Cuban American Identity Quotes

That first play I did in New York, Rogelio Martinez's 'When It's Cocktail Time in Cuba,' I played a young Fidel Castro.

What I'll say is that Cuban-Americans don't have to deal with the same immigration issues as other nationalities because of the 'wet feet, dry feet' policy. For Cubans, one year after you touch United States territory, you can become a legal resident.

Well, you know, I left Cuba as a kid when I was 6 years old back in 1971.

My documentary 'Split Decision' examines Cuban-American relations, and the economic and cultural paradoxes that have shaped them since Castro's revolution, through the lens of elite Cuban boxers forced to choose between remaining in Cuba or defecting to America.

I'm not Cuban and therefore don't have any family members who were oppressed by Castro's regime. But I do have a number of friends whose families were.

The Elian events were shocking to Cubans because we were the fair-haired boys of the Cold War. The problem is, the Cold War ended.

I was born in New York, but I'm of Cuban heritage. Maybe there's a little island in my blood.

Growing up in Miami, I had all these great, strong influences. You know, being Cuban and the Latin influence, but also the strong hip-hop influence.

I grew up in Florida, and I have a lot of friends, close friends, who are Cuban-Americans, and I have heard the stories of their families escaping, and some of them didn't even make it to come to the United States for a better life to get away from the Castros.

There is no other country that has the Cuban Adjustment Act; that's why it's called the Cuban Adjustment Act and not the Nicaraguan Adjustment Act.

I'm actually Cuban-born, born in 1956, the year Fidel Castro came into power, and my father moved my family to Miami a few years later when things were starting to look bad.

I worked for the Cuban American National Foundation for years.

We had no clue that Cuba was not Marco Rubio. You get there, and everyone is Afro Cuban. And you start to realize, 'Where are the blonde, blue-eyed Cubans? Oh, they're all in Miami.'

Growing up in Miami, I had all these great, strong influences. Being Cuban and the Latin influence, but also the strong hip-hop influence. I know that people everywhere listen to hip-hop, but especially being from the South, you really get that influence. You go out, you party, and it's just always there.

I'm Cuban-American, everybody says. I have a Cuban background, Cuban blood.

I've been going to Cuba since the Elian Gonzalez affair.

I don't know what it's like to be Cuban-American, but I know what it's like to have family under Communism and to get up early in the morning and send medical supplies and try to send food and try to send money and have it intervened, and them calling and crying on the phone.

I really admire Ana Mendieta. She was a Cuban American artist who died the year I was born and whose work examines violence, feminism, and belonging. Her art is always brave and visually arresting and vibrates with meaning.

Cuban Americans have little in common with immigrants from Mexico and Central America, and often their priorities don't align. If it seems like Cuban Americans don't have to play by the same rules as everyone else, that's probably because they don't.