William J. Grenier, a professor at Florida International University published in the website of the Cuban Temas magazine an article that analyzes the changing demographics of the Cuban community in the United States. In his text, Geinier concludes that “exile ideology will give way to a new ideology based on the recognition that the Cuban diaspora is an extension of the nation with responsibilities and duties to the civic, cultural, economic and political development, not only of the Miami-Dade county, but of Cuba “.
Days after publication of the article in Temas, Jesus Arboleya makes an analysis in Progreso Semanal in which he states that “people have tended to overestimate the role of the Cuban-American electorate, expressed in the positions of the extreme right, in the design of United States policy toward Cuba, forgetting that their attitudes have been rather a reflex than a cause of it “.
“There is no doubt-he clarifies- that the Cuban-American right-wing activism has resulted imperative to keep the climate of hostility that has prevailed against the island, but its influence in American politics has not been determined by the importance of the Cuban-American electorate, as evidenced by the fact that even in counties which concentrates most of these people have been sufficient to determine the election of a Republican presidential candidate (…) “.
“(…) It is true that a change in the election pattern of Cuban-Americans, as Grenier augurs, could influence these variables at local level and branch out to other levels of the U.S. system, with the consequence of depriving negligible Cuba policy of what has been its social base, as well as one of the assumptions that have served to legitimize American and foreign public opinion. Still, I do not think this will result in the determining factor for a change in this policy, at least in its essential aspects, since the same influence on other considerations have more weight, related to the nature of the conflict between the two countries “.
“Such a conclusion doesn’t diminish at all the value of the findings of these surveys, whose main virtue is to show a new situation, of particular relevance for the future of relations between Cuba and the Cuban American community, which is of strategic importance not only for this community, but for the very future of the Cuban nation, whatever the policy adopted by the United States in this regard would be “.
See full article of Professor William J. Grenier in…http://temas.cult.cu/blog/
