Cultural Understanding & Awareness

Florida is a melting pot of people from all over the world. Many who come are looking for a new beginning in life bringing with “them their cultural experiences from their native countries.” (Gollnick, & Chinn, 2009, p. 46) Florida’s multicultural population often mingles and gets along well, “but this rich diversity has sometimes divided people along cultural, economic, religious and regional lines.” (Chang, 1998, p. 72) Nowhere else have these differences, as well as the similarities, been more evident than in South Florida. The Cuban-American and Haitian-American communities have struggled to not only find their place in North American society, but to co-exist in harmony. Conflicts among these two people groups have been fueled by differences, as well as similarities, in family values, language, religion, and community life.
“Ties between Florida and Cuba are much older than the arrival of the first Cuban immigrants fleeing Castro’s regime in 1959.” (Florida Dept of State, 1994, p. 1) In the early years of Spain’s exploration and colonization of the New World, Havana, Cuba became a base for Spain’s government. In the struggle for freedom, many Cubans sought refuge in Florida and added greatly to the economy through cigar manufacturing. As Spain sought to control Cuba, the United States stepped in to protect their interests as well as help by supplying guns. When Spain blew-up the USS Maine stationed in Havana in 1898, Congress declared war on Spain. When the war finally ended on May 20, 1902, Cubans and Cuban-Americans from all over celebrated and flocked to Cuba looking for economic opportunity. Many Cubans also immigrated to Florida attracted to the “American way of life.” “Today, the exile community is more than a million strong, as the exodus from the island continues on boats and make-shift rafts. And throughout Florida’s history, the lives of Cubans and Floridians are profoundly fused as Cubans have indelibly made their mark on culture, politics