|
A Retrospective on the
35 Years of the Cuban
American National
Council (CNC)
On the outskirts of
Miami’s Little Havana
neighborhood, where
thimbles of cafecito
flow from street-side
cafeterias, and
political banter abounds,
stands the three-story
headquarters of the
Cuban American National
Council (CNC).
Created in 1972, as a
government sponsored
non-profit organization
that would oversee
humanitarian efforts for
the growing Cuban exile
community in the United
States, the council has
emerged in the past 30
years as one of the most
prominent Latino run
groups.
Executives with
corporate giants like
Coca-Cola and Ford Motor
Company sit among the
council’s board of
trustees, political
leaders and government
officials often turn to
the council for
direction, and Latin
American presidents have
often conversed politics
and policy over dinner
with the group’s
director.
Yet before there were
offices in Miami,
Orlando, Union City, N.J.,
and Washington D.C.,
long before business big
wigs and political
heavyweights pitched in
support, there was only
a little Miami strip
mall store front, a
staff of less than 10
people, and the vision
to create a group that
would make sure the
needs of the Cuban exile
community were being
met.
“We had that little
office, but even then we
weren’t just sitting
back in the office, we
were traveling all over
from Texas to
California, to Chicago
trying to collect as
much data as we could
about the basic needs of
the Cuban community,”
says Guarioné M. Diaz,
president and chief
executive officer of the
council since 1978.
“There wasn’t a lot of
information back then,
and we were so small in
those days, that the
thought of a research
team didn’t exist. We
did everything ourselves.”
As Diaz describes it,
the 70s was all about
“creating a solid
foundation” for the
council.
The 80s
If the 70s were about
creating a solid
foundation and setting
goals, Diaz says the 80s
could be defined as “the
era of expansion.” It
was an era that would be
fueled by one of the
most condensed influx of
Cuban migrants to the
United States – the
Mariel Boatlifts.
Day in and day out for
124 consecutive days
starting from April 15
to October 30th 1980,
the nation was
captivated by news of
the droves of Cuban
migrants boarding boats
bound for the shores of
Miami and Key West.
Castro declared that any
Cuban seeking to leave
Cuba could do so by
leaving from the port of
Mariel, a seaside town
just west of the capital
Havana.
An
estimated 125,000 Cubans
would make the exodus
from Mariel, an
estimated 27 would die
along the way. From the
familiar tropic
temperatures of Miami to
the less familiar
territories in Wisconsin
and Kansas, refugee
camps were set up
throughout the United
States to deal with the
influx of “marielitos,”
as they were dubbed.
“These were challenging
times because many
people in the community
were looking at this
group with disdain,’’
Diaz says.
All the while, the
council was there to
mobilize efforts to
bring basic necessities
to the refugees like
food, and later a
refugee assistance
program would be created
to provide job training
and placement to the new
arrivals.
What started out as an
effort to assist the
Marielitos has since
evolved into the
council’s Refugee
Employee and Training
Program (RET). In the
past 20 years the
program has provided job
placement and English
lessons for more than
35,800 refugees, with
roughly 1,600 refugees
annually walking through
the doors of the CNC’s
office in search of
assistance.
While the Mariel Boat
Lift signified an
important part in
showcasing the council’s
ability to rally
humanitarian support
behind a group in
desperate need the
council’s prominence and
name value started to
rise around the same
period in the 80s and
early 90’s that Cuban-American
and Latino leaders
gained political clout
in the White House and
abroad.
In
Washington, Rep. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, became the
first Hispanic woman and
the first Cuban-American
to be elected to the U.S.
House of Representatives
in 1989. She would be
followed shortly
thereafter by Lincoln
Diaz-Balart in 1992.
Both had already made
strides being elected to
the Florida House of
Representatives and
Florida Senate in the
mid 80s.
“What you started to see
is that the Cuban
American community
started to form its
roots in the United
States,” Diaz says of
the 70s and 80s. “People
started to distance from
the mindset that they
were going to return
back to Cuba soon, they
started to realize it
was time to form a life
here, and start
organizing themselves.”
The 90s
Once again political
unrest in the island
just 90 miles south of
Miami would cause the
council and all of its
supporting agencies to
bind their resources
behind a new influx of
Cuban migrants seeking a
better quality of life
in the United States.
It
was August 1994, and as
protests broke out along
the sea wall
neighborhoods of Havana
by Cubans attempting to
flee the nation, Castro
announced publicly that
he would no longer use
the Cuban Frontier Guard
to enforce laws against
leaving the country.
Using flimsy rafts
created by rubber inner
tubes, styrofoam pieces,
and other scraps of
material, more than
32,000 Cubans would
attempt to make the
journey from Cuba to
Florida.
Daily, hundreds of Cuban
rafters were intercepted
at sea, only to be taken
back to the U.S. Naval
Base in Guantanamo Bay
for holding. Faced with
more refugees than the
camp had ever taken on,
military officials
looked no further than
the Cuban National
Council’s director for
guidance on how to meet
the needs of the
detainees.
“I
got a call asking me if
I could be in Washington
by that night,’’ Diaz
says, recalling the
haste in which he was
sent out to Cuba. “I
went home, got a couple
of things together and
was on the last flight
to Washington D.C.” For
months Diaz spent weeks
at a time visiting the
naval base, weaving
through the rows of
canvas tents to talk to
the surviving rafters,
attempting to ease their
fears about their
uncertain future.
As
a consultant working
with the military
officials on hand, Diaz
was able to convey the
needs of the group. Soon
public phones were
installed so that the
detainees could reach
family members in Miami
and abroad. Special
areas were set aside for
newborn babies and
expectant mothers, and
increased access to
running water were some
of the improvements made
at the camp following
recommendations made by
Diaz and some of the
other consultants.
By
May 1995, former U.S.
Attorney General Janet
Reno declared that the
Guantanamo Cuban
detainees would all be
allowed into the United
States, with the
exception of those who
had criminal records.
By
the mid 90s the council
had a hodgepodge of
issues to contend with—providing
a support network for
the new wave of Cuban
exiles, continuing in
their research studies
to determine how
existing Latino groups
were transitioning into
their lives in the
United States, and
developing affordable
housing and educational
programs to make aid the
minority communities.
Educational Programs
In 1986, the council
created its first school
– The Little Havana
Institute and in 1987
the Hialeah Institute
was created. From providing day care
facilities for working
class families to
mentoring programs, to
teenagers on the brink
of dropping out of
school, a majority of
the council’s efforts
are spent on educational
outreach programs. |
