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Hurricane Wilma, of October 2005, was the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Wilma was the twenty-second storm (including the subtropical storm discovered in reanalysis), thirteenth hurricane, sixth major hurricane, and fourth Category 5 hurricane of the record-breaking 2005 season. A tropical depression formed in the Caribbean Sea near Jamaica on October 15, and intensified into a tropical storm two days later, which was named Wilma....
Drove to Miami to go on a cruise. Took U.S. 41 instead of the Alligator Alley. When I passed the Homestead extension of the FL pike, I felt like I left the U.S. without an official border crossing.
"None of you obviously were around before Fidel Castro caused such an uproar, Miami used to be an magical place, hence the nickname "The Magic City" and by large that Miami is long gone. Miami was always home to an ethnically diverse population, peoples from the Middle East, Jews, Spanish, Europeans and African-Americans we all represented in Miami. What turned Miami into the mess it is today was the swarm of Cuban Exiles that refused to understand that they were no longer living in their homeland."
"By refusing to speak English, by refusing to accept the American Culture they divided themselves from the rest of the population. Over a span of thirty years a county that once sported 200,000 citizens exploded into nearly 2,000,000! Most of which from "Latin America", these peoples came to the United States seeking to live with American freedoms but not with American values."
"Most of these peoples either refused to learn English, refused to operate their businesses with the mandated and customary licenses required in Dade County(Now Miami-Dade County) chaos became the result. This once beautiful City of Miami has become a drug haven, a true criminal county where most people don't have any courtesy with one another. So to say anything about the "Miami" you grew up in is vastly different from those who remember it before it became an extension of "Latin America"."
"I will not go as far as to say that all these refugees were bad people, but for every good harworking and understanding family that entered ten lacking education, moral values or desire to be an AMERICAN came with. So please keep your fantasy of Miami where it belongs, in the waste bin of "America", such beautiful cities such as Coral Gables, Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood are just dens of depravity these days."
"If you're offended by this I honestly do not care, you and yours did not care the least when you destroyed what my family and many others like it helped build. I once loved the fair "City Beautiful" that was once Coral Gables, now the language of the nation that it is within is spoken by maybe 15% of it's population. The people are rude, the have no sense of being an American and have no sense of right or wrong. They brought their corrupt "Latin American" lifestyles with them."
"Also, I do hate the term Latin or Spanish for the people of Miami, first Latins and Spaniards are the furthest thing from these peoples. They are HISPANICS, they're not Americans and they're no longer my neighbors and thank god for that. Keep your drugs, your flaunted undeserved freedom that you and yours never fought for and most of all keep that version of "Spanish" you speak, because any real Spaniard knows it's a joke. "
Cuba: An Island full of the most disgusting, horrid and criminal minded people.
Miami: A once great city now in ruins
Yours,
A REAL AMERICAN
You're a wealth of ignorance and prejudice. All that one has to do is look at the Miami skyline in the 1940's and 50's, before Cuban exiles started arriving and look at it now to see how Miami has grown and changed. Back then it was nothing more than a small backwater town with hotels lining Miami Beach for vacationing Northerners seeking warmer climates in the winter. It was full of retirees waiting to die. No dynamism, and certainly not the city of international commerce and trade that it is today. Today, major American companies have set up their Latin American offices in Miami in part thanks to the influx of Cuban exiles as they moved their bureaus there to avail themselves of the bilingual talent and business savvy many exiles already brought with them from Cuba. Many of those exiles went on to become executives in their companies.
Cubans refuse to speak English? What Cubans are those? How on earth did Cubans become CEOs in companies like Coca-Cola and Kelloggs, etc.. if they refused to speak English? How did Marco Rubio--who speaks impeccable English-- become a senator, or Ileana Ros-Lehtinen a congresswoman? How is it that so many Cubans are enrolled in FIU? Does the university allow them to get their degree in Spanish? Cubans don't accept American culture, you say? What planet do you live on? Look at someone like Cameron Diaz. She's about as Americanized as you can get. Buddy, you're living in an alternate universe somewhere. I suggest that you come back to land.
And Cubans brought drugs over to the USA? I think that you have been watching too many Hollywood movies [Scarface, anyone?]. Repeat after me, there are drug cartels operating out of Colombia that are doing business in Miami that have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH CUBAN EXILES. They may speak Spanish just like Cubans, but they are not Cubans. Is that so hard to comprehend?
If Cuban exiles lack education then how come over 20% of all Cubans living in the USA have college degrees? Why does that percentage go up for 2nd generation Cuban Americans who have a higher college education level than non-Hispanic "Americans"?
By the way, don't give yourself the prestige to think that anyone is offended by your comments. You are talking a lot of nonsense and you're clearly moved by prejudice. Hardly the type of person to stir feelings of anger in anyone.
Spaniards are the furthest people from "these peoples?" My Asturian paternal grandparents and my Catalan maternal grandparents would be interested in knowing that if they were still alive! The fact is that there are millions of Cubans who have direct Spanish ancestry. Case in point, Gloria Estefan's grandparents are from Asturias. She still have relatives living there and one of the major Spanish magazines, Hola, proudly did an expose years ago showing her numerous Spanish family who were photographed next to her. Even the most famous Cuban in the world, fidel castro, is the son of a Galician immigrant to Cuba. His father Angel Castro was a boy who moved to Cuba from Galicia [same town that Francisco Franco was from].
Do you get anything right? Do you talk anything other than utter nonsense????
In the late 19th and early 20th century the United States accept tens of MILLIONS of poor Europeans into the country MOST OF THEM ENDED UP IN LARGE URBAN GHETTOS AND ENCLAVES. Some of these urban enclaves still exist in many American cities today. Usually after 2 or 3 generations people assimilate, get educated and move up the economic ladder. This has happened to basically every immigrant group that has ever came to this country of their own free will.
Don't act this has never happened before in America.
Well, they would assimilate if the immigration ever stopped!!! In the 1920s, immigration came to a halt. This gave the time for those previous waves of immigrants to assimilate. Why won't they do the same favor now?
Are you talking about the Florida that was claimed by the Spaniard Ponce de Leon in 1513? Yes, I agree it has definitely been ruined by everyone who's come since. It used be an open, nature filled paradise. I'm sure the Native Americans who lived there then would agree.
As for the Cuban exiles, I have no respect for people who run away from what they call their "beloved homeland" instead of staying and overthrowing a two bit dictator who's half dead.
I've lived in Miami for 60+ plus year and so have observed every second of its change from a lovely American city to a quasi banana republic.
We few white non-Hispanic residents who still remain in metro Miami-Dade (a single digit demographic) have learned to live as foreigners in our home city.
As a long time resident, I think what irritates me the most is the assumption of the Cuban population that their rise to power in Miami was due to their superiority as a people. They often point to their accomplishments, as compared to those of other immigrant groups, as evidence of this assumed fact, without ever acknowledging that they were given an advantage that no other immigrant population in the history of this country has ever been given: there is no such thing as an illegal Cuban immigrant - never has been. Cubans have entered this country with impunity since 1959. The Cuban American Adjustment Act of 1966 (3/16/00 Cuba: The Cuban Adjustment Act) made it official. Cubans in Miami have prospered, not by their superiority, but by their sheer overwhelming numbers. They are Miami's 50 year tsunami, with no end in sight.
Cubans have prospered because when they first arrived here, they did jobs that Americans wouldn't do. Doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers, and people who had been rich in Cuba with mansions and servants worked as bellhops, hotel maids, dishwashers and maintenance men. They even cleaned toilets and mowed lawns. While theyworked two shifts, they went to night school to get their respective degrees.
As for the so called "advantages" that you say that Cubans received, any Eastern European immigrant from the former Soviet Union, received "advantages" too. Back then, since the Soviet Union was the enemy, anybody fleeing one of the former Soviet satellites was given instant asylum and "advantages." I have a Russian Jewish friend who's wife went to NYU [one of the most expensive schools in NYC], because she was a refugee from the former Soviet Union and she got some sort of special money from the government set aside for Russians, so please don't talk so much nonsense.
By the way, the history of the US is full of immigrants groups who have received assistance from the government. Do some research into Tammany Hall, the political machinery that used to run NYC politics. Did you know that in exchange for votes, they gave the Irish immigrants in NYC civil service jobs. To this date, the Irish still dominate the high paying police and fire department jobs in NYC.
Cubans have prospered because when they first arrived here, they did jobs that Americans wouldn't do. Doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers, and people who had been rich in Cuba with mansions and servants worked as bellhops, hotel maids, dishwashers and maintenance men. They even cleaned toilets and mowed lawns. While theyworked two shifts, they went to night school to get their respective degrees.
As for the so called "advantages" that you say that Cubans received, any Eastern European immigrant from the former Soviet Union, received "advantages" too. Back then, since the Soviet Union was the enemy, anybody fleeing one of the former Soviet satellites was given instant asylum and "advantages." I have a Russian Jewish friend who's wife went to NYU [one of the most expensive schools in NYC], because she was a refugee from the former Soviet Union and she got some sort of special money from the government set aside for Russians, so please don't talk so much nonsense.
By the way, the history of the US is full of immigrants groups who have received assistance from the government. Do some research into Tammany Hall, the political machinery that used to run NYC politics. Did you know that in exchange for votes, they gave the Irish immigrants in NYC civil service jobs. To this date, the Irish still dominate the high paying police and fire department jobs in NYC.
There is no other immigrant group in the history of this country to whom the US Government has granted the privilege of instant legal status - no questions asked - for a 60 year period of time. 3/16/00 Cuba: The Cuban Adjustment Act
Find a link to an Eastern European Adjustment Act or an Italian Adjustment Act or an Irish Adjustment Act - you get the picture. I'll give you break - don't waste your time, they don't exist.
When my grandparents legally came to this country in the early 1900s, there was no guarantee that they would be allowed to stay. Do some research yourself and read about the Ellis Island experience Ellis Island Experience — Details of the Immigrant Ellis Island Experience and then tell me that the Cuban experience is "typical" of previous immigrants.
Cubans have prospered because the US government gave them the city of Miami - they opened the door in 1959 and never closed it - along with the extraordinary gift of an instant path to citizenship.
There is no other immigrant group in the history of this country to whom the US Government has granted the privilege of instant legal status - no questions asked - for a 60 year period of time. 3/16/00 Cuba: The Cuban Adjustment Act
Find a link to an Eastern European Adjustment Act or an Italian Adjustment Act or an Irish Adjustment Act - you get the picture. I'll give you break - don't waste your time, they don't exist.
When my grandparents legally came to this country in the early 1900s, there was no guarantee that they would be allowed to stay. Do some research yourself and read about the Ellis Island experience Ellis Island Experience — Details of the Immigrant Ellis Island Experience and then tell me that the Cuban experience is "typical" of previous immigrants.
Cubans have prospered because the US government gave them the city of Miami - they opened the door in 1959 and never closed it - along with the extraordinary gift of an instant path to citizenship.
I suggest that you do a little bit of research. Any refugee from the former Soviet Union or its satellites received instant asylum into the USA. New York City is full of Russian Jews living in places like Brighton Beach, Brooklyn and they got all sorts of resettlement perks. Like I said, my friend's wife got to go to New York University--one of the most expensive universities in the city-- based on her status as a refugee from the Soviet Union. Read below:
"The U.S. government provided the Jews from the FSU [former Soviet Union] one-third of the total yearly quota provided to refugees wanting to arrive on U.S. shores. Forty thousand visas were allocated yearly to the Jews arriving from the Soviet Union (out of 120,000 visas) (M. Prum Hess, interview, 18 February 2005). Immediately, post arrival, the refugees could apply for a green card that permitted them to work in the United States, and move forward toward a citizenship status. The “Domestic Resettlement Program” established a resource involving all of the Jewish Federations (Elazar,1995). The U.S. Jewish Federations put plans in place to absorb the new immigrants with job placement, English tutoring, health care, housing assistance and Jewish education (Mizal, 1996)."Background | A Comparative Study of Russian Jewish Immigrants . | American Jewish University ( AJULA )
By the way, I'm familiar with the Ellis Island experience, I suggest that you familiarize yourself too and stop whitewashing and idealizing history. Tammany Hall gave thousands of Irishmen civil service jobs in places like the New York City police force and the fire department based on their affiliation with New York's corrupt democratic party which was then run by Tammany Hall.
Your insinuation that Cuban migration to the US is somehow not on par with the migrants from the 1900's who arrived via Ellis Island is self-serving, and false. First off, many of the immigrants who arrived here in the 1900's were illegal. Where do you think that ethnic slur for Southern Italians--WOP--comes from? It's an acronym for "Without Papers." Did you ever see the movie "Gangs of New York?" Do you know what the Five Points neighborhood in NYC was? At Five Points’ "height," [an Irish neighborhood] only certain areas of London's East End vied with it in the western world for sheer population density, disease, infant and child mortality, unemployment, prostitution, violent crime, and other classic ills of the urban destitute.
Whether you like it or not, studies have been made on Cuban exile migration to the USA and while it has taken those immigrants from Ellis Island that you admire so much 3 generations on average to rise to middle class status [gratuitous civil service jobs from Tammany Hall and all], it has only taken Cubans one generation.
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