"Columbus Effect(s)": Chronology and Crossover in the Latin(o) Music "Boom"

As Cultural Studies scholar George Lipsitz well notes, the triumvirate forces of technology, globalization, and the subsequent migration of individuals from south to north have transformed cities like Los Angeles and Miami into global, as opposed to national or regional, centers. In terms of population, in Miami-Dade County Latinos comprise nearly 50 percent of area residents, with blacks representing almost 20 percent; however, in recent years, the continuing influx of black and/or Latino immigrants from neighboring Latin American and the Caribbean—Haitians, Colombians, Nicaraguans, and Brazilians, among others—has provoked a "change [in] the meaning of all racial identities" in global cities like Miami where "local life and culture ... have decidedly international dimensions" (Lipsitz 213–216). Current demographic shifts aside, the U.S. Cuban community, the racial / ethnic group that has traditionally dominated Miami political and cultural life in the public imagination, continues to do so, most visibly within mainstream U.S. media outlets.²

In this light, CNN's coverage of the 2000 presidential election results provides a clear example of the subtle yet perceptible changes in the identity politics of South Florida. During one discussion regarding the election results still awaited from South Florida, political analyst Robert George referred to the prime role of U.S. Cubans in determining Republican candidate George W. Bush's presidential victory. In response, CNN news anchors Judy Woodruff and Bernard Shaw offered more nuanced accounts of South Florida's most salient voting block:

Woodruff: ... much of the Hispanic vote in the state of Florida is not—we can no longer assume it's Cuban or mostly Cuban. There are more and more Hispanics in Florida who have come from different parts of Central America, South America.

Shaw: ... Non-Cubans—let's put some faces on these people. We're talking about Peruvians, Colombians, Ecuadorians. We're talking about Panamanians, Salvadorians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, Chileans, and Brazilians.

George: Right. You've got a—you've got a—you've got a gumbo. ("Election 2000")

However, in the face Woodruff and Shaw's comments to the contrary as well as ongoing demographic shifts, George's initial characterization of the Miami voting populace is that which persists in the national consciousness. Indeed, Miami-Dade's myriad other populations—including the considerably less wealthy, less politically conservative, and consequently less visible sectors of the U.S. Cuban community itself—more often than not emerge as the victims of a pervasive media silencing that is always unnatural and never neutral (Trouillot 48).

As such, much has been made of the U.S. Cuban's economic and political dominance of Miami-Dade in recent years, particularly in the aftermath of the Elián González controversy.³ However, a recent investigative series undertaken by El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language daily published by the Miami Herald, challenges these deeply entrenched public beliefs regarding political and economic power to some extent. Conducted from early to mid 2000, the Nuevo Herald study documents the race and national origins of the individuals occupying the 1,357 positions of greatest power in Miami-Dade county, encompassing the fields of government, business, justice, higher education, the arts, and communications. According to the study, although Latinos in the region outnumber Anglos / whites by a margin of two to one, Anglos fill more than two-thirds of all powerful positions, Latinos one-fourth, and blacks one-tenth, and among the 406 governmental positions surveyed, Anglos occupy 51 percent of all elected or appointed positions, Latinos 32 percent, and blacks 17 percent. While these results do offer a substantial rebuttal to "the myth of Cuban power," they fail to closely analyze one key result: of the 32 percent of all Latinos filling government positions, 27 percent are U.S. Cubans (Branch-Brioso et al., translation mine. See also "Sondeo," and "Poder político"). Thus, while the perception of U.S. Cuban dominance over Miami-Dade's Anglo population may be contested, the reality of U.S. Cuban authority over Miami's numerous other Latino communities, specifically in the economic and cultural...