Music can be heard everywhere on Calle Ocho in Miami: it comes over loudspeakers from record shops, from galleries, souvenir shops, restaurants.
In front of the Casa Panza restaurant is a human-sized sculpture of a rooster – brightly painted, made of fiberglass. There are about 20 of them in Little Havana, in front of galleries, restaurants or shops. A Cuban artist put them up in the early 2000s, all painted differently. The rooster at this crossbreed has blue, yellow, red plumage. His yellow scarf with the words Calle Ocho written on it is getting a touch-up with a brush and paint. The artist Eva Ruiz sits on an upside down bucket in front of the tap. Roosters are a good symbol of the district. Eva Ruiz:
“Cockfighting plays a big role in Latin American culture, especially in the Caribbean countries. The roosters symbolize this part of life in Latin America – and also farm life. When people in Latin America want a break from city life, they go to the country to relax among the cows and chickens.”
For years, more and more visitors have come from all over the world
Ruiz grew up in Little Havana, a few blocks from Calle Ocho. Her parents moved to Miami from Colombia decades ago. Little Havana was cheap and convenient for them back then: shops, neighbors – all in Spanish. For years, more and more visitors have come from all over the world, tour buses have stopped. In everyday life there is too much hype, says Eva Ruiz. That’s why she moved away from Little Havana a few years ago – with a heavy heart:
“Here on Calle Ocho you feel like you’re in another country. People here are more outside, they talk to each other. People in the US don’t do that. When you’re here, you feel like someone from Latin America will be right at home. And everyone will start a conversation with you here – over a cup of coffee.”
A few hundred meters further on, the dominoes are rattling – a fight breaks out, a mediator has to intervene with a whistle: Dozens of pensioners, most of whom are Cuban exiles, are sitting at permanently installed domino tables in the covered Maximo-Gomez Park.
In Cuba, playing dominoes is probably the favorite pastime for the elderly: For US-Cubans, the domino park in Miami is a piece of everyday life from their lost, abandoned homeland. But there are rules: The game is only played under supervision, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. And: It’s not allowed to gamble for money – but there are always rumors that debts are then paid off outside the park. 67-year-old Manuelo came to Miami from Cuba more than 40 years ago and spends a lot of time at Domino Park:
“The whole world can play here. You just have to be over 50 years old – if you are, then you can play here, no matter what country you’re from. It doesn’t matter if you’re American or Cuban. And everyone can watch us anyway : Everyone who comes to Miami wants to see Calle Ocho. It’s the heart of Miami.”
The “Paseo de las Estrellas” – “the path of the stars” – a Latin American version of the Walk of Fame in Hollywood begins right next to the Dominopark. At the end of the 1980s, the first pink stars were poured into the concrete. Latin American stars are honored, many from Cuba. A few hundred meters further: the Yisselle bakery with a colorfully painted facade.
Specialty Pastelitos – puff pastries with different fillings
Inside, the refrigerated counter and fans roar. The bakery is popular with locals and tourists. Colourful, sweet holiday cakes are made to order, but Yiselle is best known for her pastelitos: These are a kind of puff pastry with different fillings, explains saleswoman Namir. She doesn’t want to say her last name:
“Anyone who comes to us is looking for a taste of Cuba and they will find it here too. We have a lot of sweet pastries here, just like they do in Cuba – and also in other Latin American countries. And here so many people speak Spanish, that you often feel more in Latin America here than in the United States.”
Namir is from Venezuela and has been working at Yiselle Bakery for more than 10 years. People from all over Latin and Central America have long since moved to Miami’s Little Havana. Many of the exiled Cubans who have made it to prosperity now live in other parts of the city. But Little Havana continues to be of great importance to people of Cuban descent: on Calle Ocho there is a memorial to those who fell in the battle against Fidel Castro and also one to national poet José Marti.
Young Cubans from the US are taking advantage of the growing popularity of the district: a few years ago, a young Cuban from the US opened the Azucar Ice Cream Company on Calle Ocho. A huge ice cream cone towers over the entrance to the ice cream shop, where there are often long queues. The ice cream here is homemade, the flavors are tropical – typically Cuban. 24-year-old Bianca Gomez, whose parents came to the United States from Cuba, is the CEO. It was her cousin who started the Azucar Ice Cream Company. Bianca Gomez:
“My cousin and I have never been to Cuba, like most of our family – that’s a sensitive issue for us. But we also know that nothing works in Cuba without ice cream! In our family there was always ice cream as a bedside table, every night. In a climate as hot as Cuba, you need something to cool you down.”
Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Count Basie
Next door is Ball & Chain – one of the most popular clubs in Miami since it opened in the fall of 2014. There is live music here several times a week: mainly jazz. Before the street became Calle Ocho and the area became Little Havana, there was a club called Ball & Chain here between 1935 and 1957. Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday and Count Basie all took the stage here, says Chad Love, one of the managing directors. The old Ball & Chain owed these star performances to the racial segregation in force at the time:
“Back then, the segregation was still very strict. A lot of the African-American artists were booked to perform in South Beach in the hotels on the beach, but they weren’t allowed to stay there. So they had to stay somewhere else: Here on the street next door there was the Tower Hotel and then they also performed here at the Ball & Chain.”
Jazz legend Chet Baker also gave concerts at Ball and Chain – and after a dispute sued the then owner. He went bankrupt and the club had to close. When the new owners of the rooms wanted to bring Ball & Chain back to life a few years ago, they first had a scientist research the history of the club. Everything should be as authentic as possible. Concert flyers of yore have become templates for wall decorations. Chad Love:
“This is our idea of what it was like here back then. For example, we have handmade tiles on the floor. It’s all new, but looks like it used to be.”
And because the district had become Little Havana since the first Ball & Chain, a pinch of Cuba was added. Aside from jazz, Ball & Chain focuses on live Cuban music, and the bar menu features Cuban snacks and cocktails. A bit of Latin America – you can find that almost everywhere in Miami. But Calle Ocho is the Latin American heart of the city, between tradition and change.