Houston is establishing itself as one of the main destinations for the new Cuban migration in the United States, with a community that has rapidly grown in recent years, attracting newcomers with job opportunities, comparatively more affordable housing, and an increasingly large network of family and Latino connections.
A report published this Thursday by the Houston Chronicle, based on estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau and interviews with specialists and migrants, documents how the Texas city has stopped being merely a stopover for many Cubans on their way to other traditional destinations.
The population born in Cuba in Harris County —which includes Houston— reached nearly 41,000 people according to the latest estimate from the American Community Survey, compared to about 25,000 recorded in the five-year estimate of 2019.
Between 2015 and 2024, the number of residents born in Cuba increased by 64%, according to the analysis published by the newspaper.
Among the top ten foreign population groups in the county, the Cubans experienced the second fastest growth, only behind the Venezuelans.
The phenomenon had been taking shape for several years prior. In 2023, Houston emerged as the preferred destination for thousands of Cuban immigrants, with a community that had grown significantly and found in the city more affordable living costs and job opportunities.
Maylen Rondón, a 30-year-old Cuban who arrived in Houston in 2022 after living for several years in Bolivia and then making her way through the migration route across Latin America, told the Houston Chronicle that she has witnessed this transformation firsthand.
"In the four years I have been here, the Cuban community has grown tremendously," said Rondón, who works at Azúcar Cuban Bakery, a business where he also found a space to reconnect with his roots.
Valerie Lacarte, senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, explained that the growth is partly related to the changes experienced in the routes used by Cubans to reach the United States.
After the end of the "wet foot, dry foot" policy in 2017 and, especially, following the elimination in 2021 of the visa requirement for Cuban travelers to Nicaragua, tens of thousands began to enter through Central America and Mexico, reaching the southwestern border of the United States instead of going directly to Florida.
According to federal data cited by the Houston Chronicle, this change in migration routes became especially apparent in 2022, when the Border Patrol recorded around 220,000 encounters with Cuban citizens at the southwestern land border of the United States.
For Lacarte, this new route helps explain why Texas began to gain traction among the destinations for Cuban emigration: those entering from Mexico find Houston geographically much closer than Miami and, in some cases, discover sufficient reasons to stay there.
The cost of housing and employment rank among the main incentives. The report indicates that the average rent, taking into account various types and sizes of properties, is approximately $1,900 per month in Houston compared to $3,109 in Miami, according to data from Zillow cited by the newspaper.
Miami continues to be the major historical, familial, and cultural hub of the Cuban community in the United States, but experts note that some of the more recently arrived migrants do not necessarily maintain the same connection to South Florida as previous generations.
That change is also reflected in the experiences shared by Cubans living in Texas over the past few years.
In May, a Cuban woman explained why she had left Miami and did not want to return to live there, stating that she preferred the tranquility she had found in Texas.
A year earlier, another Cuban reported that he returned to Houston after trying his luck in Miami, citing, among other reasons, the high cost of living and a lifestyle that did not align with his priorities.
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