Cuban success story

During the early exodus the US government and national media began promoting an image of the exiles as an exceptional people worthy of Americans' sympathy, and birthed the idea of the Cuban success story.

[3] Despite the original upper-class character of many of the first exiles after the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961 many unprofessional laborers and clerical workers began to join the exodus from Cuba.

Despite the financially successful character of many of the early exiles they often had trouble continuing their professional careers in the United States and often faced economic downturn.

[4] Reports about the rising financial success of Cuban exiles became popular in the US media, around the same time as the growth of the African American civil rights movement.

While it is difficult to garner how much money was given to some Cuban exiles by the CIA for their assistance in anti-Castro operations, this theory was a popular rumor in among Anglo business owners in Miami.

[2] The Cuban success story's popularity allowed it to become accepted in various academic circles, policy making groups, and journalist organizations.

[8] In a Gallup poll of Americans done soon after the Mariel boatlift Cubans ranked dead last among ethnic groups rated for their positive contributions to the United States.

[10] In general Cuban exiles were economically successful and conservative[2] becoming a perfect model minority[10] in the United States, and a prime example of the accessibility of the American dream.

[3] Sociologists Francisco Hernández Vázquez and Rodolfo D. Torres have asserted that the story also helped ease the worries of xenophobic Americans that may have doubted why the government gave Cubans immigration privileges and federal aid.

[6] Scholar Maria Vidal de Haymes argued in 1997 that the relevance of the Cuban success story ignores recorded economic realities.

He also argues that the story only resembles the reality of the early Golden exile and not of other working class Cubans that came in later emigration waves.