The story of Cuba immigrants in Miami. Mostly very thorough. And that was a surprise given how the film starts.
It opens with a small shop owner selling tourist junk. She goes into a ridiculous rant that "Che Guevara was a terrorist." Then she proudly shows a toilet for sale where you can defecate on a picture of Fidel.
But after that the unhinged rants largely end. Instead you get lots of immigrant stories. They admit how Cubans are favored over all other immigrants, esp others from Latin America. Mexicans get tear gassed, Haitians get whipped. Cubans get handed food, money, jobs, and political influence. Becoming a resident alien or US citizen is much faster or easier for Cubans.
They also admit many of the first immigrants were Batista's torturers. Then came a wave of wealthy elites. Almost all of both groups were white. You didn't see Black or mixed Cubans until the Marielitos of the 80s. Cubans in Miami are wealthier, whiter, and of course politically much farther to the right than Cubans in Cuba. The film even admits how much racism is a problem among Cuban Americans and some think of themselves as "lily white."
Such honesty should be commended. The one thing the film leaves out is terrorism. Cuban American terrorists killed thousands in Cuba and hundreds of other Cuban Americans in the US. Anyone who disagreed with the hard right was bombed or assassinated.
Miami in the 70s and 80s was almost like Beirut. Fear and violence everywhere, mostly political, not drugs like Miami Vice showed. There is zero mention of this, partly because angry anti communism is the norm in the city even today.
But in every other way, a good documentary on immigrants.
It opens with a small shop owner selling tourist junk. She goes into a ridiculous rant that "Che Guevara was a terrorist." Then she proudly shows a toilet for sale where you can defecate on a picture of Fidel.
But after that the unhinged rants largely end. Instead you get lots of immigrant stories. They admit how Cubans are favored over all other immigrants, esp others from Latin America. Mexicans get tear gassed, Haitians get whipped. Cubans get handed food, money, jobs, and political influence. Becoming a resident alien or US citizen is much faster or easier for Cubans.
They also admit many of the first immigrants were Batista's torturers. Then came a wave of wealthy elites. Almost all of both groups were white. You didn't see Black or mixed Cubans until the Marielitos of the 80s. Cubans in Miami are wealthier, whiter, and of course politically much farther to the right than Cubans in Cuba. The film even admits how much racism is a problem among Cuban Americans and some think of themselves as "lily white."
Such honesty should be commended. The one thing the film leaves out is terrorism. Cuban American terrorists killed thousands in Cuba and hundreds of other Cuban Americans in the US. Anyone who disagreed with the hard right was bombed or assassinated.
Miami in the 70s and 80s was almost like Beirut. Fear and violence everywhere, mostly political, not drugs like Miami Vice showed. There is zero mention of this, partly because angry anti communism is the norm in the city even today.
But in every other way, a good documentary on immigrants.
