Review of Literature on Hispanic Enclave Entrepreneurs in Cuban Miami
Miami Now: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Social Change Edited by Guillermo J. Grenier & Alex Stepick III (1992) University Press of Florida
By 1990, there were nearly one million Latins in the Miami area. Forty-nine percent of the entire metropolitan population (pg 5). In 1982, Miami stood second to New York in international banking centers, and sixth in the world for it’s International Airport in cargo tonnage. Furthermore, Port of Miami was the largest cruise ship port in the world. The decade of the eighties was one of tremendous growth in Miami due to the influx of Cuban’s into the area, stagnating the economic recession that Miami was initially experiencing. A majority of the small business that were the engine for economic growth at this time were Latin owned and operated. “From 1968 to 1980, Latinos (mostly all Cuban) received 46.9 percent of all Small Business Administration loans in Dade County” (pg 11). “Miami has almost half of the largest Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States. The rate of business ownership among Miami Hispanics (43 per 1000) far exceeds that in other metropolitan areas” (pg 125).
The authors identify the height of social enclaves in the region during the decade of the 1980’s due to the tremendous influx of Cuban political refugees peeking at this time. They define enclaves as social networks that attract others and facilitate their entry and success. Although political refugees began arriving in Miami during the fifties from Cuban, known as the “Golden Exiles” due to their higher class standing, the period of the late seventies early eighties was the height of immigration to the United States by the Cuban community. Traditionally before the influx of Cubans, the base of the community was found in Tampa, Florida in the city outskirts in a town called Ybor City. Although the United States attempted resettlement programs to move Cubans out of the Miami area by giving them assistance in relocating, the trickle down effect brought a fairly large amount of Cubans back down to Miami. 300,232 persons were resettled away from Miami between 1961-1978 (pg 87). In 1965, 42% of the Cuban population lived in Dade County. By 1980, the U.S. Census found slightly more the 52% of the total Cuban population lived in Dade County (pg 88). Moreover, of the 47,725 Hispanic -owned businesses in 1990, 34,725 (73%) were owned by Cubans (pg 137). The authors make note that at the time of their research (1987) the Dade County workforce consisted of 380,000 Cubans. Consequently, approximately 10 percent of Cubans owned their own business, thus structurally classified as entrepreneurial (pg 137).
At the time the book was written, Cubans comprised 70% of the total Hispanic population in Dade County. The authors also identify the concentration of Cuban settlement in the county by identifying the “Hispanic Belt.” “The majority of Hispanics are found along a belt running west from downtown. This belt includes the southern half of Miami, as well as the incorporated areas of West Miami and Sweetwater, the northern part of the City of Coral Gables, and unincorporated portions of the county west. Its rough boundaries are the 836 (Dolphin) Expressway on the north and Southwest 40th Street on the south. The belt’s principal east-west arteries on which commercial activities of the Cuban population are most evident, are Northwest 7th Street, Flagler Street, Southwest 8th Street, Southwest 24th Street, and the western portion of 40th Street (predominately the Westchester area)” (pg 88). Once one moves out of the Hispanic belt, the concentration of Hispanics declines. One exception is the City of Hialeah, located in the northwester portion of Greater Miami. Two-thirds of the population is Hispanic, and it contains many of the regions manufacturing plants (pg 89).
The Miami enclave is regarded as one of the United State’s true ethnic enclaves. The community’s entrepreneurial base was established largely by the Cuban immigrants, specifically those who arrived in the early 60’s late 50’s. Cuban immigrants entered the labor market largely though the large number of businesses owned and operated by members of their group who arrived earlier. The enclave’s institutional completeness exemplifies strong and diversified entrepreneurial activity. Seventy percent of all Cuban origin persons living in Greater Miami were born on the island, thus demonstrating the predominance of adult exiles within the community. Furthermore, many of the adult and elderly remain committed to the enclave because of they lack knowledge of the English language, therefore enclave fosters ethnic solidarity. Furthermore, the enclave fosters ethnic ideologies, and reinforces the culture of the group.
Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States by Alejandro Portes and Robert Bach (1985) University of California Press
The authors define ethnic enclaves as distinctive economic formation, characterized by spatial concentration of immigrants who organize a variety of enterprises to serve their own ethnic market and general population. Two fundamental traits of the economic enclaves are (1) the presence of immigrants with sufficient capital to create new opportunities for economic growth and (2) and extensive division of labor (pg 203). The division of labor usually occurs through a transplantation of class by successive waves of immigration. Subsequent mass arrivals of immigrants give immigrant entrepreneurs access to low wage labor. Consequently, they are able to reproduce on a local scale some of the monopolistic features that make firms successful in the wider economy.
Immigrant workers willingly remain in subordinate jobs, in hopes to gain greater upward mobility within the enclave. Moreover, ethnic neighborhoods have been the norm in the early adaptation patters of most immigrant minorities, thus increasing loyalty to the enclave. The difference in employment analyzed by the researchers demonstrates a mechanism for differentiation of class positions within a previously homogenous mass of immigrant workers (pg 209). This is exemplified by fulltime owners who employ others and those who employ only themselves. A crucial feature of the class divisions formed as Cuban refugees merged into the Miami economy was the growth of small scale entrepreneurial class. Of those Cubans who owned businesses, specifically retail stores, the majority were drinking and eating establishments, the industry were entrepreneurial activity was more predominate.
Cuban Exiles in Florida: Their Presence and Contributioin edited by Antonio Jorege, Jaime Suchlicki, and Adolfo Leyva de Varona (1991) University of Miami
Cubans are more likely to be business owners than other Hispanics (pg 18). Since the beginning of the migration to Florida, there has been a proliferation of business that initially catered only to the ethnic enclave, but later catered to the larger community. The third wave of Cuban exiles that came in the 1980’s were the ones who dramatically impacted the economic conditions in Miami. The change in demographic provided an over abundance of cheap labor for Cubans, and in turn the Cuban refugees turned to second and first wave refugees to help them integrate into the Miami society. Therefore, the ethnic enclave served as a critical support system. First wave refugees in the 1960’s were predominately the higher classes of Cuban social class, whom if able to leave the island, brought their knowledge and whatever capital possible to Miami to establish the beginnings of the Cuban enclave. As refugees began to arrive they began to find employment in the only economy then in existence (pg 231). Although the Latin business sector has grow at a faster pace than the non-Latin business sector in South Florida, their capacity to serve the total market is not equal to their non-Latin counterparts ability within the region. Consequently, more and more of Hispanic labor force has found employment in the non-Latin business sector (see paragraph 2 pg 236).
As a result, the authors conclude that “non-competing ethnic markets will gradually become more marginal their existence more precarious” (pg 243). The defining variable that will dictate small business success identified by the authors is buying preferences among certain ethnic lines on the part of certain population groups.
The Cuban market was the net receiver of funds from the non-Latin sector (pg 232). “The Cuban market is simply not balanced enough to establish its own self-contained circular flow” (pg 233). Moreover, the markets openness has worked to aid in it’s upward growth. The Latin market and labor force were net gainers with their exchanges outside the enclave.
