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In 2011, the Cuban Research Institute of Florida International University released the Report: "The Cuban Diaspora in the Twenty-First Century." In the Press Release announcing its distribution the genesis and purpose of the Report was nicely described:
In 2011, the Cuban Research Institute received a grant from the Open Society Foundations in Canada for a project on "Strengthening the Role of the Cuban Diaspora." One of the project's basic aims was to promote the modification of Cuban migration laws and policies that would acknowledge migrant rights, including respect for Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, guaranteeing the freedom of movement and residence. One of the main results of this initiative was the creation of a high-level academic commission to draft a "white paper" assessing Cuban migration policies and recommending their alignment with universal standards in the field. The members of this commission were Dr. Juan Antonio Blanco, then at FIU; Dr. Uva de Aragón, formerly at FIU; Dr. Jorge Domínguez, Harvard University; Dr. Jorge Duany, then at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras; Mr. Orlando Márquez, then representing the Archdiocese of Havana; and Dr. Carmelo Mesa-Lago, professor emeritus from the University of Pittsburgh. The report was published in English and Spanish in July 2011.
The next step, starting in October 2011, was the dissemination of the report of the commission—together with the results of the 2011 FIU Cuba Poll—in Washington, D.C. (at the Inter-American Dialogue); Miami (at the sanctuary of La Ermita de la Caridad); Mexico City (at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas); Madrid (at Casa de América); Havana (at the Casa Sacerdotal Juan María Vianney); and Santo Domingo (at the Instituto Nacional de Formación Agraria y Social).
The Catholic Church in Havana printed the report and distributed it to key individuals and institutions as well as to the libraries of various archdioceses throughout the island. Additionally, the website of Palabra Nueva—the journal of the Archdiocese of Havana—published the proceedings of the event in Cuba with links to the digital version of the report.
The report was later published as a book, La diáspora cubana en el siglo XXI (Miami: Eriginal Books), in 2012. Click here for the English version of the report; Pulse aquí para la versión en español del informe; A video of the presentation of the report in Madrid can be accessed here.
At a time of transition for Cuba, the role of the Cuban Diaspora will be important. At the same time it is equally important to recall that the Cuban Diaspora is not its entrenched leadership in Miami or elsewhere; nor is it entirely represented by its propaganda organs, those these have been quite useful as a counterweight to the propaganda organs of the political establishment in Havana. Certainly the "important" people--the people with money and influence--will play a disproportionate role both in the Leninist sense of serving as a vanguard the leadership and guidance of which will be important in the official sector. At the same time the Diaspora reflects a fundamental division that has long existed within Cuba--both before and after the 1959 Revolution--on the one hand a thin layer of powerful, formally established and institutionally organized structures of power. society, culture and the like. And just beneath that the "unofficial" sector--the rest of the Cuban people--a community that is anarchically ordered, and well ordered just he same. This stratum exists alongside the official sector, and is largely invisible to it--unless of course the official sector needs it. As change comes to Cuba, most eyes will be on the official sector, well reflected in "The Cuban Diaspora in the Twenty-First Century." But it will also be worth watching, and watching closely the way the Cuban diaspora's unofficial sector contributes to the evolution f Cuba, its politics, economics, and society, in the period that is coming.
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