My Wife is a "white Cuban" with all four grandparents coming from Spain. The reason for this preface is because most people don't realize just how segregated Cuba was before Castro. Cuban legend has it the the President of the country Fulencio Batista could not join the Havana Yacht club because he had "mixed " blood. You had to be Pure to be a member.

Now to my point....

When I moved to Fl in 1971 there were some beautiful 100% Cuban neighborhoods in Miami. There was Little Havana (SW 8th Street) and parts of Hialeah . These areas always reminded me of the old Italian sections with their perfectly manicured lawns, immaculate houses, BIG statues of the Blessed Mother, the plastic slipcovers, the nosey old ladies etc.

You must remember that the very first Cubans to leave the Island after The Cuban people really found out what Fidel was all about (a pure Marxist/Leninist- NOT a moderate as he said he would be). The very first waves were the doctors, lawyers, accountants, business people etc.

They came here as surgeons, and six months later they were mopping floors working as janitors. Now in the poorer Cuban sections they still operated as doctors "on the QT". Some never did get back the license to practice medicine because they could never pass the exam in English. Others went from being short order cooks to the presidents of hospitals and banks.

My in laws told me that when they left Cuba they were allowed only to take the clothes on their backs. Their homes , cars everything went to the revolution. They told my Mother in law to take off her wedding ring and all her other jewelry right at the airport

Well just like the old Italian neighborhoods are mostly all gone so are the Cuban ones too. Little Havana is filled with Dominicans, Peruvians, and Nicaraguans. I don't hate these people but they do not keep the areas as clean and crime free as the old Cubans did. You NEVER saw tin foil in the window of a middle class Cuban house. They had their own special bakeries, butcher stores, etc.

The big Cuban Festival "Calle Ocho" is loaded with steet gangs from other countries now. It used to be a really nice family event. I haven't played it in around 15 years. The last time I was there Hispanic street gangs started throwing empty bottles at us because we didn't play any "regaton" (hispanic Rap music).

There was a time when I said to my Wife lets move to a pure Cuban spot in Miami. Our Girls can go to an all Cuban Catholic school just like my Wife did, Your neighbors look out for your house and God forbid a stranger comes wandering in, they have to answer as to what they are doing there.

They was always action in those places too....All night coffee stands where the old men would talk about how much they hate Castro. All night card games , big time gambling on dominoes etc. and the underground lottery "bolita" (it was almost the same as playing the "numbers")

If you are Italian like I am and married to a Cuban of Spanish decent you can see many of the similarities of the two groups. The main one it having "pride of ownership". Keeping your house up, your car clean, no garbage in your front yard ....

Now Miami is just like NY. The White middle class Cubans have all moved to other "nicer" areas. And Columbians, and other Hispanic groups plus the Haitians have practically destroyed all the old Cuban strong holds. Some are now considered very dangerous places.

If you didn't grow up down here in the 70's and 80's you would have no idea what I'm talking about. AS soon as the Cubans started to make some money their kids moved out of the city for the suburbs just like the Italians. Cuba has its own dialect of Spanish (similar to what Sicilian is to proper Italian). My Wife and her brother grew up speaking Spanish, yet her younger brother who is a first generation American speaks no Spanish at all. NONE of the grandkids can speak a word of it.

I guess that's just what happens here in this country. Old customs and traditions don't die hard, but very easy.....

BTW- if this should be moved because its not exactly about OC then my bad. I thought with all the Italian neighborhood threads lately it might be okay.

Sal