The downstairs dining room at Yuca restaurant in Coral Gables is of a contemporary minimalist design, devoid of references to historical or traditional forms — all matte white tiles, bright white walls, and postmodern artworks. It is a sleek showplace for successful Cuban exiles and their up-and-coming offspring. During the…
Manuel Diaz is testimony to the little-known fact that money does grow on trees. Since the 1960s, Diaz, a Cuban immigrant, has transformed a nursery business he started in his parents’ back yard into one of the largest ornamental plant companies in the world: the 1500-acre Manuel Diaz Farms in…
It wasn’t quite the night before Christmas; the holiday was still eight days off. But there was plenty of stirring in the upper reaches of the Metro-Dade Government Center on Friday, December 17. The bureaucrats were playing host to a most unlikely guest. He appeared on the 27th floor –…
Fairfield, Ohio, could not be called a hotbed of Cuban exile activity, but at least one resident of the Cincinnati suburb has made his home on Windermere Lane a base of operations against the Castro government. From there Victor Garcia-Rivera, a 35-year-old Cuban American, is using shortwave radio to try…
Reeling from overexposure, hyped up, played out, intoxicated by its own richness, reeking of humanity, Miami stumbles into the new year. Although this town perpetually seems to be nursing last year’s hangover, the calendar switch provides an invitation to reinvigorated inspiration. So we asked area painters and sculptors, actors and…
Five years ago Carmen Carpentieri thought the front yard of his North Miami home looked a little too drab for Christmas, so he bought several hundred lights to decorate the trees lining his sidewalk. Two doors down the street, Ken DiGenova noticed the modest light display and decided that the…
“You did what with Blaze Starr?” Michael Somberg, the police planner for the Miami Beach Police Department, leans across his desk toward the large man who has wandered into his office. “The stripper? Now isn’t that a little piece of Americana!” The visitor smiles bashfully and recounts, somewhat reluctantly, the…
Tracy’s pink plastic mirror is one of those trinkets you buy at Woolworth’s; one swiveling face reflects normally, the other magnifies. Mounted atop a Deco-ish base of swirly, translucent plastic, the mirror is utterly flimsy and fragile, an extreme of femininity. Late afternoons, when Tracy takes it out to get…
“We’re in stealth mode.” William Negron cruises down a darkened street, lights off, looking for a 1985 white Mercedes. “There it is,” he says. He pulls past it, parks half a block away, jumps out of his tow truck, and walks nonchalantly back toward the car, which is parked in…
Back in 1984 the state legislature’s Criminal Justice Committee drafted a bill calling for all Florida law-enforcement trainees to pass a certification exam before earning a badge. Their purpose was simple: to beef up professionalism within the ranks of Florida’s cops, corrections personnel, and probation officers. But staffers with the…
When Sally Fitz decided to relocate from Miami Beach to Chicago, the veteran WSVN-TV Channel 7 news anchor did what any other red-blooded member of the American bourgeoisie would do: she had a yard sale. And if garage-sale popularity were judged by TV newscast standards (i.e., turnout), hers was a…
Wayman Adkins, a black businessman, is quite popular these days. As president and owner of Consolidated Techniques, Inc., a small construction firm in Hialeah, Adkins has been wooed by some white-owned firms eager to have him join them in their bids for county government contracts. Rivalry over his services, though,…
Joe’s Stone Crab, that hub of Miami Beach hubbub, was crackling with more excitement than usual this past June 16, the opening night of Thomas Kramer’s six-day South Pointe charrette. At his own expense, the German millionaire had brought together ten architectural firms from around the world to create a…
The press conference was scheduled for a small room in the Rayburn Building, one of several office complexes occupied by members of Congress. Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, called the gathering late last month to announce his intention of introducing a new bill that would end the embargo…
Life in prison has not been easy for Frank Fuster, the Cuban immigrant convicted of sexually abusing at least eight children at a day-care center in South Dade’s Country Walk housing development. In 1985 he was sentenced to six life terms. He has been the target of routine attacks ever…
The Dade State Attorney’s Office confirmed late last week it will join the City of Miami in investigating allegations against Assistant City Manager Herbert J. Bailey. “We have been asked to look into matters of conflict of interest and nondisclosure,” says the prosecutor assigned to the case, David Maer, who…
I am pathological about the Golden State Warriors. For those who don’t know, the Warriors are the NBA franchise that plays in Oakland. They wear blue and gold and, as a rule, they disappoint me. Two seasons ago, when they lost to the Seattle SuperSonics in the first round of…
I saw the Rolling Stones in concert once, back in the (gulp) late Seventies. Those were the days of marathon mini-festivals staged in acoustic hell-holes like bazillion-seat Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Opening acts Tower of Power and the J. Geils Band tore it up from just after noon until right around…
As the blues community celebrates the ascension of a new guitar hero in Dave Hole, it also mourns the passing of another. “Albert Collins,” says Hole, “was a major, major performer. There have been some who have been so influential — Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, Albert King. And…
In October 1991, the Miami City Commission handed out a half-million dollars and started a small war. The fight erupted over how to improve a few blocks of deteriorated property on the northeast side. As happens with many of the city’s best intentions, political combat quickly replaced constructive action. Today…
Perhaps no one really believed the issue would lie dormant for long. Too much politics, too many passions. Indeed, the heated debate surrounding a new public law school in Florida — whether one is needed, where it should be located, and who ought to run it — energized the state…
If there was one place Simon Steckel didn’t want to be last Wednesday morning, it was Courtroom 3-2 of the Metropolitan Justice Building, where Dade County Circuit Court Judge Paul Siegel had convened a hearing to shed a ray of judicial light on a matter the Coral Gables attorney would…
