Cubans

Photographer Rachel Been has just completed a really good photo documentary addressing Miami's influential Cuban and Cuban-American population. See her photos here.

Cultural bragging follows: I think that one of the reasons for the spectacular success of the Miami-based art fairs is the economic and cultural power of Miami's Cuban ancestry population, which as anyone who has been to Miami knows, is the dominant ethnic group in that city.

According to U.S. Census Bureau statistics, we Cuban-Americans represent only about four percent of the 45 million or so Hispanics/Latinos that are living in the US, but unlike other Latinos, your average C-A is a Republican, disproportionally represented in Congress, and C-A average annual income is higher than that of Anglos and other non-Hispanic whites and Non-Hispanic blacks, and more than 50% of the top 100 wealthiest Hispanics in the US are Cubans as are more than 50% of the top Hispanic-owned businesses in the US.

So why do Miamians with disposable income, and New Yorkers of all ancestries with disposable income buy art, but Washingtonians and Philadelphians of the same wealth level do not?

A while back I submitted my theory for DC's case here; now working on Philly's case. More later...