Andrea Mitchell - "The Cuban-Americans in Miami........"

"Cuban-Americans"

funny. I don't recall having heard the following....

"Mexican-Americans"
"Brazilian-Americans"
"Guatelmalan-Americans"
"El Salvadorian-Americans"

:think:

There is a memo around somewhere.

And we referred to US-born and naturalized US citizens of Mexican descent as "Mexican-Americans", we called illegals and other non-US-citizens "Mexicans".

Seems like a reasonable distinction to me.

is that really the only difference?

But I thought you were more concerned with the label than the laws.

I also spent several years living in Miami, and although the right-wing tendencies of the local Cuban population and their obession with Castro is annoying, I have to give them credit for being very patriotic as Americans, and they have done a lot to revitalize Miami into a hub of Latine American commerce.

Besides, the second and third generation Miami Cubans tend to be a lot more moderate than their ancestors...

reason we do not trade with Cuban.

At one time, Florida had TWO Welfare computer systems. One for common folks and one for Cuban-Americans. The Feds at one time paid more Fed $$$ for a Cuban-American on welfare than a common American.

Still see it in print sometimes as a self-description but more typically it's been replaced with Latino. Of course, "Mexicans" by itself is used a pejorative shorthand for any Latino perceived as an illegal immigrant. I do agree that it seems that Cuban-Americans are referred to much more so by that identity rather than as Latino.


side note: the Brazilian-Americans that I knew in the East Cambridge/Somerville area were quick to point to make that distinction if someone lumped them in with people from other Portuguese speaking areas. Most pointedly, they did not want to be confused with Azoreans. There was a whole social order that I never quite understood, but that's another thread.

:)

:hi:

Growing up in Miami I've never heard of anyone refer to themselves as Cuban American.

who proudly called themselves Cubans. I never once heard the term Cuban American.

:shrug: I'm not very fond of hyphenated Americanism.

but had cuban parents. They referred to themselves as Cubans. Never heard them call themselves Cuban-Americans