The outbreak of the Great War (1868-1878) was a turning point in the history of the Cuban presence in New York City. The war created for the first time a significant schism between peninsulares and criollos, and although Havana’s criollo elites were largely at the margins of the conflict, they nevertheless were compelled to leave, spearheading an exodus that transformed both the size and the character of the Cuban community in New York, making it by far the largest Hispanic community in the city. This period established a pattern that would be repeated by subsequent waves of Cubans arriving in the U.S. well into the twentieth century.