Forgot to share here: Last week I appeared on NPR's Code Switch to discuss the past and present of Cuban migration. Grateful for the invite to reflect on material from my recent Public Books piece. www.npr.org/2026/02/18/n...

Really insightful article on Cuba's political prospects from @mjbusta.bsky.social www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclu... 🗃️

For @jodemocracy.bsky.social, I pull back the presumptions of inevitability and ask what, if anything, is really this administration's Cuba strategy, what are its blindspots, and what are its likely costs. www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclu...

We've extended the deadline for the 2026-2027 Goizueta Graduate Fellowships @umchc.bsky.social to Feb 20. If you're a grad student in the US working on Cuba-focused or Cuba-adjacent topics, apply! mailchi.mp/miami.edu/li...

A Cuban migrant held in solitary confinement at an immigration detention facility in Texas died after guards held him down, according to an autopsy report released Wednesday that ruled the death a homicide. n.pr/49xRXVf

"He has repatriated > 1,600 Cubans in 2025. Legal immigration has also been cut. Trump enacted a travel ban, including Cuba, & ended a family reunification program. Officials are rejecting visa applications. The admin paused all Cuban immigration cases: naturalization, residency & asylum."

“When Trump claimed that Biden had misused parole authority many Cubans reassured themselves: Trump isn’t talking about us. He’ll target the criminals and the gangs for deportation. We still have the Cuban Adjustment Act. He owes Cuban Americans our votes.”

My new essay for @publicbooks.bsky.social on the Cuban-American community's response so far to the current administration's crackdown on historic numbers of recent Cuban migrants with irregular or provisional status. www.publicbooks.org/will-cuban-a...

Michael J. Bustamante (@mjbusta.bsky.social) explores the past and present of the Cuban Americans who voted overwhelmingly for Trump—and who are now mostly silent as his administration cracks down on all migrants, including Cubans.

My new essay for @publicbooks.bsky.social on the Cuban-American community's response so far to the current administration's crackdown on historic numbers of recent Cuban migrants with irregular or provisional status. www.publicbooks.org/will-cuban-a...

What does US intervention in Venezuela mean for Latin America and how did we get here? Authors unpack the history, policy, and implications in this must-watch discussion. Watch it here👇 youtu.be/VGlfGplYdm4

🗃️ The US attracted more foreign-born people from more places than any other nation in history. We need language to acknowledge that central fact of American history. But we also need language that goes beyond the idea that the United States is, or ever was, simply a “nation of immigrants.” 🧵1/10

In Foreign Affiars, a must-read piece from Michael Bustamante @mjbusta.bsky.social on Cuba: “Cuba’s cascading problems are now so severe that even a more dynamic private sector would be insufficient to fix them” www.foreignaffairs.com/cuba/cuba-br...

Excellent article from @mjbusta.bsky.social that summarizes Cuba’s current (not that recent) economic and political crisis. www.foreignaffairs.com/cuba/cuba-br...

My new essay for Foreign Affairs. “On the brink…”, not of political change, but of citizens' tolerance and patience. That has not happened overnight. This crisis has been acute and sudden (especially since the pandemic), but also a slow moving train. www.foreignaffairs.com/cuba/cuba-br...

Join us this afternoon!

My department is hiring! TT Modern US history, Reconstruction - Civil Rights Era. I'm late to sharing, but the window is admittedly short, due to a later budget cycle that we would have liked. Review of applications begins Dec 1. networks.h-net.org/jobs/69444/u...

We've also just launched an artist residency. Program and application info here. We're treating "artist" as an expansive category. Please help us spread the word. mailchi.mp/miami.edu/li...

Hi bluesky. Been a minute. Or several months. Dropping in to share the link to the program & registration info for our 2025-2026 Seminar in Cuban and Cuban Diaspora Studies at U Miami's Cuban Heritage Collection. Great line-up. It's all virtual. Hope you can join us. mailchi.mp/miami.edu/li...

Deadline extended! Still time to get your applications in.

Attention grad students in the US! Deadline for the Goizueta Graduate Fellowships Program @umchc.bsky.social is tomorrow.

Reminder: Applications for Goizueta Graduate Fellowships @umchc.bsky.social are due 2/28! Pre-dissertation & dissertation stage awards for graduate students at US institutions. Support 1-3 months of research in largest archive dedicated to Cuba outside of the island. mailchi.mp/miami.edu/li...

Great convo last night @umchc w Fabien Pisani & CM Álvarez after screening “En la caliente.” A film about not just *the* little known pioneer of reggaeton in Cuba, Kandyman, but the irrepressible nature of popular culture and Santiago de Cuba as a crucible of Caribbean sounds.

Happy to interview FIU alum Andrew Gomez about his book “Constructing Cuban America: Race and Identity in Florida’s Caribbean South, 1868-1945” from @utexaspress.bsky.social 🇨🇺 newbooksnetwork.com/constructing...

Some thoughts on today's bombshell 🇨🇺 news. 🧵 t.co/M8NpYJPfAa

New year, new slew of @UMCHC updates: First, the call for the 2025-2026 class of Goizueta Graduate Fellows is out. Deadline: 2/28. Eligibility: Doctoral students at U.S. institutions. Pre-prospectus (1 month) and post-candidacy (up to 3 months) awards. https://buff.ly/3WgPfMy

Bring on the Vivaporu Endowed Professorship in Latino Studies.

As President Carter is honored with a state funeral, re-upping my two-part piece from 2020 on fraught memories/ legacies of the 1979 "viajes de la comunidad," made possible by his administration's back channel negotiations with Cuban authorities. Part 1: https://buff.ly/40rrjsu

An exciting new volume on Triscornia, republican-era Cuba's forgotten immigration station, opened the same year as Ellis Island. Co-edited by my former FIU graduate student John Ermer and Cuban-born scholar Ahmed Correa.

Regreso a la semilla, intellectually speaking for me. Book stack for spring seminar, Islands in the Stream: U.S. Empire After 1898. How timely this has proven to be, though maybe I should have made the case studies Panama and Greenland, not Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Hawaii...

Some brief comments from me on Friday’s @theworld.org re the Cuban tourism industry’s struggles post covid and post Trump/Biden, the ripple effects, and the Cuban state’s response to the crisis overall. theworld.org/segments/202...

What a treat to see my mentor Gil Joseph win the CLAH liftetime achievement award at #aha25, and, being the mensch he is, center the work of his 60+ PhD advisees in his remarks as much as his own. (It was a full house, I assure you. Bad photo from my front row-ish seat.)

Pepe y perritos.

Relatives cleaning out bookshelves brings belated holiday presents.

A sobering piece of art to end the year on, courtesy of visit the other day to the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. (Read the label.)

Honored to be part of this late-breaking panel on the Cuban crisis for AHA25, my first AHA in a few years. Look forward to connecting and reconnecting with many.

Chronic kidney disease runs in my family. My grandmother died of complications from renal failure. My father died of complications from kidney transplant. I may too some day. So this report on kidney disease patients in Cuba today hit me especially hard. elpais.com/us/2024-12-3...

Good to be on Univisión's evening noticiero last night to discuss Carter's legacy around the Mariel Boatlift. RIP.

Good to be back at FIU today in the wizard robes to formally celebrate Dr. Rich Denis's recently completed Ph.D. My first doctoral advisee!

Yesterday was D17, & this was my reaction 10 yrs ago. Interesting what I got wrong (proembargo sentiment in Miami didn't forever wane) & right (there were plenty of obstacles ahead). But we all underestimated how dramatic the roller coaster would be. www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/cub...

Yesterday was D17, & this was my reaction 10 yrs ago. Interesting what I got wrong (proembargo sentiment in Miami didn't forever wane) & right (there were plenty of obstacles ahead). But we all underestimated how dramatic the roller coaster would be. www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/cub...

Wow, so this really IS where all the academic people went. Nice to see you again…

Cool event at UM's Cuban Heritage Collection for those in town. t.co/b7yxLfCA8s Presentation of "Modern Cuban Painters: from Havana to New York," commemorating the 80th anniversary of the historic exhibition “Modern Cuban Painters” at MoMA as well as the seminal book “Pintura Cubana de Hoy.”

Pleasure to review Mauricio Castro's great "Only a Few Blocks to Cuba" for H-Diplo. And always a treat when I have excuse to insert a reference to ¿Qué Pasa, U.S.A.? issforum.org/essays/PDF/E...

Am I really doing this? I guess. We'll see if it lasts. Not sure I have the time or energy to rebuild a platform. But let me poke around and see what's going on here, before I abandon the other ship completely. The takeoff seems more genuine this time...