sociology"
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