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A Sentimental Political Economy of Cuba and Florida

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A Sentimental Political Economy of Cuba and Florida <cn>16 Deleted: - <ctwst>The New Cuban American Politics Deleted: / <cs>Passion, Affection, Dollars , and the Emergence of MiHavana 1 <ca>Damián Fernández <txt>Much has been written about the impact of Cuban Americans on U.S. policy toward Cuba. From scholarly and journalistic accounts a portrait emerges of a single-minded ethnic enclave Deleted: , whose power has commandeered (some would say hijacked) Washington’s decisions vis-à-vis the island. The geographic heart of the politics shaping U.S. relations with Cuba is the Deleted: , city whose name has become code for Cuban American control : Miami. To say Miami is to say Cuban Americans.1 Both terms are interchangeable in the public imaginary; both carry multiple, and at times paradoxical, connotations. Power and geography have Deleted: fate thus converged in a manner that seems to doom U.S.-Cuba relations to physical and political immutability. Geography Deleted: , becomes political destiny. But is it? And if so, is it as fixed as landmasses? Does the political geography of South Florida condemn U.S.-Cuba relations to continuity? While the policy circuit between Havana and Washington usually runs through Miami, it would be an error in judgment not to note the alternating currents flowing through it over time. 2 Geographic dimensions, including demographic concentration of 1 Did you intend MiHavana here, as in text? Yes the ethnic group in South Florida, have been necessary conditions to explain the decisive role Cuban Americans have played in U.S. foreign policy, but they are far from sufficient to explain the group’s capacity for political influence or the variations thereof. Particularly in the past decade, significant shifts in social and political patterns have taken place in South Florida--some of which point to greater direct connections between the region and the island, an emerging network that Deleted: leaving 3 excludes Washington. As Miami and its Cuban American population Deleted: outside the emerging network have changed, so has the outlook for relations with Cuba. The city is no longer the same place it was in the 1980s or 1990s. Although Cuban Americans continue to hold significant power in political and economic sectors, Greater Miami is not exclusively Deleted: o a Cuban enclave. It is now a pan-Latin entrep ôt, the gateway to the Americas, and with aspirations of becoming a global city. 4 The Latinization of Miami and the city’s expanded financial role would argue for relations with Cuba sometime in the future. Moreover, the social and demographic profile of the Cuban American community has experienced significant shifts in the past decades , resulting in redefined political contours that point to a new outlook as well. In tandem with exogenous factors, both national and international in scale, endogenous changes within Cuban Miami are ushering in a new era in the Deleted: American history of Cuban-U.S. relations. A new regional political, cultural , and economic geography is in the making. <a>Explaining Cuban American Influence on U.S. Foreign Policy <txt>Cuban American influence over U.S. policy came of age in 1980 with the establishment of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) under the leadership of Jorge Mas Canosa, a wealthy Miami businessman. 5 The early 1980s were propitious for the Cuban American lobby. The advent of Ronald Reagan’s presidency at the beginning of the decade opened the ideological doors to Cuban Americans who supported the president and who were aligned firmly with his cold war redux. By that time Cubans in Miami had garnered the economic and local political clout Deleted: to that enabled them to follow the Jewish example and become a major ethnic lobby group, specifically in the foreign policy arena. 6 The success of the Cuban American effort can be explained by four interrelated factors operating in tandem: Deleted: P <list1>{b} Convergence with the presidential worldview: Deleted: W Formatted: Font: Italic Cuban Americans were staunch supporters of President Reagan’s Formatted: Font: Italic international policies, especially his global anticommunist Formatted: Font: Italic Deleted: - crusades. As a result, not only did they find a warm reception Deleted: the in the White House for their Cuban cause, but CANF lobbied in favor of a number of other foreign policy issues on the president’s agenda, including U.S. involvement in the Central American conflicts. 7 Deleted: C <list>{b} Geographic concentration, single -issue constituency, Deleted: S Deleted: I and a one -party minority: The political “trifecta” of geographic Deleted: C concentration of a single -issue constituency with broad partisan Formatted: Font: Italic Deleted: O uniformity has tended to exaggerate the perception of Cuban Deleted: P Deleted: M American power. Their d emographic concentration in South Florida Deleted: Deleted: gave the group electoral influence that was perceived as D critical to win office, even at the national level.8 Politicians Deleted: their of all stripes courted Cuban American votes; to do so, they had Deleted: w to to e a hard line toward the Castro regime--the political litmus test that all politicians had to pass with flying colors. Cuban Americans’ overwhelming predilection for the Republican Party (due to its hawkish disposition in international affairs and the Kennedy administration’s blunders in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion) provided them with a partisan foothold that served them well. The Republican Party of South Florida, in need of new blood in the 1970s and 1980s, welcomed Cuban Americans and embraced their cause. Eventually three Cuban Americans from Miami and one from New Jersey (a Democrat) would serve in the Deleted: their U.S. Congress. 9 Despite the group's overwhelming Republicanism, 2 Deleted: the politicians of all stripes courted Cuban American voters. To do 2 Their . politicians implies the politicians are overwhelmingly Republican. so, they had to support the U.S. embargo and oppose normalization of relations. Formatted: Font: Italic <list>{b} The politics of passion: In Cuban American political culture no other issue has mustered the emotional charge that relations with Cuba has. Such intensity is at the heart of the politics of passion. The politics of passion is a manner of relating to political issues that are deemed foundational, moral, and absolute--never to be compromised. 10 The politics of passion vests politics with ethical transcendence by converting Deleted: manicheistic the mundane into a Manichaean struggle for the ultimate good. This sort of passion can be leveraged as a source of political Deleted: capital insofar as it can be deployed effectively to mobilize Deleted: Deleted: to reach one’s groups and to channel resources toward a particular goal. Formatted: Font: Italic <list2>{b} Effective lobbying strategy and the power of the Deleted: L Deleted: S dollar: While motivated by passion, CANF (and its political Deleted: P action committee) was a pragmatic lobby that established a Deleted: D Deleted: the strong organization which partnered with other groups, stayed on Deleted: P Deleted: A message, supported the president on a number of political Deleted: C Deleted: fronts, and made financial contributions to leaders on both that sides of the congressional aisle. Under the leadership of Jorge Deleted: the effectiveness of Mas Canosa, a master at combining pragmatism with passion, CANF the was guaranteed to be effective . However, barring the economic gains of Cuban Americans, specifically the financial wherewithal Deleted: the of the businessmen who created CANF and their generous contributions to the organization and political campaigns, the efforts of the group would not have mounted to much. In sum, Deleted: the CANF became a consummate player in the political lobby game by Deleted: played Deleted: 11 as a consummate mixing passion with dollars and effective organization. player <txt> These four factors in tandem explain the relative success the Cuban American lobby garnered in a relatively short time. But success came at a cost. The public perceived, rightly or wrongly, that U.S. policy toward Cuba was in the grip of Cubans from Miami, an image which Cuban Americans themselves were eager to exploit for political purposes. The image of power became, itself, quite powerful. <a>The Paradox of Control <txt>Over time Cuban Americans became represented in paradoxical terms of control. On the one hand, this paradox of control depicts the Cuban American community as an all-powerful Deleted: which political actor that holds the reins of decision making in U.S. Deleted: - Deleted: Cuba policy toward Cuba . From this vantage point the community is in Deleted: it control of the decision to isolate and pressure Cuba through the embargo and other punitive measures. Cuban Americans, crafty masters of the lobby game, hijacked U.S. foreign policy. If it were not for their political influence, Washington would be free to alter its course vis-à-vis Havana in a rational and prudent Deleted: best direction that would better serve the national interest. The Deleted: . only force keeping the United States from normalizing its Deleted: . relations with Cuba after the cold war is the recalcitrant Cuban American minority in South Florida. Miami is the locus of power brokerage. To get to Havana from Washington, one must pass through Miami. But the Cuban American gatekeepers do not allow reform er s of the status quo to pass through. They are firmly in control. 12 On the other hand, the paradox of control portrays Cuban Americans as being out of control, teetering at the edge of irrationality, in civility, and un-American-ness. 3 Operating on Deleted: the border of America, Miami, they are trigger -happy, ready to shoot down anyone who opposes their position on U.S.-Cuba relations. They are all too eager to take to the streets, to bend the rules of the political game, and to act in an uncivil manner that approximates derangement.
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