MIAMI — It was supposed to be another routine event in the series of regular book presentations organized by Florida International University’s Cuban Research Institute: on the podium, a respected scholar authoritatively presenting her most recent research. In the audience, a few attendants asking polite questions.
Instead, the presentation Friday evening of “Cuban Privilege, the Making of Immigrant Inequality in America,” a book claiming that Cuban immigrants in the United States are not genuine refugees nor exiles, turned into an emotional rebuke of that premise by activists and members of the Cuban-American community who feel the book denies the tragic history of those fleeing communism.
A few protesters and police officers were the among the first things those attending the event saw before going inside FIU’s Wertheim Performing Arts Center. Inside the packed venue, members of the public at times erupted in applause at mention of the achievements of the Cuban-American community as others questioned the central assertions in the book.
