All immigrants that come to this country come with a dream. The dream is to make a better life for their family, to live without the fear of persecution, to live in a land where opportunity is abundant and to live in a world were all are treated equal. At first they come with the notion that all would be easy to achieve, but they learn that they have to work harder than the average man to achieve their goals. This country has seen its share of immigrants for over a hundred and fifty years and they are still arriving. In the last forty plus years we have seen a large amount of immigration, one of the largest number of the immigrants were Cubans. Within this forty year span of time the Cuban community began to carve their own niche into the American tapestry much like the Italian, Jewish and Irish immigrants many years ago creating their own piece of Havana.
Most people are not aware that Cubans have been coming to live in the United States since the late 19th century. The reasons for their move have not changed in over 130 years, it has always been political or economic. These early Cubans made their way to New York and New Jersey and Louisiana where they established their own small communities, but none as large as the one in Miami. The largest amount of Cubans that came to the United States was during the 1959 Revolution when Castro's July 26th movement overthrew Batista. This first wave lasted for approximately three years from January 1, 1959 until October 22, 1962. The first wave brought nearly a quarter of a million Cubans to the United States (Garcia, Havana U.S.A. pg. 13). .
The second wave began on September 28, 1965, when the Castro government announced that all Cubans with family in the states were allowed to leave. The reason that Castro did this was because he was fighting a propaganda war of sorts with the exile community, he stated, "Now we shall see what the imperialists will do or say" (Garcia pg.
