Anti-Castro Political Ideology among Cuban Americans in the Miami Area: Cohort and Generational Differences.

As a self-defined exile community, Cuban Americans differ sharply from other Latino national origin groups in that they have developed a set of unique political institutions and a political culture based on their exile identity. This political culture is stereotypically defined by its right-wing, anti-Castro politics and automatic antipathy toward all things 'leftist'. Even though the Florida Cuban American community varies according to generation and the 'wave' of immigration that brought immigrants to the United States, social scientists and the public tend to take the community's monolithic political profile for granted and assume that it remains unchanged over time. Yet careful analysis of 2000 and 2004 Cuban Polls reveals that while most Cuban Americans in South Florida are anti-Castro, the level of their fervor varies greatly among generational and wave cohorts. This paper analyses these generational and cohort effects on anti-Castro political ideology among Cuban Americans. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]