Research Paper on Celebrating Diversity in Little Havana: Miami's Cultural Center

Introduction

Little Havana is regarded as a neighborhood of Miami and is known to be home to many immigrants from south and central America as well as many Cuban exiles. Furthermore, Little Havana was named after the largest capital city in Cuba called Havana (Grenier & Moebius, 2015). Nonetheless, Little Havana is recognized as a center of numerous activities, for instance, political activities, cultural activities, and social activities in Miami. Nevertheless, the festivals include the three kings parade, Calle Ocho festival, cultural Fridays and Viernes culturales. Therefore this paper will explore the city of Miami and the neighborhood of Little Havana.

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Description of Little Havana

Little Havana is well known to be a Cuban exiles neighborhood. It is categorized by political passion, different cultural activities, street life, restaurants and music, pop and mom enterprises, and also great warmness among the residents (Scarpaci, 2015). Moreover, as of 2011, Havana's populace primarily comprises of Hispanics who reside in Miami. Nevertheless, the residents of Little Havana adore and respect their cultural practices.

The emergence of Little Havana was in 1960 as a result of high population growth of the Cuban; furthermore, Little Havana is s name that is attached to a neighborhood lying proximately west of Miami (Scarpaci, 2015). Little Havana is prominent for the reason that it is attributed to being the political and also the cultural capital for the Cuban exile community and Cuban Americans. In the 1960s, there was a large number of Cubans fleeing Castro; hence, it was recognized as the center of counter-revolutionary activity. As of 1970, the neighborhood comprised of more than eighty-five present of Cubans. Nonetheless, the Cuban Americans began living in the vicinities across Miami because Castro had remained in power.

By 2011, statistics have revealed that Little Havana has the uppermost number of Hispanics compared to other groups of people, it is estimated that the percentage of the Hispanic populace is ninety-eight percent (Grenier & Moebius, 2015). Additionally, within the populace of Hispanics, the Cuban populace has continued to experience a considerable decline by a large percentage. On the other hand, the number of Hispanics has substantially increased since the 1990s. Despite the increase in diversity, most of the vicinities businesses are owned by the Cubans.

Even though other races in Little Havana own other business, the business sector in Little Havana is primarily made up of Cubans. Moreover, the business sector is growing due to numerous business activities which generate income. Nevertheless, the business environment in Little Havana is well thought-out to be conducive for any business activity that generates income.

According to the locals in Little Havana, the neighbored is surrounded approximately by different borders. For example, Southern border Southwest, Northern border Northwest, Eastern border Southwest and Western border Southwest. Conversely, as of 2000, I was informed that Little Havana's populace of the residents was approximately 49,000, as well as the families that lived in the vicinities, was around 19000 and 11000 (George, 2007). Also, the ethnic composition of the vicinity was at eighty-five percent who mainly comprised of Latino or even Hispanic of whichever race. Nonetheless, the percentage of African American or Black exclusive of Afro Latinos, Afro- Hondurans, Afro -Nicaraguans, and Afro- Cubans was at four percent.

Little Havana comprises of different races, and It does not have a boundary that is official and which aids in defining the geographic extent of Little Havana. Nonetheless, the area has continuously existed on boundaries that are considered as loose-based essentially on ethnic perception. According to the planning department of Miami and the locals, the borders of Little Havana have continued to change in size and even decreasing in size.

South River Drive Historic District

South River Drive Historic District is regarded as a significant district that is situated in the interior of Miami Little Havana vicinity. According to the residents, by 1987, the city of Miami created and commissioned and locally designated district. Additionally, the South River Drive Historic District has been registered as one of the Historic places (Colantonio & Potter, 2016). It is situated on the eastern end of the vicinity lengthways the Miami River and west of Downtown Miami. However, the district contains a total of nine buildings that are characterized as historic.

The South River Drive Historic District principally derives its meaning from cultural history and architectural history. Additionally, South River Drive is considered to be the historic district principally because it was developed in the first two decades in the twentieth era (Curtis, 2014). Nevertheless, the historic district encompasses the city's earliest extant group of vernacular frame structures located nearby Miami River.

Community Resources

To start with, Little Havana has sufficient resources and having toured the community, and it is evident that different facilities are well maintained. In the education sector, many schools have been built; hence, learners are enrolled in their preferred schools. In order to reduce congestion in classrooms and achieve increased enrollment of learners in schools, the government has built schools in different parts of Little Havana; hence, there are high literate levels in Little Havana. Some of the examples of Schools located in Little Havana include public schools, middle schools, high schools, and colleges.

On the other hand, there are health centers located in little Havana as well as well-trained healthcare providers. According to the locals, the government has hired more doctors and nurses in order to attend the growing population and mainly the persons who seek treatment in various health centers. Nevertheless, hospitals in Little Havana are well equipped; thus they can attend to patients who suffer from different health complications.

The environment in Little Havana is characterized as being clean for the reason that the government has put in place measures aimed at promoting environmental cleanliness (George, 2007). Moreover, the government has bought trucks which collect garbage at garbage collection points. Nonetheless, there are dustbins placed at other areaswhere the locals are advised to dispose of their garbage. Consequently, these measures are intended to promote environmental cleanliness in Little Havana.

The residents of Little Havana extremely value the teachings of religion as consequence churches have been built. The common churches in Little Havana include St. Michael the Archangel church, St. Raymond of Penafort Catholic Church, Holy Comforter, St. Barbara Old Catholic Church and Centro Cristiano Casablanca (Curtis, 2014). These are the significant worship places for the majority of the residents of Havana.

Furthermore, recreational facilities are accessible to the residents of Little Havana. According to the locals, the recreational facilities have been built by the government and are guarded by the security personnel who are employed by the government. Some of the best and preferred parks include Sewell park, Bryan park, Coral gate park, Triangle Park, Henderson Park and Maximo Gomez park which is also known as Domino Park.

The Little Havana is well-known to host an annual festival called Calle Ocho Street festival; hence, this festival is regarded as one of the major festivals in the world. Visitors from different parts of the world choose to attend this festival. Additionally, Calle Ocho festival is characterized as a free street festival sponsored by Club of Kiwanis in Little Havana. Different ethnic communities wear flags and colors to symbolize pride in their culture.

Even though Little Havana has existed for many years and is associated with developments in terms of infrastructure, poverty is rampant and a common issue facing the residents of Havana (George, 2007). Thus there are parents who cannot afford to cater to schooling fees for their children mainly because they are not actively engaged in income-generating activities. Additionally, inability to afford modern houses has forced some of the resident to reside in poor houses that are old.

In addition, ageism can be described as discrimination and prejudice perpetrated against a person on the grounds of age, according to some locals who I closely interacted with an interrogated, it is apparent that some cases of ageism have been reported (Colantonio & Potter, 2016). Older people have been raising concerns about being abused and neglected by strangers or even their family members. As a consequence, ageism is attributed to decreased production, cardiovascular stress, and lowered levels of self-efficacy.

However, during my visit to Little Havana, I did not experience or even notice any discrimination on the grounds of race. I interacted with people who migrated to Little Havana, built houses and own different businesses. Conversely, they revealed that cases of racism are not rampant in Little Havana since visitors are warmly welcome. Moreover, the security of the visitors is guaranteed.

Reflection on Observation and Interview

There are several challenges that I encountered when I visited Little Havana. Firstly, the language barrier was the major channeled; hence, I found it difficult to understand some of the conversations. Though I interacted with many people, some were unable to communicate in English. Secondly, I was surprised to see how people survive in environments that are not conducive for business or even building houses. Mainly, some people live in weak structures that are not refurbished.

However, I was happy when I received a warm reception. Additionally, as I was walking through the community, I noticed that young children are trained to respect the elderly and how to embrace their own culture. Additionally, even though poverty is a challenge facing some members of the community, the community members work hard by engaging in small and large scale businesses in order to meet their basic needs. Nonetheless, I also learned that it is necessary to uphold and adhere to cultural practices because they are associated with peaceful coexistence. Also, I noticed some differences between myself and the members of the community principally because they prefer attending cultural festive, but I only have a preference for visiting national parks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, from the discussion above, it is worth noting that Little Havana is known by many people predominantly because of Calle Ocho festival southwest 8th street. Nonetheless, Little Havana has always been a common ground for different people. Little Havana is also regarded as a vicinity that serves as the cultural and also social heart of Cuban - American community of Miami.

References

Curtis, J. R. (2014). Miami's Little Havana: Yard shrines, cult religion and landscape. Journal of Cultural Geography, 1(1), 1-15. Retrieved on 8th August 2019 from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08873638009478649

Colantonio, A., & Potter, R. B. (2016). Havana. Cities, 23(1), 63-78. Retrieved on 8th August 2019 from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264275105001095

George, P. S. (2007). Little Havana. Arcadia Publishing. Retrieved on 8th August 2019 from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=8eOp9MiIqc0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA6&dq=little+havana&ots=af1e2mYLq6&sig=dPyKCOVThA70-nwNbxhQ-DHJjbg

Grenier, G. J., & Moebius, C. J. (2015). A History of Little Havana. The History Press.

Scarpaci, J. L. (2015). A Tale of Two Cities: Hialeah's Economic Ties with Havana. FOCUS on Geography, 58(2), 49-58.