Imagining Miami: Toward a Theory of Ethnicity in the Postmodern World
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IMAGINING MIAMI: TOWARD A THEORY OF ETHNICITY IN THE POSTMODERN WORLD By SHEILA L. CROUCHER A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 1993 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Completion of a dissertation is viewed by many as the end of a sometimes treacherous journey. Thanks to the help of a variety of individuals, I view the journey neither as treacherous, nor as an end. I am particularly grateful to Steve Sanderson, Jim Button, and Charles Wood, on whose wisdom, guidance and friendship I have relied incessantly over the past several years. Throughout the intellectual life of this project they each helped me to re- imagine as opportunities whatever obstacles I managed to "socially construct." I also wish to thank Richard Scher, Rene Lemarchand, and Goran Hyden, whose insight greatly enriched the quality of this project. I am equally grateful to a number of people who assisted me during my fleldwork in Miami. Maurice Ferre, former mayor of Miami, Dr. Kevin Yelvington at Florida International University, and Lloyd Major, executive director of the Dade County Community Relations Board, were particularly helpful. So, too, were the many interview respondents who willingly invited me into their offices and homes and shared with me details of their personal and professional lives. Finally, I thank my parents, Sam and Mary Lou Croucher, and my sister, Lisa. Their own commitments to intellectual growth have been a source of inspiration and their love a source of constant support. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT v CHAPTER 1 POSTMODERN MIAMI 1 The State of the Field 6 New Directions 10 Methodological Challenges 15 Concluding Remarks 19 Notes 21 2 FROM "MAGIC CITY" TO "PARADISE LOST": THE EVOLUTION OF ETHNIC CONFLICT IN MIAMI 22 Magic for Whom? Miami from 1950 to 1960 26 The Cuban Influx: Economic Miracle or Mayhem? 31 Paradise Lost: Miami in the 1980s 43 City of the Future: Miami in the 1990s 53 The Tri-Ethnic Fallacy 61 Concluding Remaiics 65 Notes 68 3 THE DISCOURSE OF DISPLACEMENT: CONSTRUCTING THE THREAT OF AN IMMIGRANT TAKEOVER 70 Claims-Making Activity in Miami: 1960 To 1990 73 The Job Displacement Debate 93 An Idea Whose Time Had Come 101 Concluding Remarks 113 Notes 118 4 THE SUCCESS OF THE CUBAN SUCCESS STORY: THE POLITICS OF ETHNIC IDENTITY IN MIAMI 119 The Success Story 121 Myth-Making 139 The PoUtics of Ethnic Identity 151 Concluding Remarks 163 Notes 165 111 5 MANDELA IN MIAMI: THE GLOBALIZATION OF ETHNICITY IN AN INTERNATIONAL CITY 166 An International City 168 Mandela in Miami 172 Global Linkages 182 The Invention of Ethnicity 187 Concluding Remarks 202 Notes 204 6 CONTESTED REALITIES/SHIFTING TERRAIN: TOWARD A THEORY OF ETHNICITY IN THE POSTMODERN WORLD 206 Constructed Realities 208 Contested Symbols and Competing Claims 213 Shifting Terrain 215 Tri-Ethnic Politics 218 Toward a Theory Of Ethnicity 221 Concluding Remarks 224 Notes 227 APPENDICES A LABOR MARKET ANALYSIS 228 B RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 231 C INTERVIEW SCHEDULE FOR COMMUNITY INFORMANTS 235 D ANTI-BILINGUAL REFERENDUM PETITION 237 E CITIZENS OF DADE UNITED MEMBERSHIP FORM 239 F CUBAN REFUGEE CENTER BULLETIN 241 G "REMEMBER MANDELA" REGISTRATION DRIVE 243 REFERENCES 244 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 263 IV Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy IMAGINING MIAMI: TOWARD A THEORY OF ETHNICITY IN THE POSTMODERN WORLD by Sheila L. Croucher August 1993 Chairman: Steven E. Sanderson Cochairman: James W. Button Major Department: Political Science Metropolitan Miami has long captured the world's attention in a provocative way. During the 1980s, a series of violent racial disturbances focused local, national and international attention on Miami as analysts and observers scrambled to account for the "Magic City's" demise. What has emerged from this multitude of overlapping, intersecting and competing claims is an image of Miami as an urban area in which three distinct ethnic groups--Hispanics, Blacks and Anglos--are pitted against one another in a zero-sum battle for limited political, economic and social resources. A close examination of these various claims reveals, however, that neither the issues and problems over which groups struggle, nor the identities and interests around which group members coalesce, are well grounded in empirical fact. Recognizing the gap between objective conditions and subjective "realities" in Miami, this research addresses ethnic conflict from a new direction. The analysis focuses on cultural, political and economic processes that construct explanations for social phenomena that become widely accepted independently of their basis in fact. By elevating the role of perception and the manner in which perceptions are created, manipulated, used and changed, the investigation is less concerned with (although never ignorant oO objective conditions, focusing instead on how reality is socially and politically constructed. Data are drawn from an ethnographic analysis of claims-making activity in Miami from 1960 through 1990, including in-depth interviews with community leaders, politicians, journalists and business people in Miami, and a comprehensive review of the periodical and popular literature on Miami. Results indicate that ethnic conflict and ethnic identities in Miami are most accurately viewed as competing discourses, or definitions of reality, that, although not well-grounded in empirical data, can be traced to the tug and pull of vested interests and the changing nature of power and politics— locally, nationally, and internationally. Given the social, political and economic trends expected to take place in the future, Miami qualifies as a bellwether of urban issues throughout the US. Furthermore, this particular approach to understanding social reality in general, and ethnicity in particular, has implications that extend well beyond the confines of Metropolitan Miami. VI CHAPTER 1 POSTMODERN MIAMI Every major national transformation the United States is undcrgoing--from the postindustrial revolution to the aging of America, and from the third great wave of immigration into the United States to the redefinition of American sexual relationships —has converged on Miami. How Miami solves, or fails to solve, those problems cannot but provide clues as to how the whole country will cope with the massive changes - full of both peril and opportunity - that arc transforming the lives of us all. T.D. Allman (1987) Miami: City of the Future For the past thirty years, Miami has captured the world's imagination in powerful and provocative ways. Images of tourists leisurely strolling along sun-drenched beaches compete with images of the sunstroked bodies of Haitian refugees washed up along those same shores. Never too far removed from the glitz and glitter of an "American Riviera" are the burning buildings and broken glass of a "Paradise Lost." The multitude of metaphors that have been used to characterize Miami facilitate little more than the understanding that Miami is a city not easily understood. Yet, frequent references to Miami as a "City of the Future" or the "Prototypical City of the 21st Century" suggest that if the rest of the United States, if not the world, is to confront and cope with the numerous social, cultural, economic and political trends that have converged, sometimes violently, on South Florida in recent years, then Miami is a city that must be understood.^ The analysis that follows is an attempt to understand social "reality" in Miami. The goal is not simply to elucidate the political complexities of a dynamic and multifaceted urban area. Instead, Miami provides the laboratory 1 in which to explore a variety of social, political, economic and cultural phenomena—the implications of which extend far beyond the confines of the Metropolitan Miami area. The focus is on ethnicity and ethnic group relations—topics of undeniable relevance in today's strife-ridden world and ones with which Miami is closely associated. Again, the goal is not to simply add to the volume of literature already written on a fascinating topic, but to approach ethnic relations, and Miami, from a new direction. The hope is that the "City of the Future" may offer some insight into how the prospects for a more peaceful future can be improved, not just for Miami, but for the world. This project originally began as a modest attempt to explore the roots of urban rage in Metropolitan Miami. In May of 1980, twelve years after the devastating Watts riots of 1968 and twelve years before Los Angeles again would erupt after the acquittal of the police officers accused in the beating of Rodney King, Miami was engulfed in the flames of one of the worst racial upheavals in US history. The public reaction was one of shock, bewilderment and utter disbelief. Over a three day period, entire neighborhoods were destroyed, fires set, windows broken and homes and businesses looted. In addition to severe property damage, eighteen human lives were tragically lost- -some through astonishing displays of hatred and disgust. The following account by Marvin Dunn (Forthcoming) vividly illustrates a level of horror and hostility seldom captured by academic analyses of urban conflict. The story is of a brutal attack on two brothers who were driving through Liberty City on their way home from the beach the evening the McDuffie verdict was announced: The Kulp brothers, from all accounts, were beaten continuously by a variety of people for about fifteen to twenty minutes. They were punched, karate-kicked and struck with rocks, bricks, bottles and pieces of concrete, one of which was later recovered by homicide detectives, weighed 23 pounds. At one point, someone picked up a yellow Miami Herald newspaper dispenser and brought it down on Jeffrey Kulp's head.