[NJ Chutzpah]

Was the Cuban Crime Wave Real

Or have I been watching Scarface one too many times

I know there was an italian crime wave, but I heard that most of the cubans who fled cuba were from the middle or upper classes. So what was the basis for that movie?

[doom1001]

The ones who came over when Castro took power around 1960 were mostly middle,upper class educated professionals.But many of the ones who came over in 1980 in the Mariel boatlift along with Tony Montana were criminals Castro let go from jail and sent over to the US.

[MiamiRob]

um Tony Montana was a fictional character and most of the criminals that Castro let go were eventually returned to Cuba. After the Mariel boatlift crime did go up some and most "Marielitos" weren't criminals for the most part.

[doom1001]

Originally Posted by MiamiRob

um Tony Montana was a fictional character and most of the criminals that Castro let go were eventually returned to Cuba. After the Mariel boatlift crime did go up some and most "Marielitos" weren't criminals for the most part.

I know Tony Montana is fictional and I know most Marielitos weren't criminals,but the truth is there was a crime increase in the 80's that did not come just from Cubans.Maybe the "Miami Crime Wave" environment wasn't as out there as in Scarface but there was some reality to the movie.

[tallrick]

I do remember the shootout at Crown liquors in Dadeland Mall. Was at the dentist across the street when the police were there.

[deckardc]

Originally Posted by tallrick

I do remember the shootout at Crown liquors in Dadeland Mall. Was at the dentist across the street when the police were there.

Don't they refer to that as the Dadeland Massacre now?

Most Marielitos were not criminals, however, Castro did empty out Cuban prisons and psychiatric facilities and send them to the US. He saw it as a way to clean house in Cuba and dump his problems on the US.

Most of what you see in Scarface and Miami Vice isn't about Cubans but Colombians like Pablo Escobar. The Colombian cocaine cartels ruled Miami in the early '80s. There's a pretty good documentary about it called Cocaine Cowboys. Apparently the most notorious Miami cocaine king was actually a queen, a Colombian named Griselda Blanco.

[hiknapster]

Of course the people that escaped the beginning of communist Cuba were the elite, or the intelligent working class and they were left with nothing, but scratched their way to success, again, because they were made of such stock.

And the Mariel Boat Lift, in the eyes of many, was the demise of Miami. The United States government, in their infinite wisdom, negotiated the release of many Cubans, only to be beholden to mental patients and prisoners.

Read an Edna Buchanan book.

[jbravo]

Originally Posted by NJ Chutzpah

Was the Cuban Crime Wave Real

Or have I been watching Scarface one too many times

I know there was an italian crime wave, but I heard that most of the cubans who fled cuba were from the middle or upper classes. So what was the basis for that movie?

Yes.




_
Duffle bag scene occured at Merill Lynch, Coral Gables. The Mutiny and Coconut Grove Hotel was legendary.
The South Beach scene is very real: not the chainsaw; rather, the old retirees (that was South Beach in 79-80.)

I could go on an on....

[NJ Chutzpah]

Please do go on

So where the cubans the real major players on the cocaine scene, or was that just made up by brian depalma

[macguy]

Originally Posted by NJ Chutzpah

Was the Cuban Crime Wave Real

Or have I been watching Scarface one too many times

I know there was an italian crime wave, but I heard that most of the cubans who fled cuba were from the middle or upper classes. So what was the basis for that movie?

No it was not. If anything they moved into areas no one wanted to live in and cleaned them up. I shop at a Cuban market and think nothing of going there at night something I would not say about our own Winn Dixie near my house.