A Frontier Town?

The idea for my research project came to me while I was reading an article published in 1938 by Padraic Colum. The way he described Miami sounded like he was in a constantly changing city. He elaborated on the trailer houses that he would see on the side of the road, and called it a type of "nomadism under modern conditions." He portrayed these people to be in search of a better life, as pioneers. I thought of the people of today who come to Miami, and if they could be viewed as the same way and I was instantly reminded of the exile community, those who also seek a better life in Miami. Delving further into this connection I also remembered that although moving your home, or at least the home of your future generations, is a huge change in and of itself, sometimes immigrants choose not to assimilate into their new environment's culture. I began to wonder whether this rejected or confirmed Colum's view of the city in 1938 as a "frontier town." Sure they come to Miami looking for change in their lives, but for the exiles it is not by choice, but rather by necessity.

So what is the effect of non-assimilation of the exile community? For my research I had to narrow the focus down to one culture group, Cuban immigrants, and how the choice made by a member of this group to assimilate or not assimilate affects the rest. What kind of tension does this create? Is the tension within the Cuban exile community itself, or in between culture groups? For my project my goal is to use these questions to compare the identity of Miami today with Colum's Miami in 1938, before the great influx of Cuban immigrants that started in 1959.