Chairman of the International Relations department at Florida International University. A minority resent being called Cuban-American. They still want to hold to the identity of exiles. But others have embraced their hybrid or their transnational identity of being partly Cuban and partly American, especially the younger generation. They embrace this country.
Exiles tend to live in the past.
Exiles are broken people. And that identity of exile makes people always look at the past, look at Cuba through the thick mist of nostalgia. That is where they live. That is who they are. Holding on to the label of exile is a way of vindicating your position in history, to show that although you might have been a loser in the Cuban revolution, you have the moral superiority.