Cross cultural urbanism: the case of Miami

Abstract

ABSTRACT The paper provides an overview of the waves of immigrants that have shaped Miami since its founding, while focusing on the decisive effect that the Cuban exile community had in transforming Miami into an emerging global city. Through detailed and illustrative case studies, the paper highlights the stories and constructed physical environments of three Cuban exile families. The chosen examples are notable for their capacity to have withstood the test of time, creating a sense of community through the adaptation and transformation of architectural spaces in support of social customs and rituals characteristic of a displaced homeland. In the end, they are emblematic of a cross-cultural urbanism that overlays Cuban social customs atop existing American urban environments to create new spaces of meaning, memory and community.