This research explores the progression of the Cuban American community
from an ethnic enclave to a social movement. The Cuban American
community of Miami, Florida, is currently the largest concentration of
Cuban Americans in the United States, and had been selected for this
study due to its cohesiveness and the high political activity at the
local, state, and national level. Moreover, I utilize the resource
mobilization perspective as a framework to investigate the political
progression and assess the influence upon the political arena within
Dade County, Florida and its effect on local and national politics. A
major focus of the resource mobilization is to trace the development of
the interlocking socio-political organizations such as the Cuban
American National Foundation (herein after referred to as CANF) and the
Cuban American National Council (herein after referred to as CNC), and
analyze the effect these networks and alliances have on movement growth
and internal dynamics.