In recent times so much has been said about the Cubans abroad that my ear has grown accustomed to the word emigrants. The term economic emigrants is said and written to refer to the Cubans that abandoned their country as a result of the crisis that we know here in Cuba as the Special Period. Even if it is true, that is not all there is to it.
Those who manipulate the term with ease disassociate it from the cause of why Cubans have put roots down even in countries like Haiti and Namibia. From having been a country colonized by Spain, China, “Poland” (a source of Jewish immigrants) and other smaller places, the flow of foreigners not only stopped, but it is now Cubans who began to spread out around the world, in a flow that has not ceased. That would be unthinkable if opportunities for personal or professional development existed.
The causes always refer to politics; in Cuba,politics is what has imposed limits on the economy and a disruption of the logical order. So, however much they try to remove ideology as a motive, Cuban emigration is political.
May 25 2012
