Cuban American Politics and its Effects as a Social Movement

This research explores the progression of the Cuban American community from an ethnic enclave to a social movement. The Cuban American community of Miami, Florida, is currently the largest concentration of Cuban Americans in the United States, and had been selected for this study due to its cohesiveness and the high political activity at the local, state, and national level. Moreover, I utilize the resource mobilization perspective as a framework to investigate the political progression and assess the influence upon the political arena within Dade County, Florida and its effect on local and national politics. A major focus of the resource mobilization is to trace the development of the interlocking socio-political organizations such as the Cuban American National Foundation (herein after referred to as CANF) and the Cuban American National Council (herein after referred to as CNC), and analyze the effect these networks and alliances have on movement growth and internal dynamics.