Five academics who spoke with BuzzFeed News from across the country said Cubans are viewed as the most pampered Latino immigrant — that other Hispanic groups “chafe” at their special immigration status.

Geraldo Cadava, a Northwestern University professor writing a book on Hispanic Republicans said “tensions between Cubans and Mexicans threatened to tear apart” the leading advocacy group for Latino conservatives, the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, in the 1970s and ‘80s. He said beyond immigration, issues of race and class were also present because Cuban-Americans have traditionally been more upwardly mobile.

Mark Hugo Lopez of Pew Hispanic said he has found that among Latinos, Cubans are among the most educated and more likely to own their home, while Mexicans experience higher poverty rates and bigger families.
Anna Ochoa O’Leary, the head of the University of Arizona’s Mexican-American Studies department, argued there is a “privilege” that accompanies Cuban political candidates.

“Cuban candidates speak from a point of view of privilege where they haven’t struggled like other Latinos,” she said. “They come from a very different background and I would say they’re less likely to vote for those candidates after watching them fight over who slams the door the hardest.”