By Madeline Baró Diaz
Miami Bureau

A University of Miami project has taken the first steps toward measuring the ideological divide between newly arrived Cubans and those who
have lived in the United States for decades.

A preliminary survey of 208 newly arrived Cubans recently found that the new arrivals distrust the established Cuban exile community in the United States and
institutions in Cuba. That has implications for a post-Castro transition in Cuba, said Andy Gómez, co-director of the project and a senior fellow at the UM Institute
for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.

"[The transition] will be slower than many people would want to admit to," Gómez said.

Researchers hope to use the early findings to secure funding for a broader study of the Cuban-American community, Gómez said. The survey results will be released
at 7 p.m. tonight at a workshop at UM's Casa Bacardi, 1531 Brescia Avenue, Coral Gables.

The panel that researched and compiled the pilot study was composed of representatives from the medical, sociology, education and political fields. Its members
interviewed Cubans who had been in the country a month or less at the Church World Service office in Miami-Dade, where many refugees are processed. The
respondents were asked questions that measured their opinions about the Cuban exile community, Cuba's political system and economy, and their own value
systems.

Of those interviewed, 65 percent said they were in favor of Cuban exiles returning to Cuba, but 34 percent said they distrusted the exile community.

The findings show that exiles living outside the country have to be supportive of ideas coming from those on the island, even if the ideas clash with the exile
community's notions of democracy and what Cuba should be, Gómez said.

"Importing value systems from outside Cuba could be very detrimental to change," he said.

About 53 percent of those surveyed said they were against the U.S. embargo on Cuba; 33 percent were in favor. The rest did not answer.

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