Between 2012 and 2024, he was director of the Cuban Research Institute and professor of anthropology at Florida International University,[1] and has held various teaching positions across the United States and Puerto Rico.
[3] His college teaching career started in 1980 at the University of the Sacred Heart in Santurce, Puerto Rico, where he taught anthropology, psychology, and social sciences.
[4][6] Thus, he coined the expression "nation on the move" to describe the constant flow of people, ideas, and cultural practices between Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland.
[7] He notes Cubans in Miami often use their Catholicism as a way to deal with their displacement and emotional ties to the island,[8] as a replacement for the disconnect in the political and social realities of Castro's Cuba.
Major political contenders frequently depend upon funding and organizational support from Dominican Americans,[7] going as far as to promote dual nationality.