Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The tension carried over from Hispanic-Anglo divisions to rifts between older Cubans
and the new
Marielitos
. The middle- to upper-class white Cubans of the 1960s were rein-
troduced to that nation in the form of thousands of Afro-Cubans and
santeros,
or worship-
pers of Santeria, Cuba's version of
vodou
(voodoo).
Best Florida Histories
The New History of Florida,
Michael Gannon
The Everglades: River of Grass,
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Dreamers, Schemers & Scalawags,
Stuart McIver
The Enduring Seminoles,
Patsy West
Miami Babylon,
Gerald Posner
Miami Not So Nice
In the 1980s Miami became the major East Coast entry port for drug dealers and their
product and earned the nickname 'Mi-Yay-Mi', 'yay' being slang for cocaine. As if to
keep up with the corruption, many savings and loans (S&Ls) opened in newly built Miami
headquarters. While
Newsweek
magazine called Miami 'America's Casablanca,' locals
dubbed it the 'City with the S&L Skyline.'
A plethora of businesses - legitimate concerns as well as drug-financed fronts - and
buildings sprang up all over Miami. Downtown was completely remodeled. But it was re-
born in the grip of drug smugglers: shoot-outs were common, as were gangland slayings
by cocaine cowboys. At one stage, up to three people per week were being killed in
cocaine-related clashes.
The police, Coast Guard, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Border Patrol and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were trying to keep track of it all. Roadblocks were
set up along the Overseas Hwy to Key West (prompting the quirky and headstrong resid-
ents down there to call for a secession, which eventually sent the police on their way).
Miami Vice
was single-handedly responsible for Miami Beach rising to international
fabulousness in the mid-1980s, its slick soundtrack and music-video-style montages glam-
orizing the rich South Florida lifestyle. Before long, people were coming down to check it
out for themselves - especially photographer Bruce Weber, who began using South Beach
as a gritty and fashionable backdrop for modeling shoots in the early 1980s.
