MIAMI

Cuban

Rand McNally (for the Gulf Oil Corporation): Street map of Miami and Miami Beach, Florida; Miami, 1957

This walking tour would take you through the streets of Little Habana: the neighborhood where thousands of Cuban refugees moved in the 60-70s taking over the commercial street Calle 8 with their businesses; and where you can listen and dance some salsa . The area is characterized by: Mediterranean Revival houses, colorful murals and chickens meandering around. After the fail attempt of the Bay of Pigs to liberate Cuba in 1959 from the Communist dictatorship of Fidel Castro, Miami became a hotspot for Cuban migration; and they brought their culture, food, and business. Freedom Tower was the Statue of Liberty of Miami and also its Ellis Island; not only was a symbol of Liberty but it was also the offices to apply for asylum and get benefits. Cubans came in through different programs like: the creepy Operation Peter Pan (a clandestine exodus of over 14,000 unaccompanied Cuban minors ages 6 to 18 into the US), the good Freedom Flights Program (government-sponsored flights for 260,000 Cubans fleeing the communist regime to reunify with their families in the US going from 1965-1973), and the ugly Mariel Boatlift (when Fidel allowed roughly 125,000 Cubans to flee the island through boats in the summer of 1980). The Cuban/Spanish elite (who were the first ones to escape the island) opened up new businesses like: guayaberas shops, restaurants, Salsa dancehalls and cigars factories. El Titan de Bronze, Fábrica de Tabacos Padilla and La Tradición Cubana are the main manufacturers/brands of cigars in Miami; but interestingly enough the best export of the tabaquerías was not their handmade cigars but the Sandwiche Cubano. It is a hot-pressed, buttered sandwich featuring Cuban bread, roast pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles, and mustard; all cheap ingredients perfect for a simple lunch for a factory worker. It evolve to become a staple of Cuban cuisine migrating from the factories of Key West/Ybor City (Tampa) to the rest of the world through the Cuban diaspora. Six Cuban immigrants created the band Miami Sound Machine mixing pop/disco sounds with salsa and a mix of English/Spanish catchy lyrics — it was a success! and little by little Latin-Americans took the music industry from the African American community. This is most evidently with the transition of the historic jazz bar Ball & Chain in to a Salsa venue in Calle 8 and others fallowed with many restaurants/bars playing live music. By the 90s Telemundo and Univisión started creating their own content in the city, opening up studios in the Doral neighborhood and slowly catapulting Miami as the Capital of Latin Entertainment. One of the members of The Miami Sound Machine, Emilio Estefan, became the producer of another band member which is also his wife Gloria Estefan; but she was not the only artist he made famous: Shakira, Ricky Martin, Marc Antony, Jennifer Lopez among others are on the list. Miami has became an incubator of Latin American talent with immigrants from all over the region trying to make their dreams come true. The tour suggest visiting two small historical museums, plus brunch at Pollo Tropical in the morning; checking out the Domino Park, the street art plus shopping around Calle 8 in the afternoon; and a coffee plus a sandwiche Cubano for dinner and dancing Salsa at night.

Stops:

1 American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora

2 Pollo Tropical

3 Bay of Pigs Museum & Library

4 Street Art around Calle 8

5 Domino Park

6 Shopping around Calle 8 Street

7 El Pub/La Colada

8 Salsa dancing and Bar Hoping

Richard Gardner: Calle 8; Miami, 1972

@TheArtistAlejandra: Bacardi; Miami, 2022