Introduction
The
islands of Puerto Rico and Cuba have a great deal in common.
As near-neighbors in the Greater Antilles island chain,
both lie in the Caribbean between Florida and Venezuela.
Both share Spanish origins, and both islands have played
key roles in the history of the Americas.
The
immigrant experience of each island’s people, however,
could not have been more dramatically different. In the
latter half of the 20th century, the people of Cuba found
themselves cut off from the United States, forced to overcome
great dangers and obstacles to leave their homeland. In
contrast, the people of Puerto Rico found themselves annexed
by the U.S., and had to discover what it meant to immigrate
to a country that already claimed them as citizens.
However
different their political circumstances, the immigrants
of both islands had to face the challenges of 20th-century
migration, and to find new ways to establish lasting communities
in a strange—if not so distant—land.
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