Where Does Desi Arnaz Fit into Cuban Immigration?

In 1933, there was a revolt against the current Cuban president, Gerardo Machado. He started his regime very progressively, but neglected the people of Cuba. He became more and more fascist and planned on imitating Benito Mussolini. This revolt was to be known as the "Revolt of the Sergeants.� 1 Student groups and secret societies of middle-class professionals, most notably the ABC, all rebelled. A leading figure in the rebellion was professor, Ramón Grau San Martín. Machado retaliated with a bloody terrorist campaign. Desi's family fled the country in order to save their lives because Desiderio Arnaz was on Congress under Machado. In Cuba, the Arnaz family was very well known and was a huge target by the ABC. Later that year, there was a chance for the family to immigrate to the United States and they took it. The family did not come alone, they were on the trip with former president Machado. They started a new life in Miami, Florida with the support of Desiderio. He decided to stay in prison until the revolution was over.2

Gerardo Machado

The revolution of 1933 in which the Arnaz family immigrated to the United States was a precursor to the waves of immigration that come later. The Cuban immigrants that come to the US in the 1930's are those that have political power under the Machado regime and have enough money to flee the country. Though they resist the movement, their main motivation for immigration is for safety of their lives and their families' lives. 2

The first official wave of immigration started in the late 1950's in response to the Cuban uprising against Fulgencio Batista, the man who took over the Cuban government after Machado was overthrown. He became president in 1952 under a mock election that make him the only legal candidate. People slowly started to mistrust him and a revolution came underway. With the leadership of Fidel Castro, there was a plot to overthrow the president and it worked. Those under his regime left the country in response. 3 These people happened to be Cuban's elite. They were the entrepreneurs that had many economic ties to the old government system before the Cuban Revolution and also had strong ties to United States economics. Those who were doctors, scientists, lawyers, and police officers all tried to flee to the United States. About 215,000 people left Cuba from the late fifties into the early sixties. This left Cuban in an economic lurch that would resurface later. 4

Fulgencio Batista

The second wave of immigration was in the late 1960's and it brought mostly the family of those who had immigrated in the 1950's. President Lyndon Johnson initiated the �open door� policy that welcomed refugees from communism. This Cuban wave was very organized by both the Cuban and U.S. government. The flights that brought over the immigrants were called Vuelos de la Libertad, or Freedom Flights. They were called the "petite bourgeoisie" because they were mostly middle class workers who already had connections in the US. 5 To help this section of immigrants, the US government, by 1966, had created a Cuban Adjustment Act, which made the refugees eligible for public assistance and scholarships. 6

The immigrants that started to come to the United States in the mid 1980's were not as welcomed as those who came in the sixties, though over 125,000 of them came over. They were no longer the white middle classes that the US government was used to supporting. They were now the dark-skinned or Black Cubans with little education that were considered criminals in Cuba. They were called "Marelitos" and many of them had been criminals, though most of them were political prisoners, mental patients, artists who had spoke out against the government, and homosexual men who were condemned from their society. 7 They were not only unwelcome by the US, they were also shunned by the Cuban immigrants and Cuban Americans in the country, who saw them as sores on their community in this new setting.

Fidel Castro

The final wave of immigrants started coming to the US in the 1990's and are still coming over on little rafts or boats called balsas, any type of material that could make a flotation device. They risk their lives on the route from Cuba to the Florida peninsula. In 1994, Castro announced to the Cuban coast guard to let anyone leave the country, but at the same time President Bill Clinton changed U.S. foreign policy by directing the balseros to Guantanamo Bay . They are the lower class citizens of Cuban that come for some economic prosperity that cannot get in Cuba. They are political refugees that are fleeing from oppression of their home country, but in the eyes of the US government that is no longer true. 8 They are illegal aliens who are here to use US resources.

Desi Arnaz came to the United States as a result of upheaval in Cuba, the same as every other immigrant that came to Florida through the years. Unlike, most of the immigrants that come to the US, he had money and opportunity even though he was simply another immigrant in a foreign country. His family had money and influence even in the new country and thus he went on to do the many things that make him the Desi Arnaz that we know and love.