CALLE OCHO PHOTOWALK - Led by Kendall Camera Club

From October 01, 2016 10:00 am until October 01, 2016 1:00 pm
Posted by Walter Rojter
Frank Jimenez - 305-926-2048
Categories: Field Trips
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PARKING

Pay attention to the street signs for NO PARKING areas. There is metered parking on SW 8th St. There is free parking South of SW 8th St., on the avenues. You can try 12th Ave., 12th Ct. or 13th. Ave and/or SW 10th St.

ROUTE

We will walk West bound on the South side of Calle Ocho to SW 17th Ave. We then cross the street and walk back on the North side of the street. (For those who may not want to walk back or have another experience, there is a free trolley service, Eastbound on SW 8th St).

1.- START (from our meeting place) Cuban Memorial Plaza SW 8th St. and 13th Ave.

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Running from South Miami Avenue to S.W. 107th Avenue (near Florida International University), Calle Ocho (Southwest 8th Street) is the lively main thoroughfare in Little Havana, the best known neighborhood for Cuban exiles in the world. The area today is home to Cubans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, and other immigrants from the Caribbean and Central America; the demographics have changed so much since the 1960s that the eastern portion of Little Havana is now referred to as Little Managua. It's a five-minute drive west of downtown Miami and 15 minutes from South Beach. (You'll know you're there when all the signs are in Spanish.)


The repetitive, rump-shaking beats of salsa and merengue pour out of storefronts and restaurants, sometimes joined by the staccato crowing of a rooster in a neighboring backyard. The street is lined with coffee counters, beauty salons and barber shops, little food markets, art galleries, dollar stores, botanicas filled with candles and statues that are part of the Santeria Afro-Caribbean religion, cafes, Cuban nostalgia shops, and bakeries offering racks of crusty Cuban bread and guava pastries. But the tour begins on a serious note.


Start at (1) Cuban Memorial Plaza at Southwest 13th Avenue and Southwest 8th Street. The pain of exiles is palatable on this landscaped street median in the center of what is called Cuban Memorial Boulevard. A string of small monuments commemorates the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion by the 2506 Brigade and the Cuban wars of independence in the 1800s. The seven monuments include the bust of Cuban independence fighter Antonio Maceo, statues of the Virgin Mary, and anti-communist crusader Tony Izquierdo (once a suspect in the John F. Kennedy assassination), and a 16-foot-long raised map of the island of Cuba. The map bears a weathered inscription by Cuban poet and patriot Jose Marti:"La patria es agonia y deber." ("The homeland is agony and duty.")


Do not miss the large tree with the protruding roots on this strip park. Check the tiled sides of the benches throughout this area.


Colonial and masonry vernacular houses from the 1920s line the boulevard, which is still used for political gatherings, parades, and demonstrations. Every January, uniformed schoolchildren line up here to march in a birthday tribute to Marti. Exiles leave flowers or touch the statue of Mary for good luck as they walk by.


Before returning to SW 8th, look at the house on the NE corner of SW 10th St. and 13th Ave.for the built in balcony and design.


Walk west along Calle Ocho, which is a one-way street that carries traffic east into downtown Miami. There's an open-air coffee counter on practically every corner in Little Havana, but one of the oldest and best is 41-year-old (2) Los Pinarenos Fruteria on the block just west of Cuban Memorial Plaza. Sit at one of the stools on the sidewalk and enjoy a dark cafecito as sweet as candy. Order a steaming Cuban-style tamale with spicy, fresh tomato-cilantro salsa, and coco frio (coconut water), served straight out of a chilled coconut with a straw sticking out of the top. Rebuilt by the Hernandez family after a fire in the 1990s, the place doubles as an open-air fruit market, where you can find boxes of mangoes, papaya, coconuts, bananas, and sugarcane.


Across the street is (3) La Casa De Los Trucos (The House of Costumes), where locals go for elaborate Halloween costumes and rubber masks. But you can see the inside on your way back, eastward, to avoid crossing the street at mid block, with heavy traffic.


La Esquina de la Fama at 1388 SW 8th St is a popular eating/drinking place. Look for paintings on the outside walls and side street.


Look down as you keep walking west. You'll see blocks with stars bearing the names of famous artists and Latin personalities engraved in the sidewalk. This(4) "Walkway of the Stars" along Calle Ocho includes tributes to Samy (Sammy Sosa), Maria Conchita Alonso, Thalia, Celia Cruz, Willy Chirino, and Gloria Estefan, among others.


A block down at 1419 Southwest 8th Street is (5) Lily's Records (www.realpagessites.com/lilirecords), which has a huge selection of Latin music representing Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, Bachata, Latin rock, salsa, etc. But you can see the inside on your way back, eastward.


Look for the pair of metal sculptures at the entrance of a Mexican food place called El Taquito.


Keep heading west and check out the (6) wall mural outside of Cafeteria Guardabarranco, which pays tribute to Celia Cruz, Tito Puente and Selena, as well as Latin and American heroes such as Abraham Lincoln, Jose Mari, George Washington, and Ruben Dario.


On the next block, you'll find (7) Little Havana To Go, an upscale souvenir store that sells Cuban flags, paintings, music, guayaberas, hats, folksy dolls, cigars, Cuban coffee cups, T-shirts, key chains, and even domino tables.


Check out other cigar stores and several store displays along the way.


Follow the sound of clattering dominoes and chatter to neighboring (8) Maximo Gomez Park, at Southwest 8th Street and 15th Avenue, where Cuban old-timers still gather to play serious games of dominoes in what locals call Domino Park. On the wall is a mural of Central, South American, and Caribbean presidents, painted when Miami hosted the Summit of The Americas in 1994.


Next to the park is the historic (9) Tower Theater at 1508 SW 8th St. Built in 1926, the masonry vernacular building, which had art deco touches added later, was the first theater in Miami-Dade County to offer titles in Spanish. It's back in use today, hosting Hispanic and international film festivals.


Look at the paintings on the side of the buiding at the NW corner of SW 8th and 16th Ave.


Look for the Taberna at #1652 and Duo #1654 for a good photo exhibit.


Across the street is the (10) Latin Quarter Cultural Center, a private, nonprofit group that helped save the theater from the wrecking ball and hosts concerts, exhibits, talks, and other gatherings. The group organizes "Cultural Fridays" on the last Friday of each month, when art galleries along Calle Ocho between 14th and 17th avenues throw open their doors and live music fills the street.


Back on the south side of Calle Ocho is Ismail Fine Art Gallery, where you can purchase tiles painted with colourful Cuban and tropical themes, paintings, and note cards. Next door is the Cuba Tobacco Cigar Co., one of the oldest cigar stores and lounges in Miami. You can watch cigars being rolled by hand at the inside wooden table.There is also a good photo exhibit.


In the same block is (11) Alfaro's Boutique, which sells casual and dressy linen guayaberas for men and guayabera-style dresses, pants suits, and skirt-and-top sets for women. There are also guayabera shirts and dresses for children. A seamstress at the sewing machine in the back of the store will custom fit one for you. Alfaro's also has an adjoining restaurant, which features live music Wednesday through Saturday nights.


Refuel by stopping for a creamy café con leche at the (12) El Pub outdoor coffee counter at 1548 SW 8th St. The dining room here is a favorite meeting place for Miami's business and political elite. On the corner in front of the restaurant, you'll find two six-foot (two-meter) rooster statues, a tribute to the crowing birds that still roam this and other immigrant neighborhoods throughout Miami.


More souvenir hunting is on hand at the I Love Calle Ocho Café and Shop and the Maxoly Cuban Cigar Gallery and Gift Shop. End your walk just in time for lunch or dinner at (13) Casa Panza, site of mesmerizing flamenco shows (beginning at 8 p.m.) and candlelight sing-alongs of a prayer to the Virgin of the Dew. There's paella, a large selection of tapas, Spanish wine, and delicious pitchers of sangria. Owner Jesus Lopez, an exuberant Spaniard from Madrid, circulates among it all, determined that everybody has a good time. A GOOD PLACE FOR LUNCH, TOO.


Cross SW 8th St. at 17th Ave. to start the Eastbound walk. First thing you’ll see is a 2 story building on your left side, with paintings on the side wall. As you continue East, keep looking to the buildings on the other side of the street, as well, to different designs.


Pay attention to the relief décor on the building at the NE corner of 15th Ave. The go into this Museum to peruse all articles on display. Check out the patio through the grilled gate on the right side of the Museum.

 

Look for the wrought iron gates at numbers 1329 and 1325.


Continue to the CASA DE LOS TRUCOS, , on the 1300 block and peruse through all the costumes on display. FYI TRUCOS MEANS TRICKS, but do NOT translate literally in this case. The correct translation is House of Jokes. This is an honorable business.
(Copied excerpts from a National Geographic article)

Historical note: This section of “Little Havana” used to be a jewish neighborhood in the 40s and early 50s, before the start of the Cuban exile arrivals. End of the 50s and early 60s.

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Going

We meet every 2nd and 4th Thursday at:

Evelyn Greer Park (Pinecrest) 
8200 SW 124th Street 
Pinecrest, FL 33157

 

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