This essay explores the dual phenomena of Cuban immigration and Puerto Rican migration to the United States, noting their relationship to those countries' respective independence movements as well as U.S. intervention in Cuba and Puerto Rico.

This group of Cuban immigrants sailed from the U.S. back to Cuba on May 21, 1898, under the name "Army of the Cuban Republic." Their goal was to aid the rebels fighting for Cuban independence from Spain. Many of these soldiers had been cigarworkers…