The origin of a migration
The geographical proximity between Cuba and Miami (150 kilometers) led some Cubans to join the American city in the 1800s to find work or study. In 1958, 10,000 Cubans lived in Miami. A year later, everything accelerated when Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. More than 200,000 Cubans left the island to settle in Miami. The majority of these opponents of the Castro regime were bourgeois and members of the elite. They all thought that this exile would only last one or two years.
In 1961, the US government attempted to invade Cuba to overthrow Castro's regime. This operation, which ended in failure, was called the "Bay of Pigs Invasion". Far from creating a climate conducive to the return of Cuban exiles to Miami, the operation led to a new wave of migration. In 1962, the Rocket Crisis triggered an embargo between the United States and Cuba. Air traffic between the two countries was suspended.
Between 1965 and 1973, more than 350,000 Cuban immigrants arrived in Miami on "freedom flights" chartered by the United States under a special agreement. Renouncing the possibility of returning to their island in the near future, the Cuban population, settled mainly in the neighborhoods of Hialeah and Riverside (now Little Havana), established their culture in Miami: music, food, commerce, crafts..
This massive immigration, and the resulting rise of the Spanish language, generated conflicts within the city. The non-Hispanic communities were opposed to English/Spanish bilingualism, and in 1980 theAnti-bilingual Ordinance was passed. English is now the official language of Dade County, which includes Miami. Consequences: all transactions (law, employment, administration...) must be conducted in English. The ordinance was finally repealed in 1993.
However, relations between the United States remained at a standstill until Wednesday, December 17, 2014, when U.S. President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raúl Castro promised the restoration of their diplomatic relations and the return of economic cooperation. This decision is historic: "Somos todos americanos" were Obama's words. However, part of the Cuban diaspora in Miami and Florida welcomed this agreement with some skepticism, judging that the re-establishment of relations between the two countries did not augur any democratic progress on Cuba's side.
A few months later, on July 20, 2015, a Cuban embassy opened in Washington and a U.S. embassy in Havana. The United States also removes Cuba from the list of countries supporting terrorism. In March 2016, during a three-day official visit, Barack Obama met several times with his counterpart Raúl Castro and confirmed his willingness to continue the policy of openness with Cuba. This visit was historic: it was the first time that a sitting U.S. president had set foot on Cuban soil since the Castro revolution of 1959. This rapprochement resulted in a relaxation of the embargo with, among other things, the restoration of direct flights between the two countries (a first since 1962!), the return of American cruise ships, and the possibility for Americans to travel more easily to Cuba.
In 2017, the situation reversed with the arrival of Donald Trump. In June 2017, during a speech in Miami, he declared that he wanted to unravel all the opening measures taken by Obama because they would benefit the Cuban regime economically, which would have benefited greatly from American tourism. In 2021, nine days before the end of his term, Trump put Cuba back on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism. If he is not re-elected, however, he wins the support of Florida.
When he was elected, current US President Joe Biden announced that he wanted to ease restrictions on Cuba, without (for the moment) reversing the embargo imposed on the island since 1962.
Little Havana, the quintessential Cuban neighborhood
As you walk through some of Miami's neighborhoods today, you may not hear a word of English! This is because Miami's population is 70% Hispanic, 34.1% of whom are Cuban. Little Havana is the most popular of these. It has been called a "national treasure" by the American Heritage Preservation Fund. It is in this neighborhood located in the west of the city that the majority of Cuban exiles settled from the mid-1950s. Even today, more than 95% of the inhabitants of Little Havana are of Latino origin, mostly Cuban.
The district, although relatively touristy, has kept its soul. On both sides of the main avenue, the famous Calle Ocho (8th Street), traditional bars, supermarkets and authentic restaurants are waiting for you, accompanied by salsa music and the smell of Cuban espressos and freshly made cigars. In March, the street vibrates to the rhythm of the Calle Ocho Festival, the largest Latin music festival in the world. At Maximo Gomez Park, you can watch traditional domino games played by locals from another age. They gave the place its nickname: Domino Park.
The Cuban Memorial Park gathers several monuments commemorating Cuban and Cuban-American heroes. The Eternal Torch is a memorial to the soldiers who lost their lives during the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961.
Local specialties
It is impossible to visit Little Havana without sitting down to taste THE local specialty: the Cuban sandwich. This dish, traditionally eaten by Cuban workers, is made up of two slices of toasted brioche bread, inside which ham, thin slices of roast pork, melted cheese and pickles are stuffed, all topped with mustard. The best ones can be found at Café Versailles (opened in 1970) or the more confidential Nueve Siglo, hidden in the supermarket of the same name.
Finish your meal with a Cuban coffee, an espresso sweetened with brown sugar during its extraction. This specificity gives it a milder taste than the traditional espresso.
