Hardly the brash, drug-ridden crime capital of America that was made famous in the 1980s television series
Miami Vice, today’s booming metropolis has since been dubbed ‘America’s Casablanca’, the ‘Magic City’ and, more recently, the ‘America of the Millennium’. These various appellations touch on one aspect of Miami that distinguishes it from other US cities – its identity as a truly multicultural American city. It is a gateway to South and Central America and the third most popular city in the United States for international visitors
(after Los Angeles and New York). In fact, Miami just might be more Latin American than simply American.
For a city famed for its sunny weather, spicy nightlife and fine dining, Miami had surprisingly humble beginnings. Located on the far south coast of Florida, perched between a mangrove swamp and a barrier reef, Miami was founded a 100 years ago, when a tycoon called Henry Flagler extended his railroad to carry citrus fruits from the frost-free south. Development was slow until the Florida land boom in the 1920s. During Prohibition, Al Capone came here when the heat was on in Chicago. After World War II, the Mafia moved in and later, once Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba in 1959, waves of Cuban refugees arrived. Before long, they had established Miami as the Latin capital of the USA – with later mass immigration in the 1980s as well. The cultural climate the Cubans created in Miami inspired residents of other Latin countries (Colombia, Dominica, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Haiti and others) to seek an escape from poverty or oppressive governments and emigrate. And now, Spanish is spoken as pervasively in Miami as English.
Yet the city is one of America’s most ultramodern cities – the second largest in Florida (after Jacksonville) but easily its most exciting, exotic and cosmopolitan. Miami, known as Greater Miami and the Beaches or just Greater Miami for short, includes a number of islands and mainland communities, including two cities – Miami and Miami Beach. Much of Miami’s appeal is due to its diverse neighborhoods, which range from the big-city, towering skyscrapers of downtown Miami (the commercial heart of the city) to Little Havana, home to the Cuban community, or to the trendy Miami Beach neighborhood of South Beach. South Beach is probably most recognisably ‘Miami’ – with its candy-colored Art Deco buildings set against a pure South Florida backdrop of cloudless skies, dazzling blue ocean, pale sandy beaches and swaying palm trees.
Greater Miami is also an international crossroads of commerce, finance, culture, sports, entertainment, transportation and tourism, which is, not surprisingly, the city’s main source of income. The downtown Port of Miami is the largest cruise ship port in the world, which handles more than three million passengers a year. Besides its importance to cruise travel, Miami Beach is, of course, world-renowned for its ‘gold coast’ hotel strip, palatial properties and outdoor recreational facilities. Locals give the feeling that nothing could ever be more important than taking a morning run along the beachside path, sunning oneself or shopping during the afternoon, then dining and dancing till dawn. Its subtropical climate ensures warm weather year-round, with plenty of sunshine – and the lifestyle and vibe here emphasise not work but plenty of play.
The city’s real genius, however, is that, in recent years, it has successfully absorbed the different cultures of its multi-ethnic population and been influenced by them all – and now Miami is considered a model community for the 21st century and a compelling example of America’s changing face. Despite this, not every immigration story is a happy one. Immigrants are not given as hearty a welcome as the Eastern European immigrants to America once were, for example, as the sad story of young Elian Gonzales and his attempted illegal emigration shows, when, in 1999, his mother lost her life in trying to secure US citizenship for her son. And, indeed, there are downsides as a result of its diverse population but, nevertheless, Miami is essentially a city founded on the ideals of liberation by immigrants looking for an opportunity to flourish. Now one of the most exhilarating cities in the country, this safe, successful, multicultural metropolis has vibrancy and savoir faire and really is a ‘City of the Future’.
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The Columbus World Travel Guide has been published for 26 years and is sold in over 90 countries worldwide.
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Word Travels is a comprehensive travel guide covering hundreds of cities and holiday resorts in more than 125 countries.
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The Columbus World Travel Guide has been published for 26 years and is sold in over 90 countries worldwide.
Word Travels is a comprehensive travel guide covering hundreds of cities and holiday resorts in more than 125 countries.
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