What was Miami like before the majority was Cuban? (Havana: high school, live)

[HowGoesIt]

Originally Posted by sunrico90

What is the positive from the Cuban influence in the area?

Coffee and their good looking women. That's about it though.

[jbravo]

Originally Posted by HowGoesIt

Coffee and their good looking women. That's about it though.

What!? You wanted MORE?!!!

[Bjorn_Ironside32]

Originally Posted by jbravo

It was segregated.


(p.s. Don't want to burst your bubble, but Cubans are not a majority in Miami.)
(American FactFinder)

White
1,716,162

Hispanic or Latino (of any race)
1,471,709


Yup, .

[NOW]

I think some people are mixing Miami ,Coral Gables and Miami Bech.Those are and were three different cities!Miami Beach was a nice fun city,Coral Gables was quite rich and nice,but Miami City,before the Cubans,was a sleepy south poor and boring village.I remember that the only nice cloth store was Burdiness at Downtown and that there were almost no restaurants or important stores!

Read more: What was Miami like before the majority was Cuban?

[angelo7221]

I can see Bird Rd looking like either Lake Worth Rd in Palm Beach by the Turnpike or Military Trail near Summit Blvd (Palm Springs) back then....some neighborhoods have stayed aesthetically the same (such as the Roads, such as Pine Tree Dr in Miami Beach) but the demographics have changed (i.e., predominantly Jewish to predominantly Cuban)....the corner of 57th and Bird has stayed the same for a long time being, Delicias De Espana used to be a Jewish Deli. The southwest area in Redland has REALLY BEEN PRESERVED, but you have to take out all the stopsigns on the cross streets, add the railroad, pretend Anderson Corners is bustling with redneck farmers and apartment dwellers (the building itself was apts). Drive down 90th ave off Griffin in Cooper City and that's a taste of what my neighborhood, Kendale Lakes, used to be like...though now the south part of Broward has gone chico. According to my uncle, Miami was at its best when the freedom flight Cubans mixed with the gringos and cultural ideas had been exchanging, women were beautiful..now you have nothing but "the OC" thug wannabe's living in the suburbs..truthfully we have the potential to really be a beautiful place if we all pulled together, but w/e I'm heading for the west coast with its mountains, cliffs, beaches, and buttloads of things to do pretty soon.....AND NOT HAVE TO DRIVE all the way to NMB to get decent donuts

[Neng.]

White
1,716,162

Hispanic or Latino (of any race)
1,471,709


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All Latins are Cuban?

[Neng.]

Was the questions answered: What was Miami like before the majority was Cuban?

----

You'll have to ask people well above 75.
The majority has never been Cuban.
Miami without Cubans is something as remote as Seminole Wars, just as Cuba without Americans.

[Neng.]

Angelo

My parents went to Miami every two months or so during the 40's and 50's. I have tons of memorabilia from those trips. Miami was Burdines, Sears and Woolworth, Miami Beach, the Racetrack in Hialeah, Crocodiles, Parrot Jungle, the mansions at Brickell. Key Biscayne was the place were Cuban crooks lived since the 20's and was the property of Alemán's widow. Aleman was the former minister of education. Later, Bebe Rebozo brought Nixon.

There were Cubans, a lot of them, during the 40's and 50's. The official census was 20.000, but there were far more. Most were political refugees. They lived in Little Havana, Riverside. Political meetings took place at the Tower, Castro spoke there and he lived in the Cuban NW, the famous "coral house". Many political refugees overstayed their visas and they were caught because they added salt to their "café con leche".

Of course, Miami was a far more pleasant place than now, it was a resort town for the rich. Tourists didn't know there was a Miami ouside Miami Beach and Dowtown. Miami was nicer, but not only Miami, the entire country was nicer, Cuba was far nicer too.

[gymbuff]

Castro spoke there and he lived in the Cuban NW, the famous "coral house"
So it's true? I thought it as one of those apocryphal exile stories.

[Neng.]

Yes, he lived there. Now, as to the place he made some speeches, I think it was at Teatro Marti. The area around Teatro Marti is the oldest Cuban area dating back to the 30's, refugees from Machado.

There was a development in that area that was entirely Cuban, I thing it was called (still called) Westmoreland, not sure.