ECONOMIC ADAPTATIONS OF A CUBAN COMMUNITY

ECONOMIC ADAPTATIONS OF A CUBAN COMMUNITY*

Alice James Department of Anthropology

Lehman College, City University of New York Bronx, New York 10468

Since the end of 1958, the United States has become a haven for an estimated 650,000 Cuban exiles,? many of whom have been resettled throughout the country. As these resettled Cuban populations are currently living under a variety of sociocultural conditions, they offer anthropologists invaluable laboratory settings for the study of social process, but unfortunately, anthropologists have largely overlooked these communities in their research. Surprisingly, to date only two accounts of resettled Cuban communities have been published: a de- tailed study of assimilation in West New York, N.J., by Rogg’ and a study of the degree of integration of 48 Cuban families in Milwaukee, Wisc., by Portes2 However, neither of these studies focuses on the adaptive potential of the refugees’ sociocultural heritage. This shortage of comparative data from resettled communities, plus the paucity of information dealing with the prerevolutionary sociocultural characteristics of the refugee population, seriously limits the scientific precision of the present study. Within these limitations the research attempts to analyze the problems of economic adaptation among the resettled Cuban refugees living in the adjacent villages of Tarrytown and North Tarry- town, Westchester County, N.Y. In particular, the paper attempts to answer two crucial questions: Which strategies were used by the Cubans in achieving financial independence? What motivated and sustained their economic struggle? Analysis of the data suggests that the two most critical factors in the process were (1) preadaptation (mainly through the class system) and (2) transplantation to the United States of their most important social institution, the extended family.

Data for the research were obtained largely through fieldwork in the two villages. Because of the long working hours of many husbands and wives, I felt morally obligated to modify my fieldwork plans to make them more reciprocal in nature. To achieve this goal I served as a volunteer in Adult Education Classes in “English as a Second Language” and was thereby able to help the refugees both in English and in coping with local institutions, particularly the schools. As a resident of North Tarrytown myself, this approach was both comfortable and invaluable in establishing good rapport with the Cuban community-facilitating in-depth interviews and generating invitations to family gatherings. Considering the overall nature of the refugee community--small, many literate in English, plus the strong cultural drive to present a good public image4 have limited the amount and the detail of case materials presented.

To place the Tarrytown Cuban community in perspective, a short review

*Presented at the March 25, 1974 meeting of the Section of Anthropology. ?Although the political connotations of the term “exile” probably make it

the more accurate descriptive term, both “exile” and “refugee” are used inter- changeably in the text.

194

James: Cuban Community 195

of salient historical events will be p re~en ted .~ With the fall of Batista at the end of 1958, the first wave of Cuban exiles began pouring into Miami and continued until October 22, 1962, the date of President Kennedy’s speech on Cuban missiles. The following day, in retaliation, Castro banned all commercial flights to and from the United States. During this period, 1958- 1962, the first t o leave Cuba were the “Batistianos,” those who had been part of the power elite. They were followed shortly by members of the upper and middle classes. Not only were these early exiles members of the upper levels of Cuban society, but they also brought considerable assets with them from Cuba. After the Bay of Pigs, June 1961, the Cuban government limited those departing from the island to a minimum of personal necessities. By this time the composition of the refugee population was changing to include increasingly larger num- bers of lower middle class people. Commercial flights still continued to operate between Havana and Miami, carrying between 1,600 and 1,900 Cubans per week, many of whom were unaccompanied children.

The years 1962-1965 marked a sharp decline in the number of Cubans entering the United States, for during this period the only commercial air routes offering entry to this country were through Mexico and Spain. Entry by either of these routes was expensive because of the substantial cost of the air fare as well as the need for extended maintenance in the intermediate country while awaiting a visa. The long trip often entailed considerable hardships on the refugees and considerable financial drain on the relatives in the United States who were sponsoring them. A second small stream of refugees escaped from Cuba illegally by crossing the Florida Straits in small boats.

In December 1965, with the establishment of the Cuban Refugee Airlift (Freedom Flights) under an agreement between the governments of the United States and Cuba, the second large influx of Cuban refugees began. Two Freedom Flights per day, five days a week, flew regularly through August 6, 1971, when a series of interruptions punctuated the regularity of the flights. A known total of 260,561 people had been brought t o the United States by the time the last flight, No. 3048, landed on April 6,1973.

Miami became the haven to which the exiles gravitated. The city was chosen because of its proximity, its ease of access, and its familiarity to many. Proximity to Cuba was important because the early exiles viewed their stay as temporary, i.e., until Castro could be deposed. By the end of 1960 the number of refugees had increased so rapidly that they far exceeded the capacities of the local job market as well as the agencies providing emergency services. To alleviate this critical situation, President Eisenhower established a Cuban Refugee Emergency Center in Miami in 1960, which was reorganized in 1961 by President Kennedy into the Cuban Refugee Program under the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The program operated through both governmental and private agencies and offered a wide range of services in the areas of employment, resettlement, financial assistance, health service, assistance to local schools, retraining and other educational opportunities, aid for unaccompanied children, and provisions for surplus food distribution. It has been estimated that about 650,000 Cubans have immigrated since 1959, and the largest concentration is still cen- tered in the Miami area, totalling more than 300,000 people in Dade County. Second to Florida is New York State, with 80,913 resettled refugees, but Cubans have also been resettled to self-supporting opportunities in all of the States and the District of C ~ l u m b i a . ~

196 Annals New Y ork Academy of Sciences

As of May 1974, the largest populations of resettled Cubans, apart from Florida, are found in:4

New York 80,913 Massachusetts 8,217 Georgia 2,383 New Jersey 59,257 Texas 5,404 Ohio 2,370 California 39,686 Connecticut 3,882 D. Columbia 2,324 Illinois 22,384 Pennsylvania 3,843 Virginia 2,108 Louisiana 8,308 Michigan 2,820 Maryland 1,811

The majority of the refugees came to the Tarrytowns through the resettlement program of the Cuban Refugee Program, which provides: “supplemental funds for the resettlement of refugees in other areas, including transportation and adjustment costs t o the new communities, and for their eventual return to Miami for repatriation to their homeland as soon as that is again pos~ible.”~ The pri- mary objective of the program was to secure employment for the exiles, and employment was the major reason for accepting resettlement. The prospect of leaving Miami was distasteful, for Miami was geographically close to Cuba, the climate was similar, and it was “Little Havana,” where the Spanish language and many of the traditional patterns were still operative. Reluctance to leave was mitigated by the prospect of a job, as well as resettlement in a community where relatives lived. Linking resettlement job opportunities with the presence of relatives represented a continued reliance on the extended family. Thus relatives, and sometimes close friends, served as lifelines to newcomers. By choosing to live near relatives, the exiles have produced a clustering of people from the same sections of Cuba within particular towns in Westchester and northern New Jersey (Ref. 1, p. 27-28).

The earliest Cuban settlers in the Tarrytowns, however, were not refugees but rather a few lower class families who for economic reasons had immigrated to the United States prior to the revolution. Other Cubans moved to the towns from New York City and neighboring areas because of employment opportunities at the large General Motors Assembly Plant in North Tarrytown. In turn, these people formed nuclei around which later refugees clustered. The fact that the earliest settlers were lower class people probably accounts for some lower class refugees resettling in the Tarrytowns, i.e., their relatives, and friends.

Tarrytown and North Tarrytown, on the, eastern shore of the Hudson River about 25 miles north of New York City, are a dramatic change from “Little Havana” in Miami. Instead of the ambience of a semi-tropical city, the towns are contiguous northern incorporated villages which share a common school system and serve as bedroom suburbs for commuters t o Manhattan as well as home to a number of people who live and work in the towns or in neighboring communities. In addition, there is a flow of traffic into the villages; t o the General Motors Assembly Plant, General Foods, and to a number of smaller industrial and business enterprises. According to the 1970 census, the population of Tarrytown was 11,400, of whom 433 were Cubans; that of North Tarrytown was 9,200, of whom 517 were Cubans.

Because of the great socioeconomic diversities of the village, the Cubans occupy a niche where they are not visible curiosities, but rather the most recent arrivals in a spectrum of ethnic variability. Economic standards range from families on welfare to the Rockefeller families of Pocantico Hills. Much of the diversity of the peoples who have populated the area is preserved in the variety of clubs, churches, and in some of the stores. Among the better known clubs are those of the Blacks, Cubans, French-Canadians, Hungarians, Irish, Italian, Portuguese, and Slovaks. The telephone directory lists four Roman Catholic


Churches, one of which is Italian, and a second Slovak; 12 Protestant churches, including four Black churches, The First Church of Christ Scientist, and the Sal- vation Army; an& a Hebrew temple. In addition, Sunday services conducted in Spanish by native Spanish-speaking clergymen are offered by St. Theresa’s Roman Catholic Church and by the First Baptist Church.

In contrast with the demographic portrait of the Cuban refugee population as a whole, which indicates a great preponderance of people drawn from the middle and upper ~ l a s ses ,~ the population of the Tarrytowns is drawn primarily from the lower middle class but dips down into the upper lower class. By direct ques- tioning it is impossible to ascertain the class membership of an individual, for most will respond, “middle class.” Indications of former lower class status come from innuendos by neighbors and people from the same part of Cuba, with the admonition: “He or she doesn’t like to be reminded of it.” Supporting evidence for class composition was obtained from three sources: occupations in Cuba, place of origin, and level of formal education. In a limited survey of jobs held in Cuba, lower middle class occupations predominate, i.e.: carpenters, owners of small stores (frequently in small towns), government clerks, beauticians, book- keepers, and skilled workers. Teachers, although not numerous, represent the largest professional category. A small number of farm workers from the sugar and tobacco industries represent the upper spectrum of the lower class. Further indicators of lower class origin are the rural origin of some families (traditionally an area overwhelmingly lower class) and their limited formal education.

Although the Cuban community is small, constituting only 4.6% of the total population of the two villages, the people have not organized themselves around any single institution or ideology. Instead, clusters of people focus to varying degrees on the Liceo Cubano, particular churches, and above all on family and friends. This is not surprising, for a sense of community membership was not a traditional pattern, and t o Cubans the usual connotation of “comunidad” is a religious community of priest, nuns, or brothers. The cement of the social fabric was supplied instead by the extended family. Despite fragmentation of the extended family through exile and resettlement, many of the Tarrytown families are extended units, including close nuclear families of two or more siblings and/or cousins and are often three generations deep. The sense of family is not restricted to those living in town but embraces as well those living in other parts of Westchester, northern New Jersey, Miami, etc., and those in Cuba. Bonds are strengthened by frequent telephone calls and letters and, whenever possible, by visits.

Members of the family remaining in Cuba are constantly in the thoughts of those living here. Of particular concern is their obligation to help relatives, especially members of one’s nuclear family, to leave Cuba for the United States. Sponsoring a relative often places a substantial burden on the family members in the States, for all who are financially able are expected to contribute. From exit to resettlement, some financial aid is frequently necessary and may include air fare (possibly to Mexico or Madrid) and maintenance in an intermediate country. Once in the United States, the refugee and his family are provided with housing, furniture, clothing, food, and a small financial stake. These donations are considered gifts with no obligation to repay, but the expectation is that the newcomer will help others after becoming established. Thus, through the efforts of the extended family, the initial adjustment of the newcomer has been eased and the individual begins a new life within the framework of a supportive kinship network. Kinship support of this nature was furnished to the Lopez family (husband, wife, and bachelor son) by relatives of Mr. Lopez (his brother, the

198 Annals New York Academy of Sciences

daughter of another brother, and his elder son) living in Tarrytown. Not only did the relatives pay all the travel expenses from Cuba to Miami via Mexico, but they also supported the Lopez family during their 4 months’ stay in Mexico. Upon arrival in Miami, the two Lopez men could not find jobs, so the family decided to settle in Tarrytown where their relatives had secured the promise of factory jobs for them. Funds for the trip from Miami were provided by the Cuban Refugee Center. Financial support by the relatives did not end with travel expenses, for they also supplied the family with a tiny apartment, paying one month’s rent and furnishing it with essentials largely gleaned from their own apartments and those of friends. Two days after arrival, Mr. Lopez and his son started work at their new jobs.

To the refugee and his family, employment is second in priority only to housing. In most cases the newcomer is ready to start working shortly after arrival, for his relatives and friends have either found him 8 job or have given him a series of good leads. Cubans brag about arriving in the Tarrytowns on one day and starting work on the next. Their most serious limitation is a lack of fluency in English, thereby limiting them to manual jobs in maintenance, cleaning, kitchen help, and factory work. Friends and relatives bluntly explain to the newcomer that until he learns English his prior qualifications are meaningless, and therefore he must begin life in the United States at the bottom of the work ladder. As a consequence, the night maintenance and cleaning forces of large companies like General Foods and Union Carbide are largely Cuban. By prerevolutionary standards these jobs are demeaning-they were performed only by the lowest segment of Cuban society. “At least, at night nobody can see us” the men joke, referring to the middle class emphasis on maintaining a good public image for one’s self and one’s family. In traditional fashion the husband is the family provider, but the public statement of his role as provider is manifest not only in supplying the necessities, but also in providing nice clothes, nice furniture, a car, and above all in the purchase of a house. The pressure to supply these material indicators drives many men into working at a second or even a third job. Working hard for long periods is a source of pride, something to brag about, an expression of machismo.

In prerevolutionary Cuba, apart from a few teachers and pharmacists, middle class women did not work after marriage, but lower class urban women traditionally provided part of the family income. Within a short period of time it becomes evident that the husband is not earning enough at his multiple jobs to achieve the desired living standard, and additional income can only be acquired by the wife going to work, usually outside the home. Because of some special skill, the presence of young children, the husband’s preference, etc., some women work at home as dressmakers, piece workers, beauticians, baby-sitters, etc. Justification for the wife’s role change is based primarily on the need for extra money to improve the family standard of living. Family members once again are the umbilical cord to the outer world, for it is they who find the wife a job, usually in the factory where one of them is working. Factory work is preferred to domestic service because of the “benefits,” especially unemployment insurance, and it is not as strongly associated with traditional lower class employment patterns. Women were vocal in their low opinion of Mrs. Diaz, who worked as a cleaning woman in private homes. She was regarded as somewhat of a deviant, and her choice of occupation was attributed to lack of education and lower class origin. Adjustment t o factory work for a few women is difficult because of the nature of the work and sometimes because of the low status of co-workers. Although the wife is now contributing financially to the family


needs, the husband retains his role as sole provider because she gives him her check for allocation. With increasing length of residence in the United States, the women are becoming more independent, and presently a few are allocating family funds in conjunction with their husbands.

Entrance of the wife into the labor market poses a threat t o the traditional values of the home, with its strong emphasis on the welfare of the children. To assure proper rearing, children must be under the constant supervision of adults; therefore, the choice of babysitter is very important. A grandmother or other elderly female relative is the ideal choice. Often the grandmother shares the apartment with her married son or daughter, or as in the case of Mr. and Mrs. Gomez, they rent the basement apartment of a three-family house, and their daughter Teresa, her husband, and two children rent the floor above. The son-in- law works days, but his wife, Teresa, works from 4:OO to 1 1 : O O P.M. After break- fast, Teresa brings the two children down to her parents’ apartment and returns to her own apartment to do the chores and to prepare the evening meal for the two families. Meanwhile, her mother has almost complete charge of the toddler until his bed time, and her father walks his 7-year-old grandson to and from school each day. After finishing her chores, Teresa rests for an hour or two before leaving for work at 3:30 P.M. Lacking a relative to care for the children, an outsider of Cuban origin will be hired. As one parent remarked: “The sitter is not like the American sitter, but is more like a member of the family and . . . at least she should be Cuban.” The customary fee for the custody of a single child is $25.00 per week, and sitters care for from one to three babies or small children in their own homes. School-age children go directly from school to the home of the sitter, where they remain until called for by one of the parents. To avoid the cost of a sitter, some parents of older children decide to work on different shifts.

As hard work and financial independence are highly valued, welfare and other forms of institutional aid are rarely sanctioned. Such aid is acceptable as a temporary expedient and should be discontinued as soon as possible. People who are able to work should work; however, since the elderly are too old to work, welfare and other benefits are acceptable for them. The Cuban refugee drive for financial independence is substantiated in the 1975 budgetary requests of the Cuban Refugee Program of HEW, which asked for a phasing down of the Cu- ban Refugee Program “in light of the termination of the Cuban refugee airlift nearly a year ago and the fact that the vast majority of Cuban refugees are self- supporting and paying Federal, State and local taxes on the same basis as other residents of the communities in which they live.”

Once the family is on the road to economic independence the family begins to purchase new clothes, furniture, and finally a car. Not only is a car often essen- tial for travelling to and from work, but it also serves as an indicator that the husband has made progress toward rebuilding his life. Possibly the single most important goal, and one difficult to achieve, is the purchase of a house, for home ownership is a public statement of a man’s success as a good provider, and his high esteem is reflected upon the entire family. Apart from the symbolic value of home ownership, it is also economically and socially valuable, for rents are high, apartments are small, and landlords are strict about visitors and entertain- ments. These housing restrictions seriously hamper the Cubans in their desire to strengthen family ties with relatives living in Miami, for unless the visitors can stay with family members the cost of the trip north is prohibitive. Three-storied multiple family dwellings in one of the older sections of town are preferred. The building provides the owner not only with his own apartment but also with


income from the rental of the other apartments and sometimes of a ground floor store. As related families like to live in the same building, the owner often rents to other members of his family.

Solely attaining a well-paying job has not been the end of the struggle for all of the refugees. A number of both men and women, particularly those with some prior professional or subprofessional training, have joined the part-time adult population of local colleges. Many have been attracted to nearby Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry because of its bilingual programs in teaching and business and also because the college gives credit for prior academic work as well as for life experiences. Obtaining a college degree necessitates considerable commitment and sacrifice because the college work load is usually superimposed upon a full- time work shift. The recent shutdown and cutback at the General Motors Assem- bly Plant was a windfall to some, for they were able to attend school full time while receiving unemployment payments.

Not all of the energies of the exiles have linked symbols of economic success with utilitarian goals. As in Cuba, all buy lottery tickets, as a short-term invest- ment that may bring great rewards if it is your destiny to be lucky. In addition, now that a measure of economic success has been achieved, more extravagant public displays are beginning to appear, notably the fiesta de quince anos, the elaborate birthday party given to a daughter on her 15th birthday. The fiestas represent a very competitive form of potlatching for prestige. The celebrations in the Tarrytowns only began a few years ago, and on a rather modest scale, but they have been escalating to more elaborate and expensive affairs, so expensive that many families have incurred considerable indebtedness.

Returning to the initial question of economic adaptation, the data suggest that preadaptation, particularly in the prerevolutionary class was a critical factor in the process. The class structure differed somewhat from that of other Latin American countries, primarily because of the lateness of Cuban independence, 1898. Prior to the war, the island supported an upper class of landed Spanish sugar planters, but the plantations had not developed into a deeply rooted hacienda system. The incipient sugar latifundia under Spanish control was terminated by the war for independence, and the dramatic postwar development of the industry was molded instead by United States interests. Through the provisions of the Platt Amendment of 1902, the United States was granted the right to interfere in the affairs of Cuba, thereby relieving foreign investors of fears of political instability in Cuba. Capital flowed into the country, chiefly from the United States, and the sugar industry developed into a largely American owned agro-industrial unit, one in which the owner was a corporation and the rural laborer was a wage earner.

After independence, affluence became the key to social differentiation, thereby molding a relatively open class system. The 20th century upper class was a new group, lacking historical descent from the Spanish landed aristocracy, and one whose status was validated by wealth and political authority. They were bankers, business men, professionals, and those in the upper ranks of government service- people whose income was strongly linked to American business interests. In addition, they copied American life-styles, purchased U.S. luxury items, and sent their children to school in the States.

The presence of a middle class in prerevolutionary Cuba is open to considerable debate. A middle sector could be differentiated using criteria of income and education, but the group lacked a common ideology, common interests, and any mutual attitudes of self-identification. Moreover, the only important social division made by Cubans was between the “rich” and the “poor.” The middle


sector was almost entirely urban and comprised teachers, government employees, clerical workers, skilled workers, small proprietors, and small landowners. Their interest and values were almost indistinguishable from those of the upper class, and they lived in similar style, limited only by their financial condition. Finan- cial limitations were especially severe among doctors, lawyers, architects, and engineers who were chronically underemployed. In order to maintain their life- style, many of these professionals were forced to take two or three different jobs.

The lower classes were equally fragmented and consisted of a small urban population living in the slums and shanty towns of Havana and other cities, plus a large rural population composed of field hands, cattle ranchers, and workers in the sugar mills and tobacco vegas. Nearly everyone in the countryside was lower class, for virtually all the upper income people lived in cities and towns. In contrast with other parts of Latin America, most rural workers were wage earners rather than subsistence farmers. Furthermore, union membership was high, amounting to slightly over 1.2 million in 1955, and included urban as well as rural workers in the large sugar complexes. The hunger for land characteristic of many of the lower classes of Latin America, was subordinated in Cuba to a striv- ing for better living and working conditions, i.e., higher wages, job security, and better educational opportunities for their children. The intense concern for job security was in large measure a reflection of the employment patterns of the sugar industry, which fluctuated with the demand and price of sugar on the world market. High unemployment characterized the industry, fluctuating around 9% during the high employment season of the harvest and rising to 20% of the labor force during the “dead season” (Ref. 7, p. 142-147).

In spite of the bleak unemployment picture, some upward mobility was possible for lower class people. The labor movement by effecting the passage of much social legislation was an important force in accelerating mobility. Through social legislation there was an increase in educational opportunities, particularly in the establishment of technical schools which permitted people to move into skilled jobs. Concurrently, new job opportunities were opening in the rural areas where a few small industries and commerical enterprises were being established. Lastly, new ideas, new skills, as well as new capital were contributed by waves of European immigrants entering Cuba after the two world wars.’

There is general agreement as to the looseness and heterogeneity of the prerevolutionary social classes, but whether these characteristics in themselves negate the validity of social classes is a difficult dilemma to resolve because reliable data from this period are severely limited.” Some have bypassed the issue by substituting terms, such as “groups,” “strata,” “segments,” etc. To Amaro and Mesa-Lago “some ecological and ethnic variables (e.g., location, race), as well as employment, seem to be more significant in Cuba than class consciousness,”’ and they as well as O’Connor stress the importance of associa- tions in prerevolutionary Cuba. Furthermore, O’Connor characterizes the Cuban state from independence until the mid 1920’s as classless and “in the hands of men who gained prominence in the War of Independence and whose main goal was to seize the spoils of office.”12 They were followed by leaders dominated by self-interest and lacking allegiance to any class or segment of the economy.12

Despite the areas of fuzziness in the prerevolutionary picture of Cuban social structure, the weakness or absence of class consciousness freed the refugees arriving in the Tarrytowns from the fetters of a heritage of ascribed statuses. To them affluence, and to a lesser degree education, were the major criteria for social differentiation. With this philosophical outlook, the refugees were pre-


adapted for entrance into the American labor market. It enabled them to accept low-status jobs, which were viewed as temporary, t o be replaced by better ones after facility in English and/or recertification had been achieved. By working at several low-status jobs, following the model of the underemployed professionals, the refugees were able to improve their standard of living. The standard of living was the outward manifestation of a man’s success and the basis on which the public forum placed its stamp of approval. This need for public validation of success symbols produced a constant potlatching in the display of increasingly higher and even extravagant standards of living, i.e., la fiesta de quince aGos. Hard work for long periods of time was the only strategy open to the refugees for obtaining wealth and to begin potlatching for higher status. Since hard work is a fundamental tenet of the American success mythology, the refugees were able to identify rapidly with the American work ethic. Potlatching for higher status, as well as the limited models of prerevolutionary middle and lower class women, provided the justification for the wife to enter the work force. The prior work experience of both middle and lower class workers as salaried employees and frequently union members also preadapted the exiles to the American factory system. In addition, Cuban unionism was the basis for much of the similar- ity between the aspirations of the lower class refugees and their American co- workers in the factory. Finally, it must be remembered that some of the class features are preadaptive primarily because they are descended from American patterns which filled cultural niches vacated by the Spaniards at the end of the war for independence.

Additional congruence between Cuban and American attitudes toward work and economic success is undoubtedly also linked with the six decades of massive American influence, which started with independence and ended with the revolution. The enormity of this force is most explicit in the economic sector.

Before the Castro regime, over 90 percent of the telephone and electric services, one-half of the public service railways, one-fourth of all bank deposits, about 40 percent of sugar production and much of the mining, oil production and cattle ranching was in the hands of United States business . . . United States sugar interests and to a lesser extent tobacco, cof- fee, cocoa, cattle and mining interests were active in Cuba from the Spanish colonial period, but a phenomenal increase in American investments took place between 1900 and 1925 especially after World War I. (Ref. 7, p. 177.)

American investments dropped during the Depression but rose again after World War 11. In addition, preferential trade agreements resulted in 80% of Cuba’s imports coming from the United States and being paid for with the pro- fits derived from the sale of sugar t o the United States. The most visible results of this impact could be seen in Havana, with its lavish hotels, nightclubs, Cad- illacs, golf courses, baseball, Coca-Cola, advertising, and a booming tourist industry.

Whether American influence (Ref. 7, p. 12-14) in more ideational areas was significant in preadapting the exiles is difficult to evaluate, for during the period of United States occupation, direct American intervention in Cuba was both massive and pervasive. American institutions were used as models by the occupation for setting up the new governmental structure of the Republic, as well as models for a myriad of other institutions, i.e., sanitation, education, transportation, business, etc. The Cuban Constitution was similarly drafted on the Amer- ican pattern and contained a lengthy bill of rights providing for separation of Church and State. Although the Cuban delegates prevented specific stipulations


concerning relations between the United States and Cuba from being included in the Constitution, they were later enacted as the hated Platt Amendment to the Army Appropriations Bill. Legislation, reflecting U.S. ideology, made marriage a civil rather than a religious contract.

In this setting, Protestantism, as a possible preadaptive force in terms of the refugees’ attitudes toward work, must not be overlooked (Ref. 7, p. 204-205; Ref. 13, p. 159-162). Although Cuba’s population was estimated to be 85% nominally Roman Catholic in the 1850’s, numerous Protestant missions, funded in the United States, had established highly respected churches and schools in many parts of the island. The missionary effort had been stimulated by American occupation and had been directed toward the middle and lower classes but largely ignored the rural poor. Classwise, a high proportion of the Tarrytown refugees come from this target population. They are, however, preponderantly Roman Catholic, at least in name. More significantly, the Protestant work ethic, if adopted, was done so only in part, for hard work is not motivated by salvation in the next world but by success in this world, success helped by destiny and validated by ostentatious display.

In contrast with the preadaptive strategies largely obtained from the class system, the extended family was adaptive because it was transplanted to the United States and continued in traditional fashion. In prerevolutionary Cuba the extended family (Ref. 7, p. 51-55) functioned as the single most important social institution. Other institutions, notably, the church, the school, and the community were weak, and state social welfare was poorly developed. Among upper class people, nepotism was the expected behavior, for it was the duty of well- off people to help their relatives; not t o do so damaged the family reputation. Among the lower classes, family cooperation was largely expressed in terms of sharing one’s home and food. Among rural people kinship ties were both more intensive and more extensive and in some instances formed the basis of neighborhoods.

The traditional ideal for the upper class family was drawn from the Spanish aristocratic models, viz., one of strong paternal authority. In practice this tradi- tion had been steadily weakening, particularly in Havana under the strong Amer- ican influence, but in the provinces approaches to this pattern could be found. Although women were considered subservient to men in status, since the turn of the century women had become increasingly more prominent in public affairs. All domestic and manual tasks in and around the home were delegated to paid employees, neither parents nor children performed manual or domestic chores. The children attended private, usually Catholic schools, and were frequently sent to school in the United States. Among all classes strong affectional bonds existed between parents and children. Financial resources limited the degree to which middle class families followed the upper class model; however, it was middle class women who began to work outside the home, especially in the fields of teaching and pharmacy.

Data on lower class family composition are fragmentary, but evidence for extension of kinship obligations beyond the nuclear family is found in Nelson’s emphasis on the importance of kinship bonds in neighborhood groupings and the rather frequent occurrence of “kinship locality groups.”’ Within the nuclear family the husband was dominant and in the past ate his meals alone, being served by his wife. All housework was performed by the wife, but she rarely worked in the fields. Except for the tobacco industry, where, because of their “light touch,” women were employed in the selection and stripping of leaves, rural women had little opportunity for outside employment. In urban areas


women had always provided at least part of the income, since they could find work more readily than men, and in addition, female-headed households were common in the slums of Havana. Initially, these urban women were employed as domestics, but starting in the 1930’s they increasingly entered industry and commerce.

By transplanting their traditional extended family system to the United States, the refugees continued to reach out to the kinship network for material and emotional sustenance and to regard the network as the arena in which relation- ships of trust could be formed.

Recourse to outside agencies was minimal, for whenever possible recourse was to the kinship network. Thus, the transplanted family continued to offer the traditional haven in which to refresh one’s strength, discuss one’s problems, and to seek financial or emotional help. Most refugees claim that without the extended family they could not “have made it.” These functions, when well performed, reflected high esteem upon the family, thereby motivating the members to compete for higher status within the class structure.

Analysis of the data suggests that preadaptation, particularly through the looseness of the class system, and transplantation of the extended family are undoubtedly the two most critical factors that enabled the refugees to adapt successfully in the economic sphere.

Several features of lesser significance, however, should be mentioned. Of importance is the demographic fact that Cuba has always had a large percentage of foreign-born residents, representing 4% of the population in 1953. Apart from new technologies, new skills, and new ideologies, the immigrants served as living examples of the possibility of starting anew in another country, for without this assurance, few people would voluntarily leave their homeland. This viewpoint is reflected in the number of Tarrytown refugees who proudly relate how a grandparent and sometimes a parent arrived in Cuba as a poor immigrant, usually from Spain, and was able to build a new life. Furthermore, since for the vast majority exile was voluntary, the population undoubtedly reflects some selection on the basis of personality and character traits. I t is also possible to specu- late that some of these selected traits may have been adaptive in sustaining individuals through the difficult period of initial adjustment. Lastly, it should not be overlooked that the status “exile” or “refugee” in itself is a powerful motivating factor, for in practice the status limits the people to a single option- that of building a new life in the United States. Unlike immigrant populations, they cannot purchase a ticket home.

To conclude, I would like to voice the hope that future anthropological research among other resettled Cuban communities will supply the needed comparative data for the final resolution of the questions posed in this study.

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Documents

ECONOMIC ADAPTATIONS OF A CUBAN COMMUNITY