This research working group project probes under what conditions and with what results immigrants from the insular Hispanic Caribbean (Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico) and their descendants “cross Latinidades” and identify with other groups of Latin American origin in the United States. The project adopts a collaborative, comparative, and crossregional approach to national and panethnic identities, focusing on Cubans, Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans in Miami, New York City, and Orlando, as major points of entry   These groups share numerous geographic, historical, and cultural experiences in their home countries, such as a tropical insular environment, a Spanish colonial heritage, a similar Spanish dialect, and Afro-Caribbean cultural traditions, including popular music and food practices. Such common denominators may lead people from the Hispanic Caribbean to consider themselves part of a larger region and, even more broadly, as Latinos or Hispanics in the United States.

Goals

To provide a better understanding of when, how, why, and to what extent Hispanic Caribbean groups in the United States transcend national borders to embrace a panethnic Latino label.

Research Questions

• Under what conditions do immigrants from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean islands (Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico) and their descendants define themselves as Hispanic or Latino?

• To what extent do people of Hispanic Caribbean origin identify with other groups ofLatin American origin in the United States?

• How do Latino cultural organizations in Miami, New York City, and Orlando define their mission, objectives, and audience?

• How do U.S. Cubans, Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans differ in their preference for asserting their national identities or their common background as Hispanics or Latinos?

• How often do the leaders of cultural organizations representing people of Hispanic
  Caribbean origin in the United States use the term “Latino or Hispanic” in describing themselves and their activities?

• How do differences by gender, generation, race, occupation, and education affect whether people of Hispanic Caribbean descent define themselves by national origin or by using a wider Latino or Hispanic category?