The Cuban Community of Louisville: As I Know It

The Cuban Community of Louisville_ As I Know It - Daniela Gamez Salgado.pdf

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During my junior and senior years at the University of Kentucky, I was fortunate to be part of the Gaines Fellowship for the Humanities. This undergraduate fellowship program opened my eyes to new sides of Kentucky, as well as new sides of myself, through thought-provoking, rotating seminars. As I learned more, it made the most sense to put this knowledge to use in serving the community that raised me: Louisville, Kentucky. More specifically, the Cuban community of Louisville, Kentucky. 

That is when my senior thesis unfolded into a love letter to Louisville’s Cuban community. While I had previously completed a similarly structured research project compiling the history of Latino students at the University of Kentucky from 1865 to 2019, this new research felt more intimate and emotionally complex. Every story felt significant and I felt uneasy picking and choosing which stories to highlight. My thesis committee reassured me that I didn’t need to have all the answers or represent every perspective. They reminded me that others could build on this research later on. That’s when I decided to lean into the stories I could tell and interweave my own personal narrative to humanize the timeline of the Cuban community of Louisville. 

This thesis is an ode to my family, the community that raised me, and the spaces that nurtured my curiosity about our roots. There is still so much more of the greater story to uncover, but I hope this work inspires others to explore and share their own histories.

After graduation, I had the opportunity to work with newly arrived Cuban immigrants in Louisville. This full-circle moment eventually led to connections with Miriam Jordan in 2023 and Ivan Quintanilla in 2025, both of whom were interested in understanding the backdrop of the Cuban community’s migration to Kentucky. I shared my thesis with them, and it helped provide context for the historical ties between Cuba and Kentucky. If you haven’t already read their articles, I highly recommend them as a resource for understanding how Cuban culture has become intertwined with the Kentucky landscape.

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Looking for a taste of Cuba? Louisville, Kentucky, should be on your radar.

Best known for the Kentucky Derby and bourbon, Louisville is also home to one of the fastest-growing Cuban populations in the U.S., bringing an entirely new flavor to the city’s music, culinary, and arts scenes.