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MIA - Found in Miami |
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ONCE AGAIN THE SUPERBOWL IS IN MIAMI! Thousand will descend on the city with visions of scantily clad women frolicking on South Beach, Ferraris and
Lamborghinis cruising around, hot sexy Latin dancers gyrating to a salsa beat, and
alligators eating flamingos... well maybe not the latter. But there is more to it than that. |
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Miami at Night |
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Miami is the generic name of the Miami/ Miami Beach/Coral
Gables/Homestead cities that make up Miami-Dade County. Much like Las Vegas,
Miami is still fairly new. It
went through a period of darkness, then glamor, then back to gloom and doom
and now to tres chic. It is embracing it's past, diverse cultures, and balmy
weather and returning to the glory days. |
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Paleo-Indians settled along the edge of south
Biscayne Bay near today's Charles Deering Estate more than 10,000 years ago.
Tequesta Indians entered the lush, subtropical area and built settlements
stretching from the Florida Keys to Broward County, numbering more than
350,000 at the time of the Spanish entrada in 1513. However, victims of
disease, war and other dislocations, the Tequestas, along with Florida's
other native populations, had virtually vanished 250 years after the entry of
the Spanish. |
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Starting in 1565, Spain controlled Florida
for around 250 years divided into two eras separated by a twenty-year British
interregnum in the late eighteenth century. It was during the Second Spanish Period,
between 1784 to 1821, Spain liberalized its settlement policies and in the
early 1800s, a few Bahamian families settled along the Miami River. However,
in 1821, Spain sold Florida to the United States for five million dollars in
Spanish damage claims against the American government. One year later,
Florida became a territory. In 1830, Richard Fitzpatrick, purchased the Bahamian-held
lands enslaved the families. Sixty slaves cultivated Fitzpatrick's land. The
plantation however, was abandoned soon after the beginning of the Second
Seminole War. |
Osceola, leader of the Seminole
Wars |
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After the Second Seminole War, Fitzpatrick bought back
the plantation fro the Army and reestablished it as a plantation. He later dubbed the area the Village
of Miami. But the Third Seminole
War made growth impossible and the Army reacquired the land for Fort
Dallas. It wasn't until Julia Tuttle purchased the Fort Dallas
land and convinced railroad tycoon hank Flagler to run his railroad to
Miami. He hesitated until a
giant hurricane wiped out every place in Florida but Miami. He soon had the rail
running into Miami. It wasn't
until 1896 when the populace, a great many of which were black, voted to
incorporate Miami into a city. |
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Colored Town arose in the immediate aftermath
of the city's incorporation when land deeds to property within the municipal
limits prohibited its sale to blacks everywhere except for that quarter.
Despite deep pockets of poverty and a glaring absence of municipal amenities
found elsewhere, this "suburb" hosted a rich array of enterprises,
institutions and activities. The quarter's main thoroughfare was Avenue G (today's
Northwest 2nd Avenue), known as Little Broadway for its nightclubs and dance
halls, as well as the sparkling roster of nationally renowned black
entertainers who visited and performed in those attractions. Black Miami grew quickly, comprising twenty-five
to forty percent of Miami's population in its first generation of existence.
The name was later changed to Overtown.
The area grew rapidly before the construction an extensive expressway
system that ripped through the heart of the quarter and led to the
displacement of 20,000 residents or about one-half of its population. |
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Miami had its ups and downs after World War II, but it
wasn't until the 1960s that Miami started heating up. Fidel Castro took control of Cuba and
promptly turned it into a Marxist State. The CIA trained former Cuban refugees to try to overthrow
the Castro Regime in what is now called the Bay of Pigs fiasco. This plus the 1962 Missle Crisis
drove a deep wedge between the US, Cuba and the Cuban refugees in Miami. By 1965 the U.S sponsored Freedom
Flights from Cuba to Miami, adding over 150 thousand Cubans to the area. |
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Meanwhile Haitians refugees from the Francois Papa Doc
Duvalier regime also arrived in droves and settle into an northern Miami
section called Lemon City. American blacks already living in |
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Miami felt threatened by the influx as the refugees
were perceived as receiving special treatment from the government, as well as
additional competition in the job market. By the 1968 Republican National
Convention in Miami Beach, things came to a head when several riots erupted. In 1980, after an acquittal of several white policemen
accused of brutally killing a black businessman, riots again broke out
causing $50 million of damage. To add salt to the wound, the 1980's found the
Cuban populace in control of the local political base with Cuban population
that had risen to over 600,000. |
Miami's Freedom Tower |
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The often true perception of Miami as a drug haven was
enhanced with the television show "Miami Vice" and the later movie, "Bad
Boys". |
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Miami Vice, Scarface, and Bad Boys
added to the notoriety of Miami as a drug haven. |
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Despite, the struggles, Miami today has returned to much
of it�s glory as a tourism Mecca.
From the flashy skyline to the restored art deco to the Grande Dame
and hotsy-totsy hotels scattered throughout, Miami beckons all to come. The
native Miccosukee Seminoles have even expanded what was useless swampland
into a gaming paradise.
Hurricanes, depressions and riots can't kill the allure of Miami. |
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