March 2010

A Cuban Revival

Little Havana’s Miami makeover

Michael Landsberg

STORY TOOLS

Everyone knows about Calle Ocho, the heart of Cuban Miami. But there were never many good reasons to go there, unless you liked playing dominos with grumpy 70- year-olds or sipping sweet Cuban coffee outside Versailles restaurant. In fact, its neglected streets and rising crime led many upwardly mobile Cuban-Americans to move out. New immigrants from Honduras and Nicaragua in the 1980s created their own Little Central America.

But 50 years after the first Cuban exiles began arriving in Miami, Calle Ocho is getting a much-needed makeover. Tourists fresh off cruise ships are arriving by the coachload. New attractions are springing up everywhere, from art galleries and cigar stores to Latino theaters and nightclubs.

“There’s a really great local scene building here. It’s a real revival,” says Mike Kuczynski, a University of Miami law school student, sucking on a cigar in a leather armchair at Padilla Cigars.

“We are trying to get the word out,” says storeowner Ernesto Padilla, son of one of Cuba’s greatest poets. Old black and white photos of his father with 1950s literary figures, including Ernest Hemingway, decorate one wall. “There are places to eat, things to do and see. It’s turning around.”

One new spot, La Casa de Tula, offers a throwback to Cuba’s pre-revolutionary past, mixed with Miami popular culture. “We are like Havana in the 1950s, a nightclub-cabaret style venue where you can lounge while the orchestra plays,” says owner Gilbert Cabrera, 44, a Cuban-born former TV producer who studied journalism in Russia before defecting in Canada. Cabrera worked as executive producer on El Show de Cristina before going into local politics. But now he’s betting on Calle Ocho. He opened La Casa de Tula two years ago.

It’s not all for Hispanics either. At La Casa de Tula, Wednesday is Comedy Night, with mostly English-language performers. Thursday is House Music night. “We are revolutionizing live evening entertainment in Little Havana. It’s not all Latin. It’s beyond salsa and merengue,” Cabrera says. “When you have pure English entertainment on Calle Ocho, that tells you something is going on.”

A few doors down Roberto Ramos, 44, a former karate champion and special forces trainer in Cuba, has created his own cultural space, Cuba Ocho. Ramos fled Cuba in 1992 with a boatload of Cuban paintings. Housed on the spacious ground floor of a new building, Cuba Ocho is decorated with Ramos’ personal collection of paintings and books from Cuba’s pre-revolutionary era.

Across the street at Kimbara Cumbara, theater owner Fabio Díaz, 35, has created another popular nightspot for music and theater. One recent show titled ‘Mujeres’, a Latin-style Vagina Monologues featuring six women in different states of female angst, played to packed houses.

Díaz arrived in Miami in 1993 and worked as a waiter at Gloria Estefan’s South Beach restaurant, Larios on the Beach. His father, a famous nighttime radio DJ, stayed behind. In 2000, Díaz opened Hoy Como Ayer (Today Like Yesterday), a lively Cuban music club on Calle Ocho featuring jazz/fusion. It was an instant hit.

“Cubans are entrepreneurs and optimists by nature, despite all the history of the last 50 years,” says Díaz. “Our culture is what saves and unites us.”

King of Kings
Documentarian Alan Tomlinson takes you on a magic carpet ride
Read full story

Hands Across the Border
Dominican president Leonel Fernandez talks about a new chapter in relations between the two countries that share the island of Hispaniola.
Read full story

El Show mas Funny
Second City, a long-running improvisational comedy enterprise, which originated in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood, comes to Miami to perform Second City: Loco in El Show Mas Funny.
Read full story

Mother Entrepreneur Constructing a Bright Future
A south Florida mother of three made it her goal to outshine the competition—on a national level
Read full story

MIFF Rolls Into Town
Starting Friday, Miami will be buzzing with movie-goers as the 27th Annual Miami International Film Festival gets started.
Read full story

California Dreamin’
changing demographics in the Golden State are reshaping immigration attitudes
Read full story

Dhanraj Bhagwandin
2010-03-18 17:28:34

New Book Reveals Secret Life Of Cuban Terrorist Louis Posada New York: March 4, 2010 (Caribbean New York Press) - A new book, “From Cubana to Santrina throws fresh light on the terrorist activities of Cuban dissident, Louis Posada Carilles, whose impending trial ( May 20) in an El Paso federal court in the United States is again attracting international media attention. Written by New York based Guyanese Journalist Dhanraj Bhagwandin, the book highlights the trail of Bambi (one of Posada’s aliases) from Cuba to Venezuela and then to El Salvador where he was involved in drugs, prostitution and a death squad. Posada coordinated numerous plots to kill Cuba’s former President Fidel Castro and also helped the Contras in Nicaragua. He has long been fingered as the mastermind of the bombing of a Cuban airline off the coast of Barbados in 1976 in which 73 persons perished including 11 Guyanese. Posada was on the run for nearly three decades until 2005 when he finally sneaked into the United States. Based on interviews with Ex-Federal United States Drug Enforcement Agent Celerino ‘Cele’ Castillo III, and new declassified documents, Bhagwandin, an investigative journalist, brings a new perspective to this tragic international event involving Cuba, the United States and Venezuela. Dhanraj Bhagwandin, the author, is a former journalist from Guyana who has covered several countries including Cuba He is also author of “Georgetown Spies” a tale of espionage involving American and Russian secret service agents. Bhagwandin also wrote for the now defunct Brooklyn Skyline newspaper and taught at York College and the Bronx Community College of the City University of New York. The Cubana explosion in midair was the first act of terrorism in the Caribbean and Latin American. The account reveals the genesis of the Cubana plot and the inner motivations of its author, Bambi. It also links his involvement with the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). “Dhanraj Bhagwandin is the first writer of the Caribbean and North America to fictionalize the Cubana air disaster with such courage, craft, feelings and splendor,” according to Caribbean novelist Dr. Churaumanie Bissundyal. For more information visit http://cubanatosantrina.com/ Email : caribnypress@yahoo.com

wedding
2010-07-28 21:00:35

I got an maternity wedding dresses engagement ring for Christmas. My boyfriend and I had been dating for almost a year and both felt the time was right to join our lives together maternity wedding dresses in holy wholesale prom dress matrimony. htmlThe month of January was spent planning our perfect Alabama June wedding. My mother, two sisters and I went to Huntsville, the closest town wholesale prom dress wholesale prom dress with a selection of bridal shops, to buy the gown that maternity wedding dresseswould play the leading role on my special wholesale prom dress occasion.We had a wonderful time just being together and sharing silly jokes, but the day soon turned serious by afternoon: still no sign of the dress of my dreams. Both sisters were ready to give up and try another maternity wedding dresses day in another town, but I coerced them into one more bcoutique.I had a good feeling as we entered the shop filled with the scent of fresh wholesale prom dress flowers. The elderly clerk showed us several beautiful gowns in my size and price range, but none were right. As I opened the door to leave, the desperate shop owner announced she had one more dress in the maternity wedding dresses back that was expensive and not even my size, but wholesale prom dress perhaps I might want to look at it anyway. When she brought it out, I squealed in delight.

Replica Handbags
2010-07-28 02:28:26

Providers in many luxury brands, we have our own unique advantages, high-quality selection, the perfect lathe to produce the Replica Handbags are recognized by users around the world. One of our Louis Vuitton Handbags are unique in many brands, Wholesale Louis Vuitton Handbags to the world in more than 80 countries and regions, Wholesale Replica Handbags by European and U.S. customers welcome, we have a convenient logistics channel, the real customers reduce the cost. Louis Vuitton world's leading luxury brand, has the largest number of fans, including their Louis Vuitton Handbags more popular in the world, we mainly offer Louis Vuitton Replica Handbags, through our technology to achieve the same level of quality and true . Why are Replica Handbags and Designer Handbags so popular then, is that in real package is too expensive, and most people can not afford, so they can Wholesale Louis Vuitton Handbags and people want to keep the change package, so there is cheap Replica Handbags, while in replica handbags being, Louis Vuitton and Louis Vuitton Handbags are the best in Designer Replica Handbags for sale, as Louis Vuitton Handbags in the world with the most luxury one package, if you need Wholesale Louis Vuitton Handbags, they can contact us,815GanSiwei, Thank you!

burberry2010
2010-07-27 20:41:42

The‘Magnificence of the Tsars exhibition at the Burberry outlet museum in London provided the burberry scraf to showcase Woolrich’s opulent Gamme Rouge collection for burberry handbags, the luxury Italian sportswear brand, during the Paris pret-a-porter season.Press and burberry coats descended down a narrow concrete staircase into the burberry sunglasses underneath Palais Garnier, the 19th century Paris opera-house, to discover a wonderland straight out of Chloe outlet.Every man looks at his Chloe bags with a kind of affection. I love to have mine before my Chloe totes, and the more chips the better to remind me of my chloe handbags. I had an old axe which nobody claimed, with which by spells in winter days, on the sunny side of the chloe sunglasses, I played about the stumps which I had got out of my armani sunglasses.Valli’s dazzling vision transformed the gucci sunglasses down-filled jacket into crinolined ballgowns, hooded opera-cloaks and North Sails-style jackets–all fit for a tsarina.Other jackets and coats were trimmed with Oakley sunglasses – and then printed with the markings of the same fur; still more were embellished with crystal and D&G sunglasses. Two white steeds (Fuego and Flash) snorted and stamped in a candle-lit niche.Neither could I do without them.

pirlo
2010-06-24 19:38:18

myprada2010
2010-07-25 22:47:47

louis vuitton bags louis vuitton bags louis vuitton shoes christian louboutin shoes lv bags wholesale louis vuitton chanel purses prada handbags prada louis vuitton louis vuitton louis vuitton bags louis vuitton wallets balenciaga chanel handbags louis vuitton shop

ed hardy
2010-07-25 22:27:36

That was a cheap Ed Hardy sunny day. I was abercrombie and fitch Outlet going on my way ed hardy to the XX. At the crossing ,I saw an old womenwas standing Abercrombie and fitch at the coner,have sawing the cars coming and going, it seemed she had a trouble.I Christian Audigier walked to her and help her

Car insurance
2010-07-14 16:48:46

Cheap Louis Vuitton Bags
2010-07-22 21:30:30

Leather fashion cheap louis vuitton bags compliment your entire makeover and if you have an exclusive one then you are ready for the show.The world is getting fashion prone and things have changed.No one wants Louis Vuitton Damier Azur Handbag to have the usual and stress for designer inspired fashion handbags,purses,pouches and wallets.In Handbags,the latest sensation being Leather,is soon moving into the trend and now belongs to the fashion lv outlet that is in vogue. Online fashion sites offering exclusive ladies fashion lv bags and designer inspired handbags range are gaining acclaim Louis Vuitton Sale and where do you find yourself in the rage of moving ahead with fashion?Still into the crowd and venturing out in retail stores Louis Vuitton Damier?Stop then and there,as online websites are places where you can shop conveniently,more economically and hassle free with secure online shopping altogether.

2010-07-22 03:23:05

dizi izle
2010-07-20 17:27:02

kurtlar vadisi pusu izle dizi seyret Sinema izle film izle yaprak dökümü izle Dizi izle

China Electroncis Wholesale
2010-07-20 02:15:07

many thanks to the author. The usefulness and significance is overwhelming. Thanks again and good luck! thanks for your post and I like it. China Electronics Wholesale Wholesale China Consumer Electronics Discount Electronics Wholesale Wholesale Consumer Electronics China Discount Electronics Wholesale Wholesale China Consumer Electronics Discount Consumer Electronics Wholesale Wholesale Discount Consumer Electronics China Cheap Cell Phones Wholesale Wholesale Cheap Cell Phones from China Wholesale Cell Phone Accessories China Mobile Phones Wholesale Cheap Chinese Cell Phones Wholesale www.ebay-cellphone.com www.wholesale-cellphones.com Games Mobile Phones Wholesale Handwriting Mobile Phones Wholesale WiFi Mobile Phones Wholesale GPS Mobile Phones Wholesale Handshaking Phones Wholesale Games Mobile Phones Wholesale WiFi Mobile Phones Wholesale GPS Mobile Phones Wholesale Handshaking Phones Wholesale Games Mobile Phones Wholesale Handwriting Mobile Phones Wholesale Google Android Phones Wholesale PDA Mobile Phones Wholesale Smart Mobile Phones Wholesale Windows Mobile Phones Wholesale Quadband Phones Wholesale Triband Phones Wholesale CDMA & GSM Phones Wholesale Watch Mobile Phones Wholesale Slide Mobile Phones Wholesale Flip Cellphones Wholesale Bar Mobile Phones Wholesale TV Mobile Phones Wholesale Touch Screen Phones Wholesale

READERS DISCUSSION

Name

Email

Comment

Be the First to Comment on this Story!
Poder360 welcomes and encourages reader comments. Permission to post reader comments is assumed, and we reserve the right to excerpt or edit for clarity any comments that are posted. We won't be able to publish all comments. And we can't vouch for the accuracy of posts from readers. Nicknames will be used to identify your post.

Advertisement

Read

E-mailed

MOST POPULAR STORIES

The Mayor of hangover city

Undersea Afterlife

Spanish ambassador defends Cuba prisoners deal

New lawsuit in Madoff case targets alleged Latin American and European fraud

Walmart Goes Beyond the Big Box

Read

E-mailed

MOST EMAILED STORIES

Walmart Goes Beyond the Big Box

Signatures for Change

The Mayor of hangover city

A Cuban Revival

Little Havana’s Miami makeover

STORY TOOLS

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES

READERS DISCUSSION

MOST POPULAR STORIES

MOST EMAILED STORIES