Source: Photographs© (2009) by WTL.
Comment: Calle Ocho (Eighth Street) is the heart of the Miami neighborhood known as Little Havana (La Pequeña Habana). The vast majority of its residents—about 100,000 people—are immigrants from Cuba. Spanish is the dominant language spoken there, and, while there is natural blending with Anglo-American and Afro-American culture, society, politics, and commerce, nevertheless, Little Havana retains a distinctively Cuban and Latin American ethos. This neighborhood's nickname became prominent in the 1960s when tens of thousands of Cubans fled Cuba following the rise of communism under Fidel Castro's victory over the dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Little Havana is as famous for its Latino-Cuban atmospher as it is for its festivals, among which are: Calle Ocho Festival (a street fair with over a million visitors), Carnaval de Miami (Mardi Gras), Cultural Fridays (fourth Friday of each month), and the Three Kings parade (los Reyes Magos; Epiphany, January 6th). This photo tour gives you a very synoptic view of what is one of the most significant Latin American neighborhoods in the United States.

Hispanic view of Calle Ocho: Iberia Airlines' Ronda Magazine (April, 2010) ran a feature on "Miami, la otra ciudad / Miami, the Other City" (70-75). In addition to praising the Art Deco architecture in South Beach, it added this comment about Calle Ocho: "Para saborear la otra sensación de tiempo detenido, e incluso revertido, tendremos que desplazarnos a la calle Ocho (nadie la llama Eight Street), el corazón de Little Havana, pero sin olvidar que también hay un Little Buenos Aires, un Little Quito, un Little Bogotá, un Little Caracas y un Little Haiti. Y es que Miami es la ciudad más latina, y de manera más precisa, más hispana de los Estados Unidos. Aspirando el olor a cigarro puro, a horno de pan, a incienso, escuchando el sonido de las campanas, comtemplando un escaparate abarrotado de santos de escayola, escuchando hablar en castellano, sin mezcla de inglés, a nuestro alrededor, viendo a un grupo de jubilados jugar una partida de cartas o dominó al aire libre o admirando, todavía en uso, un lustrado modelo de motocicleta o de coche digno de haber entrado en un museo, uno puede sentirse a cientos o a miles de kilómetros más al sur y devuelto a los años 50 del pasado siglo." (See #8 above for a visual comparison between the scene represented there and a parallel scene in Little Havana's counterpart, La Habana, in Cuba.)

To begin the virtual tour, click on the first image or click the right arrow below.