European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 19, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Cuban american Patricio Caraballo Sells fruit and vegetables from a truck by the Roadside in teeming Little Havana a colourful Section of the revitalized City that Miami is today. A popular gathering place in the area right is Antonio Maceo mini Park which locals Call Domino by Jules Loh associated press a photo a photo continued from Page 13 magazines. There s everything going on Here Brill told a Miami reporter. It s just an unending Why Well said Richard Gerstein it s a combination of things. The Only certainty is that it began when the first cuban exile landed Here in 1960." or As a Man at the chamber of Commerce put it Only half in jest Fidel Castro is the Best thing that happened to Miami since air Gerstein in fact is one of any number of old line Miami professionals he came there when he was six in 1929 who have found a second career in the revitalized City. After serving for 16 years As the Dade county prosecutor he is now in partnership with f. Lee Bailey the defense lawyer lured to Miami from Boston by the City s vitality and Well there you Are Miami vice. What has happened to Miami is nothing Short of fantastic Gerstein said. From the 30s to the 50s we had a tourist Economy. We existed from Jan. 15 to March 15. That was it. Billboards used to plead to the tourists to stay til May no longer. Now the traffic Jam lasts All year Long. Bickel Avenue was once a Dull Street with old estates and vacant lots. Now it rivals Park Avenue. Southwest eighth Avenue was boarded up ghostly. Look at it Southwest eighth Avenue now called Calle Ocho is. The main drag of teeming Little Havana. One weekend they decided to hold a Street festival on Calle Ocho for no particular reason just sort of a mid lenten get together. Police estimated the crowd at Between 1.3 and 1.4 million. Million what has happened to Miami is that it has come full Circle. The original 200,000 cuban exiles have grown to a hispanic american population of 900,000. Their children have become the City s banking moguls and land developers and civic leaders one of them is the mayor and Are members of the Miami club and holders of prize seats in Section 29 of the Orange bowl. The exiles grandchildren have come full Circle too. Many Are struggling to retain the Spanish language of their parents even As their Anglo schoolmates struggle to learn it along with Anglo businessmen and Kelly girls. Ads abound offering crash courses in Spanish because to live a full life in Miami today it is necessary to be at ease in both languages both cultures. Unless you know for favor Pague Cando be Sirvan you will not know to please pay when served and will miss much of everything else going on in Miami As Well at the movie House the schoolhouse the courthouse and the Jailhouse. The younger generation of Miami ans seems to be doing just that becoming at ease in both cultures. It is truly a Bicu Tural Way of life said or. Edward Ferrer sipping american Coffee in his living room in an upscale neighbourhood in it. Lauderdale. Look at me. Look at my it. Lauderdale just North of Miami is one of several nearby towns favored by second generation cuban americans who have gravitated out of Little Havana feeling equally at Home elsewhere. Besides Little Havana has Long since burst its seams wafting its culture across South Florida As pervasive As the latin rhythms pulsating fro m Calle Ocho storefronts. Ferrer an Anaesthesiologist is married to an american born wife Ruth. They have four children 5, 4 and twin toddlers. De s Mother spoke no English Ruth said so she along with de taught me Spanish. We speak both languages at Home according to How the mood strikes. We Are determined that the children learn both. We be instructed the housekeeper to speak Only Spanish that was de s father s idea. The other Day she said Little Eddie asked for a Glass of Agutter combining Agua and water. I guess there s bound to be some confusion at i came to America when i was nine Ferrer said. I have memories of Cuba and at times i think i would like to go there just to see it although i m afraid i would be saddened. I cherish the cuban culture but i think of myself As an working with tobacco Leaf in a Little Havana Cigar factory cuban exiles brought their businesses and their clientele with them when they came contributing to the City s economic development. A photo t he sign on the haitian refugee Center i Miami says an nou Dechenne Aviti an the sound from inside seems As strange Ashe words in Creole mean Freedom time in the sound in any language is that of laughter and it seems out of place because the Center is usually one of the most melancholy places in one of the poorest sections of one of Florida s richest cities. But lately the sidewalks outside the Center on . 54th Street the main drag in Miami s 200-Block Section called Little Haiti have taken on a festive Ness that belies the wretched poverty and desperation of most of its people. In fact throughout Miami haitian flags have blossomed on Blue work shirts and Cotton blouses and flutter from taxicab antennae. Suddenly the City s taxi Drivers and yardman and maids Are of All things talkative. I Haven t seen anything quite like it said the Rev. Gerard Jean Juste who runs the Center. Our people Are naturally reserved timid. Some Don t even like to admit they re haitian. Now they Are even calling in to radio talk shows. I be been trying for years to generate haitian Pride. It s ironic that the one who did it was baby or More accurately baby Doc s ouster. News in february that Jean Claude Duvalier had fled Haiti touched off a round of spontaneous revelry in Little Haiti. Hundreds streamed into the streets some still dressed in their pyjamas to sing and hug and clap. While their behaviour was understandable Many thought it uncharacteristic. For most of them nothing has changed in their lives said father Jean Juste or As the haitians Call him be Gerard. Still he said if a person has a Little self esteem it makes hardship a Little less hard bitterness a Little less bitter. Now perhaps the United states will begin to feel the Impact of the haitians and their lot will improve. I can t overstate How important to them is this newfound father Jean Juste had been hoping that duvalier1 s ouster might also inspire a Back to Haiti movement especially among those held in the Krome Avenue detention Center. But the Prospect of returning to a Homeland of Uncertain politics where the annual per capita income is less than $300, apparently did not stir any such mass exodus so the priest himself has returned temporarily he says to serve As sort of a pied Piper. We now have 65 haitians left at Krome from a population six weeks ago of about 100," said Perry Rivkind Miami s immigration and naturalization service director. Every few Days one will Call and say he wants to go Back. I guess most of the rest have decided to fight it through in the courts try to get admitted As political that of course is their prerogative but if recent experience is a guide their chances Are slim. Their Only sin is that they want a better life Rivkind said. Unfortunately that does not meet the requirement for political an estimated 400,000 haitians now live in the United states. Most of them arrived in the onslaught of rickety boats that began in 1972. About 70,000 live in new York City. Boston and other major cities also have Large haitian populations. But no other City has such an identifiable area of haitian culture and haitian poverty As Miami s Little Haiti Home to about half of Florida s 60,000 haitians. There among their own shops and cafes and churches the City s least wealthy least educated and haitian exiles in Miami have been calling the Rev. Gerard Jean Juste a roman Catholic priest without a Parish their Leader since 1978. Least Welcome can share their common Tongue which few can read or write and their common misery. Adult unemployment in Little Haiti is 27 percent compared with 6.6 percent for Dade county and 11.5 percent for Dade s other Blacks. Average weekly income for Heads of families is less than $200 and for 35 percent of the adult wage earners less than $100. The average rent in Little Haiti is the same for All of Dade county about $270 a month yet fewer than half the Homes have More than one bedroom and even fewer have an air conditioner. Often As Many As 10 people live in one House. If these conditions can be expected to generate crime As readily As they produce rats and Roaches Little Haiti is the exception. The area represents one fifth of Miami s population yet produces less than one tenth of its crime the lowest rate of any of Miami s ethnic groups and most of that say police is non violent Domestic spats loud radios Petty theft. Criminals Are not Welcome among us said one resident Maurice Lucie shopping at one of Little Haiti s dozen markets where according to a sign he could buy Goat hog Duck rabbits pork Heads oxtail and Chicken legs. People who do crimes he said Are better off to Antonio Henry a City policeman who often patrols Little Haiti says that in 80 to 90 percent of the cases involving serious crime the haitians Are the victims not the aggressors. The deepest resentment the haitians have encountered Over the past decade he said has been from Miami s poor Blacks who have viewed the poor haitians As competitors for Low level jobs. This has contributed to haitian feelings of inferiority. At Edison Park elementary school 40 percent haitian a haitian born teacher Germaine Berry was startled to hear haitian children taunting each other by jeering haitian she discovered they were merely mimicking the common insult of their american Black classmates. Page 14 the stars and stripes saturday april 19 1986 the stars and stripes Page 15
