CUBAN MIGRATION UNCHECKED

Press, Issue 30997, 1 March 1966, Page 17

CUBAN MIGRATION UNCHECKED

[By FRANK OLIVER, N.Z.P.A special correspondent.] WASHINGTON, Feb. 27.

One of the big human migrations of this century still goes steadily forward. Every day American planes touch down near Miami with passengers from Castro’s Cuba—about 200 a day.

The total brought since this humanitarian rescue mission was started is now 10,000 men, women and children but in Cuba more than 200,000 Cubans tired of the Castro regime wait their turn to board those planes for the flight which, in less than an hour will bring them to the United States.

These refugees are bringing great changes to Florida and particularly to the Miami area, which they rapidly are latinising.

By the time the migration is complete, perhaps two years from now, there well may be almost as many Span-ish-speaking as English-speak-ing people in the Miami area. Even now on the streets of the city one is just .as apt to hear “hasta la vista’” as “so long” when friends part. “The latinisation of this town," says one Miami newspaper, “is not only ’complete but also permanent.” Just over 350,000 people live in the Miami area and 95,000 of them are Cubans; there are also 25.000 other Latins from the other countries of the southern hemisphere. Miami is rapidly becoming a bi-lingual city. Not ail the refugees of this great airlift are staying in the Miami area though most of them try to stay there. It is the nearest point

to their home country and the nearest thing to the Cuban climate.

Some refugees go to Tampa, which has a large Latin population that provides the labour for the biggest cigar manufacturing business in the country.

Other refugees have passed through the state to New York, New Jersey, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, Pennsylvania and Louisiana, in that order as far as numbers go. But it is on Miami that the greatest impact has been made. One writer who knows the Havana of pre-Castro days says Flagler street in downtown Miama now has the same hissing sound of Spanish and the same garlicky smells that once entranced him on the Avenida Italiano in old Havana. The authorities who handle this continuing influx of Cubans seem to agree that the number of Cubans who have improved their lot and lives by settling in the United States is far in excess of those who have found living here more difficult. Cubans are already making their mark on the cultural, social and economic patterns of Miami. Even newspapers are becoming bilingual. A lot of refugees are naturally homesick. They detested Castro but loved Cuba and will never love Florida as well. There is on Biscayne boulevard, Miami, the “American Club,” transplanted there from the Prado in Havana. It is the gathering place for Cubans and sympathetic Americans.

Members seem happy in Miami, says one visitor, but feel that somehow, someday, the club will go back to the Prado when Castro is no more and the old life they loved is restored.

But many arrivals are more realistic and are settling down to life in the United States, going about the trades and professions they followed in Cuba, learning English and integrating themselves into a

new country and a new life and adding a Latin overtone. Economically, it will take them some time to raise their levels to those of their hosts. Doctors and nurses, for instance, must study in English and pass new examinations for license to practice. Meanwhile they work at very reduced rates of pay. Some of them are victimised though usually by their own kind. Cuban domestic help, says one newspaper, gets long hours and short shrift. Some American employers also take advantage of these Cubans, employing domestic help for much less than American help would command. There are many refugees who are not yet enjoying the minimum rates of pay laid down by law. But in the main they are “getting along” and filtering into American life with less friction than might have been

expected. There is some grumbling by Americans, of course, over this influx of foreigners but this has been compared by one IrishAmerican as similar to the grumbling Boston indulged in when Irish emigrants were getting off the ships in such large numbers. Recently a local newspaper said: “Miami is our great Latin city and it won’t be anything different in the foreseeable future. The subtle influence of our Latin-American emigrants will modify our manners and our speech.” Other developments are tending to make Miami the Latin melting pot of the nation. It is the door through which many people first enter Latin-America and Latins first come into the United States. Last year two million air passengers passed through Miami going to and returning from Latin-America.