BLACK AND HISPANIC: THE RACIAL IDENTIFICATION OF AFRO-CUBAN IMMIGRANTS IN THE SOUTHWEST C. ALISON NEWBY New Mexico State University JULIE A. DOWLING University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ABSTRACT: Although studies document the successful adaptation of Cuban exiles in Miami, little research has examined the settlement experi- ences of recent Afro-Cuban immigrants. Many of these Afro-Cubans have settled in relocation sites throughout the United States, including the Southwest. The adjustment of these immigrants in areas with mostly White and Mexican-origin populations, and a smaller African American group, creates identity conflicts as these immigrants struggle to find their place in this largely white/black/brown triracial system. Drawing on inter- views with forty-five Afro-Cubans in Austin, Texas, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, this study employs a constructionist approach, exploring the ways in which racial and ethnic identities are formed in dialogue with both self-appraisal and external classification from others. Findings reveal the complicated identification processes involved as Afro-Cubans attempt to maintain identification as both “Cuban” and “Black” in the face of external classification as either “Black” or “Hispanic.” Keywords: racial/ethnic identity; Cubans; Latinos; immigration; blackness “The United States expects me to choose. I’ve been Black (negro) all my life. Black in Cuba, and I’d be Black in China. When I came here I found out that I wasn’t really Black any more. Now I was Hispanic. I have to pick a box: Am I Black or Hispanic?” —Lazaro, Afro-Cuban immigrant in Albuquerque, New Mexico This quote from a participant in our study reveals the complicated position of Afro-Cuban 1 immigrants as they negotiate racial and ethnic identities in the U.S. Southwest. Because of the large numbers of Cubans arriving in the mid-1990s, the U.S. government established resettlement programs to relocate new immigrants Address correspondence to: C. Alison Newby, Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Box 30001, MSC 3BV, New Mexico State University; phone: (505) 646-1025; fax: (505) 646-3725; e-mail: canewby@nmsu.edu. Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 50, Issue 3, pp. 343–366, ISSN 0731-1214, electronic ISSN 1533-8673. © 2007 by Pacific Sociological Association. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photo- copy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, at http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintinfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/sop.2007.50.3.343.