History Of The Mariel Boatlift Through The Eyes Of Tony Montana

___________________________________________________________ I) Intro: Miami is a city of immigrants. Hispanics, Cubans in specific, now dominate nearly all sectors of the municipality: economically, culturally, and politically. Alongside Whites, Hispanics segregate themselves from other races, particularly Blacks. This paper will analyze the constructs, such as social capital, that attribute to Cubans’ successful creation of the enclave and will compare such experience with other racial groups.

The mid-19th century saw an unprecedented wave of immigrants coming into the country. At its peak, Ellis Island, the main processing station for immigrants, handled an astounding 5,000 people every day. Because of the language and culture barriers faced by each group of people, they often settled amongst themselves. Very quickly, country-specific neighborhoods began popping up throughout New York and the surrounding area. This helped to alleviate the stresses with moving to a new country; however, most immigrants came to the United States penniless and lived in low-income housing as their jobs rarely supported themselves let alone their families.

January of 1959, Cuba welcomed the first of the Cuban Revolution, and had become a communist country under the rule of Fidel Castro as mentioned in “Document D”. The US, against communism, became much involved in Cuba during 1962, when

Adding to the difficulties faced by braceros who attempted to engage in the program and come to work in the U.S. legally, there was the problem of illegal immigration and the fact that the INS, at least tacitly, encouraged Mexicans to illegally cross the border into the U.S. Illegal workers were often “legalized” if they happened to be detained by the border patrol, especially if it was during a peak season for American farmers. (cite, 140) At some points during the program, depending on the state in question, the number of illegal workers actually outnumbered legal braceros. (cite, 141) This certainly served to make the plight of the braceros an even more unsavory one. As Mexicans flooded across the border in ever-increasing numbers, the advantage

Since the 1960s to even present day, Cuban exiles have been making their way

Second to liquor charges, immigration charges had the second-largest population of incarcerated people. This led to the three federal prisons (at the time) to become overcrowded (Hernandez

In January of 1959, Fidel Castro came to power. The United States’ attempted to overthrow Castro with the Bay of Pigs Invasion, a CIA operation to overthrow Fidel Castro by landing 1200 disgruntled Cuban exiles in the Bay of Pigs. The attempt fails miserably and is a huge embarrassment for Kennedy, who then vows to bring down Castro. After the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion, Castro looked to the Soviet Union for protection. According to document D in 1962 “The soviets began shipping 40,000 troops, 60 missiles and 158 nuclear warheads to communist Cuba.”

In 1953, the US government deported 3.8 million Mexicans back to Mexico. In June of 1954, “Operation Wetback” occurred. During this time, the United States Immigration and Naturalization Services deported around a million Mexican workers. In the 1960's, the Bracero program was criticized, and the program limitations were make harder, so the wages needed were higher, and less could be allowed in. In 1965, the government passed the Immigration and Nationality Act.

INTRODUCTION An Italian immigrant once said, "I came to America because I heard the streets were paved with gold. When I got here, found out three things: First, the streets weren't paved with gold; second, they weren't paved at all: and third, I was expected to pave them” (Immigrant). The 1930s in America were a time of hardship for the many migrant workers immigrating to America. During this time, many immigrants wanted to come to America for better job opportunities and for a better life in general.

After the Civil War, our country was battered and beaten, but it rebuilt itself over time and spread its policies, as well as manufacturing practices, throughout our country. Early in the 20th century, members of our nation started to look at some of these practices and policies and began to question their merit and whether they assisted our population or not. Many people were involved in the progressive movement in America from the presidents to a slew of popular authors and photographers. The one thing that they had in common was that they saw problems with how various industries in our nation performed that they knew needed to be fixed. They did not always agree on everything, such as immigration, but they always had the nation’s best interest at heart.

When President Herbert Hoover, was in office a precipitous drop in the value of the U.S. stock market came crashing downward and signaled the start of the Great Depression. Due to the Jim Crow laws it was hard for even immigrants to survive the Great Depression. Upon this article it was “Around one third of Los Angeles’ Mexican population left the country, as did a third of Texas’ Mexican- born population” (Blakemore). During the years, Latino American’s had to fight to have the same equal right as American citizens. Even through “Mexican’s is willing to work for low wages, they help build the railroads in the 1930’s, American’s were and still is afraid, of foreigners stealing jobs” (Blakemore).

Robert’s story did not occur in isolation and is, instead, is situated in the specific social, political and economic context of the late 1940s to 1950s. By this time, World War Two (WWII) had subsided, the economy was recovering, and Canada found itself fairly well situated to accept new immigrants (Hawkins, 1988, p.99). Fuelled by the expansion of certain industries (e.g. construction), this period “saw the beginning of a significant economic boom in Canada” (Kelly & Trebilcock, 2010, p.316; Troper, 1993, p.250). Therefore, what had previously been characterized by a relatively restrictive climate for immigration, due to the fear during WWII, was gradually replaced with more “libera[l]” (Kelly & Trebilcock, 2010, p.318) immigration policies

Lesson 9 1. Puerto Ricans immigrants are often portrayed as poor, lazy and scandalous individuals by Anglo Americans. At times, Puerto Ricans are not allowed to live up to their fullest potential because they are already labeled as impoverished people; stereotypes do not let Puerto Ricans rise to their fullest abilities because they often feel trapped by the welfare rumors. Thus, whenever the dominant white people think of the minorities they will always see the negative side of their labels as opposed to what they are fully capable of. 2.

Immigration into the “land of opportunity” was everything but a smooth, trouble-free journey for those escaping the terror, poverty and political persecution in their crumbling countries. The wave of immigrants was at its peak during the breakouts of economic depressions (Document A). The new flow of immigration doubled the American population, especially in major cities. Chasing after the American Dream, many Europeans were attracted by the employment openings and new chances they could obtain in America. However, despite their life being better than before, these immigrants still faced many obstacles and cultural conflicts trying to fit in and thrive in American culture.

In the movie Scarface we view go in depth about some life events of Cuban refugee Tony Montana when he enters the United States and receives his green card. We also see what leads him to his criminal activities of becoming a national drug lord. In this film there are a number of different theories that can be applied. I will be using Cornish and Clarkes Rational Choice Theory, along with Robert Agnew’s Strain theory in order to analyze Tony’s reasoning behind committing these crimes. I will be using examples from the film Scarface in order to draw and link these theories with the film.