Code Switch The U.S., Cuba, and the people caught between
20 snips
Feb 18, 2026 
Michael Bustamante, historian at the University of Miami who studies Cuban-U.S. migration and policy, provides historical context on shifting laws and waves of migration. He traces the Cuban Adjustment Act, the Mariel boatlift, wet foot/dry foot, and recent policy reversals. Short, clear takes on how legal changes and political shifts have reshaped who can stay and who gets deported.
AI Snips
Chapters
Books
Transcript
Episode notes
Divergent Family Journeys
- Ada Ferrer recounts arriving in the U.S. as an infant after fleeing Cuba in 1963 with her mother and reuniting with her father in New Jersey.
- She contrasts her own upward mobility with her half-brother Poli, who left in the 1980 Mariel boatlift and faced violence and incarceration.
A Unique Legal Conveyor Belt
- The Cuban Adjustment Act created a rare, near-automatic pathway to U.S. permanent residency for Cubans arriving legally after one year.
- Michael Bustamante emphasizes this law's uniqueness and Cold War political motives behind it.
Cold War Politics Shaped Immigration
- Early Cuban migrants were often middle- and upper-class and largely white, which shaped U.S. public sympathy and policy.
- Bustamante links this selective openness to racial and ideological politics distinguishing Cubans from other migrants like Haitians.
