Luisa Yanez is a higher-education reporter for The Miami Herald and a co-author of ``Miami's Criminal Past Uncovered'' (The History Press, 2007). She asked this of Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés, who has written ``Marielitos, Balseros and Other Exiles'' (IG Publishing, $14.95):

Q. In Miami's Cuban exile community, an economic and political pecking order is largely decided by the year and the exodus wave that brought you to the United States. Your collection of short stories that make up Marielitos, Balseros and Other Exiles painfully capture the persecution felt by the newer refugees. Can you explain why you think this underlying conflict existed between those who left years ago and those who left more recently?

A. Historically, I think that there are probably more than just a few reasons for conflict between the first waves of arrivals and the more recent ones. Perhaps the most significant reason is that the earlier arrived groups felt that their stellar reputations were being tarnished by the criminal elements, specifically of the Marielitos (though only a small percentage of the 125,000 who arrived were prisoners of crime not conscience). Even though 1980 was already well into the heyday of the cocaine cowboys' reign in Miami, the crime reports tended to identify suspects or the accused as Mariel émigrés leading the earlier arrived groups to quickly and harshly denounce their compatriots. It was very important to some that there was a clear and distinguishable difference between ``them'' and ``us.''

In my short fiction collection, the characters who arrived in the first waves left a Cuba that was vastly different than the Cuba of the Mariel and Balsero characters. New arrivals like Damarys in ``A Fraction of Always'' and Fito in ``Beast of Burden'' never experienced a capitalist system; their understanding of economics was in direct conflict with the meritocracy of a late capitalist society. In their Cuba, no matter how hard you worked, you wouldn't earn more wages or bonuses or promotion. The failures of the socialist system, specifically, the chronic shortages of all products, goods and food, led to a robust black market which, in turn, was built on widespread corruption and theft. Damarys is especially adept at hustling; something she uses to her great advantage when she arrives in the United States. She knows what she has to do -- resolver -- to accomplish the prototypical American success and her accumulation of wealth and property is proof positive.

Generally speaking, I would say that even if post-revolutionary exiles were ``prepared'' by friends and family for the hard work they were expected to perform upon their arrival in the U.S., they never expected to work so very hard for so little. The earlier arrived generations labored and endured much for their success and the newer arrived folks imagined it would not take long for them to achieve the same successes. So, that's an important reason -- a clash of expectations regarding labor and the fruits of labor. There was also a clash of expectations about the kind of resources and help each felt entitled to though most of my characters don't ask for or want much. Juan in ``La Buena Vida'' just wants to wear a fancy waiter's jacket; he's willing to work to earn that privilege but the death of the only relative willing to shelter him leads to his homelessness and worse.

There are several characters in my book that have been separated by years, culture, class, experience and politics, so there is bound to be disenchantment when they converge.

• 4:30 p.m. Saturday in the Prometeo, Room 1101. With Jennine Capo Crucet, ``How to Leave Hialeah,'' and Mia Angela Leonin, ``Havana and Other Missing Fathers.''

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