Americans in Cuba
Americans in Cuba (Spanish: Estadounidenses en Cuba) consist of expatriates and immigrants from the United States as well as Cubans of American descent. As of September 1998, there are about 2,000 to 3,000 Americans living in Cuba.[1]
Total population | |
---|---|
2,000 to 3,000 | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Havana | |
Languages | |
American English · Cuban Spanish | |
Related ethnic groups | |
American diaspora |
Migration history
Following the Cuban Revolution, small numbers of Americans, mostly communists, began migrating to Cuba. In the 1980s, there was an organized group of Americans who called themselves the Union of North American Residents. They consist of nearly 30 expatriates, some members of the US Communist Party while others are leftist writers or English teachers.
Many American fugitives have taken refuge in Cuba.[2] Some of them remain on the FBI's Most Wanted List, and most were members of radical leftist organizations, Puerto Rican separatist groups and Black nationalist organizations (most notably the Black Panther Party) who fled to the country to escape U.S. authorities in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1968, more than 30 planes were hijacked or attempted to be hijacked to Cuba.
Notable people
- Nehanda Abiodun - American, serial robber and accomplice of escaped murderer-robber Assata Shakur
- Philip Agee - former CIA case officer and writer
- William Lee Brent - Black Panther Party member, robber, and aircraft hijacker
- Victor Manuel Gerena - allegedly hiding in Cuba after stealing $7,000,000 in Hartford, Connecticut; remains at-large on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List
- Ernest Hemingway - famous American author who purchased a home outside of Havana in 1940 and lived there with his wife for 20 years
- William Alexander Morgan - US citizen who fought in the Cuban Revolution
- Assata Shakur - Escaped convict who committed first-degree murder of a policeman
- Robert F. Williams - Civil Rights activist who fled to avoid prosecution by the FBI. Also established a pro-Civil Rights radio station, Radio Free Dixie
- Robert Vesco - fugitive United States financier
References
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Americans in Cuba. |
- "Why Some Americans Choose a Life in Fidel Castro's Cuba Archived January 15, 2014, at the Wayback Machine", Cubanet, 10 September 1998
- "Dozens of American Fugitives on the Lam in Cuba", ABC News, 13 October 2009