¿Qué tiene Kentucky que atrae a los cubanos?

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Alrededor de 50 migrantes cubanos llegan a Louisville, Kentucky, a diario, con el objetivo de asentarse definitivamente en la ciudad, en busca de mejores condiciones salariales que en Florida.  En Louisville y sus alrededores la población cubana ha crecido en un 50% en los últimos dos años. Según las estadísticas oficiales, más de 15 000 personas de origen cubano se han establecido en esta zona durante ese periodo. Entrevista exclusiva a Luis David Fuentes, creador de la revista El Kentubano. Por John Palomino.

Transcript

00:00 In recent years, the arrival of Cuban immigrants to Kentucky has been a phenomenon in constant increase.

00:06 This state offers benefits such as lower taxes, affordable rents and an opportunity to start a business.

00:13 Data show an increase of 50% in the Cuban population in Kentucky in recent years.

00:19 Today, this community is about 50,000.

00:22 In an exclusive conversation with Luis David Fuentes, creator of the magazine "El Kentubano" and resident in Kentucky for more than 20 years,

00:31 we explore his personal experience and his vision about the growing arrival of Cubans to this region of the United States.

00:38 There are more opportunities, you know, the salaries are better, the rents, the properties have a lower price, the insurance, the taxes.

00:48 And I came with this idea of being here for two or three years, saving money and going back to Florida.

00:54 But hey, things started to go well here.

00:56 In that period, I began to notice a growth of the Cuban community, Hispanic, but fundamentally many Cubans coming to Louisville, Kentucky.

01:06 Louisville is the largest city in Kentucky.

01:09 I decided or had the idea of making a publication that I named "El Kentubano"

01:15 of the combination of Kentucky with Cuban.

01:18 Then I realized that it also worked for Colombian, Mexican, Venezuelan, Dominican.

01:24 It is the combination of the two words.

01:26 At that time there were very few Cubans.

01:29 But hey, I always thought that information is a super important thing that they need,

01:33 especially when they come to a place where everything works differently.

01:36 Any Hispanic is very difficult, which is the part against which we have here.

01:41 The climate is adverse, English is something you have to speak to communicate the new culture.

01:49 And the best thing about the Cuban community here is that it is a very entrepreneurial community.

01:56 Despite coming from a country where we had no idea what marketing was, what economics was, what commerce was,

02:03 as such, modern, we got here and it is a community that I always say that I am very proud of it.

02:10 Because they start a business right away.

02:12 They try to, as we say, open their heads around here and apply for a better position,

02:18 to be a supervisor, to take a course, to overcome, to open a business.

02:23 And that has helped me a lot because they have opened many businesses here.

02:27 If you want to know what freedom means and what capitalism means,

02:32 that is, free enterprise, without having to give account to any political party,

02:38 to any personality, that you are the owner of yourself, that you are free,

02:42 you have to look at what the Cuban community has achieved here in Yantoque.

02:46 The number of businesses that have opened, the number of prosperous people, the number of people,

02:52 I reiterate, arriving in a place where everything is different, you have to learn what is a credit card,

02:56 what is insurance, what is how to drive, because we didn't even ride a bicycle in Cuba.

03:02 And to get here with a different climate, to get here with a different language, with a different culture,

03:08 and to triumph, that is thanks to this nation.

03:12 That is why I always say that I am eternally grateful to this nation.

03:15 And in addition to that, to the freedoms of the human being, to the individual freedom,

03:20 and to the capitalist system that provides you to progress and get as far as I propose.

03:26 The Mecca of the Cuban community here in the United States is Miami.

03:30 Miami is, for years, for decades, the city that has received Cubans.

03:35 What happens is that with this saturation of other Hispanics and also Cubans who have arrived in recent years,

03:42 all this communist disaster in Latin America has overpopulated the city.

03:47 And what happens is that when there are many people, the salaries are lower,

03:51 because the same businessman pays less because he has many people available.

03:57 And the same with the property.

04:00 Houses have been banned, apartments super expensive, with the efficiency and all those things,

04:07 and everything has gone up in price compared to other cities in the United States.

04:13 I mean the field of cities that are not the main metropolises.

04:19 And basically, what happened here with Louis Vuitton, there are many opportunities,

04:23 because you have those options to work, much better salaries than you will get in Florida, for example.

04:31 And basically, what I always say, when you take out the bill on paper and pencil,

04:35 you say, "Well, how long will it take me in 10 years to achieve so many things?"

04:41 In Miami, I always give the example, in 10 years, you take something,

04:46 here you can achieve it in 4 years, in less than half the time.

04:49 So people say, "Look, I'm going there, I'll spend a little bit of the cold,

04:53 I'll try to more or less "machucar" in English, as we say,

04:56 and I'll raise pressure and then I'll go back to Florida.

05:00 What has happened in recent years is that Florida has been banned,

05:03 Florida, Miami, Tampa, the sun is expensive, I always say it.

05:07 In my house, you eat Cuban food, you listen to Cuban music, you smoke tobacco,

05:13 I drink rum, it's Cuba, but we are in a place where, I reiterate, it is completely different from our customs,

05:21 but everything has its counterweight.

05:26 And that's basically what has happened here with the thousands of Cubans who have come here,

05:30 they have seen more opportunities, they have seen better salaries,

05:33 they have found cheaper rent, they have found houses to buy in one year, in two years, at affordable prices.

05:41 And they say, "Well, I prefer to be here and with the money I can save,

05:46 I go on vacation to Florida or I go on vacation to Europe,

05:49 and there the cold and the culture of difference are compensated a little bit.

05:55 And I think that what the movement generates here in millions of dollars,

05:59 which produces and manages the Cuban community here,

06:03 I think it means, you know, if we put it the same as any province in Cuba.

06:08 You know, here the number of businesses that exist, what invoices more businesses,

06:12 the transactions they make, the jobs they create, the taxes they pay,

06:16 there is no province in Cuba that is the same.

06:19 And I used to say, not anymore because so many have arrived,

06:22 since that is not fulfilled, but I used to say three or four years ago,

06:25 before this boom, that I thought, you know, without fear of being wrong,

06:31 that Louisville, Kentucky, was the per capita city, ok?

06:35 Where more Cuban businesses existed.

06:38 The only reason why here in Kentucky, Louisville, there is a Cuban community,

06:44 is because of the dictatorship that exists in Cuba.

06:48 All the prosperous people who live here, all the businesses that exist here,

06:53 including my magazine, I would have preferred to do it in a Cuban town,

06:57 and employ my cousins, my neighbors, my friends,

07:00 just like all the restaurants and all the stores and all the realtors

07:03 and all the barbers and all the mechanics that exist there,

07:06 they should be in their towns in Cuba, employing people, paying their taxes,

07:10 which I talked about, making a more prosperous society,

07:16 paying taxes to improve hospitals, schools, etc.

07:19 We should not have done it here in Kentucky.

07:21 You know, with all the love and gratitude that I have for Kentucky,

07:25 but it is incorrect.

07:27 You know, we should be in the homeland, we, doing these things,

07:31 creating wealth, educating our children.

07:34 We should not be coming here to spend the cold winter and not speak English.

07:38 [Music]

07:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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