This month's speaker, Dr. Cori Convertito, Conservator of the Garden's Chug Collection, will explore Cuban immigration to the United States beginning in a time of peaceful coexistence between the two places.In the middle and latter part of the 19th century, workers moved freely between Florida and the island, and the trade in tobacco, sugar, coffee, and rum was lucrative. Cigar companies soon began relocating to Florida from Cuba to avoid tariffs and trade regulations. This, coupled with political unrest in Cuba, inspirited a large-scale relocation until the Spanish-American War. When Fidel Castro led a revolutionary in 1959, he launched a new era of mass emigration from his country to the United States. In the decades that followed, more than one million Cubans made their way to the U.S., and thousands more tried and failed. Through the years, as relations between the countries improved or deteriorated, the door of emigration would be opened and closed again and again. As a result, Cubans arrived in South Florida in several distinct phases, each of which had a distinctly different reception. This talk will examine these fluctuations in migration and will discuss the impacts of recent policy changes which influence modern crossings.
Admission is $5, or free for Key West Botanical Garden Members. This program is funded in part through a Florida Humanities Community Project Grant in partnership with the Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden.
For information on future events, please visit our website at www.keywest.garden
Event Venue
Key West Tropical Forest & Botanical Garden, 5210 College Rd,Key West,FL,United States