Miami... it's not just for Cubans anymore! (Fort Myers: rentals, crimes)

[jbravo]

Recently, I've noticed a lot of Cuban bashing.
I finally realized that to many, seeing someone speak Spanish means that the person must be Cuban. This would have been correct some 37 years ago when I arrived as a child from Cuba; however, this is no longer true.
I have seen the Columbian, Nicaraguan, Salvadoran and Venezuelan immigrations, amongst others.
Gripe all you might. Cubans transformed Miami. When I arrived in Miami, there were for rentals signs that stated “No Blacks, No Cubans, No dogs.”
20 years later, Cubans owned Miami. We didn’t do it on food stamps. (Ok, maybe the illicit drug trade helped, the Casablanca good old days.)
Oh, yes, I could go on for quite a while with things that are wrong with Miami, and with the specifics of many years of first hand observations, not the generalizations written here. But let’s start with this: due to immigration policies (or lack thereof) Miami…it isn’t just for Cubans anymore.

[Miami Vice]

I agree with you totally. My parents came to this county in the early sixties with four kids and the clothes on their backs. My father worked two full-time jobs and a part time. My mother worked full-time and studied. She became a pharmacist. They had my brother and I. A total of six kids. Although we never had everything that we wanted, we always had clothing, shelter and food to eat. The best part about it was no government help. Now, we are all grown up and live as law abiding citizens. Some of the Cubans that came to Miami in the 80's ruined the image of the hard working Cubans and unfortunately most of the Cubans that are arriving now have a totally different mentallity. They have been raised in a communist regime and think that by coming here they won't have to work and still own houses and drive fancy cars. Since it doesn't work that way, they start looking into crimes like drugs and fraud and even home invasion robbery. I also think that with the influx of people from different Latin American countries, there are people with no values and who lived as criminals just to survive in their countries. when they get to Miami, they realize that the criminal justice system here is a joke and they could get away with murder.
Good Luck.

[jbravo]

Thank you.
You write from your own personal life experiences, and your families'
My own mother came here with a PHD and worked in a factory for a year. Later she got her Master's at Nova. My father followed a similar course.
Cubans that came before Mariel and their children have generally been hard working law abiding citizens.

[ready2move]

Originally Posted by jbravo

Cubans that came before Mariel and their children have generally been hard working law abiding citizens.

Could not agree more...

[hiknapster]

The Cubans that escaped Fidel from 1959 forward were highly educated. Their businesses and homes were taken from them. They came with nothing but the clothes on their backs and had to start over. They definitely were a positive influence on Miami.

The Mariel Boatlift, where Fidel opened up his prisons and mental institutions and sent these people to the US, is when things went bad for Americans and Cuban immigrants in Miami. They ran down the city and gave a bad name to the Cubans that were already there.

I've met a few Cuban-Americans that escaped Cuba in the early years. They are hard-working, intelligent and friendly; just wonderful people. I'm a white, Anglo-Saxon, protestant (WASP). Do know that a lot of us know that not all Cubans are criminals and "ne'er do wells".

[Miami Vice]

I've met a ton of them but it's nice to hear it from a non-hispanic.
THANKS.

[hiknapster]

Well, I wish I had met more. Being in Fort Myers, there wasn't a lot of opportunity. The people that I did meet were so friendly and really talked my ear off! What great people!

I met a woman who was at a Catholic school in Cuba and the nuns sent her out of the country so she could have a better life. I think it was 1961. Maybe much earlier.

After that, I started reading some books about the history. It is stunning to hear about doctor's and ranch owner's that had their whole lives taken away from them, everything that they worked so hard for. Here they were, suddenly waiting on tables, and trying to learn a new language. Still they persevered, because you are what you are and nothing will change that!

I wish everyone would know about that history. It is truly gut wrenching.

[elfyum]

Thank you for these wonderful posts!!! It's so nice to hear GOOD about Miami & it's people!!!

[Chicken Wing]

I like Cuban women and Cuban cigars. I've never been to Miami but I know that they do those 2 things well.

[wacahootaman]

Castro is a brutal thug dictator who is a multimillionare who makes more millions every day off the stupid tourists and political pilgrims who flock to Cuba while the Cuban people live in grinding poverty and oppression.

Things are so bad that some Cubans have attempted near suicidal escapes from Castros slave labor plantation on truck tubes lashed together to cross a hundred miles of open sea to Florida. Untold thousands have died at sea making this attempt.

The Cuban Americans that I have met in Florida are mostly hard workers that have overcome the loss of everything they had in Cuba. And they have done it through tenacity, self discipline and hard work.

This is Cuba today:

Moderator cut: link cut

Every picture tells a story dont it?