I wonder what would happen if some specific population shifts occurred here in South Florida. I am thinking particularly of the refugee groups that have anchored themselves in this tropical land. Some of them like it here better – in the short term.  Many of them think of their home islands as either paradise or purgatory. What about going “home”, what would most of them do?

There are two such populations.  There are the Cubans who have set up a “Little Havana” and the Haitians who, to a minor degree, have established a “Little Haiti”.  There are other groups from other lands but these two have become local phenomena where divided loyalties are important. They are politically active in retaking Cuba. Getting out of Cuba was necessary for their health for in the first flush of Castro’s take-over of the Island, selected bourgeoisie were put up against walls to be shot down. These became the wealthy conservative core of the bottom half of Florida.  On the other hand there are the Cubans who dissented from the severe Communist repression of individuality and fought their away across a few mile of water in secret to become Americans or, to go back eventually to Cuba.

The Haitians are a different group.  Cubans were either Europeanized or Americanized from a long association with the United States following the Spanish American War in 1898.  That group was a lot whiter than the poor Haitians who were mostly descendants of former slaves when that Island belonged to France.  They achieved independence and fared badly with a succession of totalitarian-minded leaders who milked the riches that were there and left the land in poverty and the people helpless to help themselves.  They came, as did the Cubans but were impoverished and did not have the welcome and support that the former group did.  They are a lot blacker. This might be a part of the explanation why they have a conditional acceptance. The Black Haitians do not share the welcome and military support (the Bay of Pigs fiasco) of the Cubans.  What makes them so different that they are put in “custody” and imprisoned as though they were criminals? The treatment of families and children is flagrantly different from the welcome given to Cuban dissenters and refugees.

My question of this phenomenon of two island peoples taking different roots here in South Florida is what would happen if there were a chance to return to different governments and welcomes.  Would they be returning home? Who would go back and who would stay? Would the political antagonists to Communism and Totalitarianism go back to regain their citizenship there – or, would they stay here? This is a local phenomenon but one repeated all over the world. Many populations shift from here to there to gain something missing at home. The biggest question is, where is home?