Using archival film and photos blended with modern footage of communities in Miami; Union City, NJ; and New York City, THE CUBAN AMERICANS looks at the cross-pollination of Cuban and American cultures, the waves of migration that brought them together, and their impact on both the people who came and the places they arrived.

Like the precious family photo albums that were first among the limited possessions Cuban exiles took with them on the flight to the U.S., THE CUBAN AMERICANS collects snapshots of the diverse Cuban experience maintained in American culture and recalls the universal experiences that bonded Cuban American families and communities. Memories of such distinctly Cuban experiences as carnaval, baseball, and the celebratory strains of the mambo, son, and rumba come alive in personal accounts that demonstrate an inextricable connection to the "pearl of the Caribbean." For actress Elizabeth Peña, Cuban music defines the all-consuming aspect of cultural identity, influencing "the way my circulation flows, the way I hug and kiss or get angry or eat or walk or sleep."

For those interviewed in the program who left as young children, these memories of their Cuban homeland are, according to actor Andy Garcia, "sort of lived and also invented," a phenomenon he explains as "part of the nostalgia and the healing of wounds of an exile." Cuban families who left in the throes of revolution came to America, as broadcast journalist Antonio Mora describes in the program, "as if they were tourists," but as exile matured into immigration, Cuban enclaves became nostalgic re-creations that would ultimately preserve but no longer represent the Cuba left behind. THE CUBAN AMERICANS traces the many paths that brought Cuban exiles to the United States after Fidel Castro came to power, including the children who came, as musicians Lissette and Willy Chirino did, through operation Pedro Pan, spirited away from the revolution as if by the magic of the literary classic while their parents stayed behind in Cuba. THE CUBAN AMERICANS talks to modern Cuban American parents raised in those tumultuous times who are instilling a commitment to their cultural past in the next generation, whether in outward expressions like language or food or in the exchanges Willy Chirino describes as almost unconscious.

The program also highlights Cubans who achieved success in the American mainstream, including the legendary Desi Arnaz, whose starring role on I Love Lucy introduced American audiences to Cuban culture just before the largest wave of immigration in the 1950s.

THE CUBAN AMERICANS is the thirteenth program in WLIW21's series of cultural documentaries celebrating the diversity of America, which also includes THE MEXICAN AMERICANS and THE PUERTO RICANS: Our American Story.

Underwriter: Ford Motor Company, Public Television Viewers and PBS; Produced by WLIW New York; Executive Producer: Roy Hammond; Producer/Director: Ron Rudaitis; Producers: Lisa Maya Knauer and Maria Morales-Prieto; Format: CC STEREO.

To order the home video of this program, go to SHOP 21