The Miami Scene: Beach Parties, Art and the Cuban Flavor
Autor: Gonz | Publicado: 2008-02-05T15:09:00-08:00

MIAMIHERE's info - mostly from the New York Times, suggesting what to do in South Beach.The beach is the thing, with different areas for different tastes. Athletes hit the volleyball courts opposite Sixth Street. Teenage locals hang out between Eighth and 10th. Gay men eye each other from 12th to 14th. Well-heeled tourists stretch out on hotel-supplied lounge chairs from 17th to 20th. And for those days when it rains — yes, it happens — pick up a little culture at the Wolfsonian-Florida International University.At night, hotel bars — particularly at the Shore Club, at the Setai (which was the go-to after-party destination for the Art Basel Miami Beach crowd last year) and at the Delano — continue to be the hot hangouts. An up-and-comer is the late-night karaoke bar at the Shelborne (1801 Collins Avenue, 305-531-1271), where the music lasts until 5 a.m. Nightclubbers should head to Mynt or Snatch (437 Washington Avenue; 305-604-3644), in the old Liquid space, and best known in recent months for regular sightings of Lance Armstrong and Matthew McConaughey.  The two key circuit parties — the White and Winter Parties, over Thanksgiving weekend, and in early March, bring back 80s and 90s South Beach - when it reigned as the the world capital of gay hedonism: its beaches, fashions, legendary nightlife, and the most cosmopolitan atmosphere in the tropics anywhere, given Miami's geographical position, its ranking as the World's largest &amp; busiest Cruise port, and an international airport offering flights to anywhere in the world: particularly frequent non-stops to all major European &amp; Caribbean &amp; Latin American capitals, joining non stops from/to Africa, the Middle East (Jordan, Israel &amp; Turkey).The draconian visa and security measures after 9/11 left Tel Aviv as the only nonstop destination from Asia to Miami. Latin America to Europe trafic, using Miami as the hub between the 2 continents, was almost shut down. US visas became required just to connect in the decades old international connections space at the airport. South Beach was hit by all this since young "foreign" males are still assumed to be terrorist suspects, whether Irish (fearful of the IRA), Spanish/French (potential ETA or Muslim terrorists), and strangely South Americans (their countries are terrorist free).Partiers from sophisticated Buenos Aires were revoked their visa-free entry to the US as tourists. Argentina was one of the very few countries in the US visa-waiver program, revoked in 2002. Other globe trotters from São Paulo or Rio, who previously held 10- year long tourist visas, had their access to the US cut.The international visitors helped made South Beach. New Yorkers and international celebrities with homes here (from the Iglesias family to Madonna, from Sylvester Stallone to Gianni Versace and Rosie O'Donnell) were the other players in South Beach's rise. However, from North America, New Yorkers comprised virtually all the American partiers. So one can't say "Americans flocked here." No, New Yorkers did. They enjoyed the mega clubs, and found them here, with a beach around the corner to bootThe gay South Beach scene is now largely down to two mainstay bars, Score and Twist, the latter with six separate bar areas, each playing a different kind of music, from tribal to pop, and with male go-go dancers holding court in the back. On Thursday nights, the young gay crowd congregates at "The Simple Life" at Buck15 Lounge (707 Lincoln Lane, 305-538-3815, right above Miss Yip Chinese Cafe). Up-to-date information on the ever-changing gay club scene can be found at http://www.sobesocialclub.com/.Day or night, Lincoln Road Mall — once called the Fifth Avenue of the South:is a popular hangout for tourists and locals alike, with its jam-packed restaurants (many with outdoor seating), bars, upscale clothing stores and even the Lincoln Theater, home of the highly regarded New World Symphony.The Miami Art Scene: The Beach Party Moves Indoors - Travel - New York TimesRoughly half the Cubans and Cuban-Americans in the United States live in the Miami-Dade County area, making up at least half of its 2.4 million residents, according to the estimate of Damian Fernandez, vice provost of Florida International University, based in Miami, and director of its Cuban Research Institute. And while the face of Latin Miami has certainly shifted as waves of new immigrants have arrived from Central and South America, the predominant flavor has remained. “In a way, the infrastructure of Latin Miami is a Cuban infrastructure,” said Dr. Fernandez, 50, a Cuban native. That traces back to the Havana-meets-Miami heyday of the pre-revolution ’50s and continues as more Cuban exiles arrive.Though many Cubans have spread out beyond Miami’s city limits, the best starting place for an infusion of Cuban culture is still Little Havana, especially its slightly scruffy, well-trafficked quadrant. The Northern End is Northwest 7th Street, then through parallel Flagler, Southwest 1st, Eighth(Calle Ocho), and Southwest 7th Streets, you reach Southwest 16th Street, roughly the Southern Limit. Streets are all parallel East-West routes. These East-West "Streets" are intersected by "Avenues" -which run parallel North-South, between SW 7th and Southwest 37th Avenue (a/k/a Douglas Road). It’s defined by aromatic cigar and coffee shops, a perpetual blare of salsa trumpets wafting from the distance, and the domino and chess games of older men who gather daily in tiny Maximo Gómez Park. The place truly comes alive for Viernes Culturales, the last-Friday-of-the-month street party of gallery openings and live performances. These main points are particularly concentrated from Flagler t0 Eighth Streets, between SW 22nd Avenue and SW 7th Avenues.Though Cubans now account for just 47 percent of its population, according to Dr. Fernandez, Little Havana is still the symbolic heart of Cuban Miami. And others say it’s more than that.“It’s real, baby,” said Angel Hernandez, 43, a proprietor of Los Pinareños Fruteria fruit bar, hacking open smooth green coconuts before stabbing them with straws for a couple of thirsty customers. Though his shop is visited by up to three tour buses daily, he rebuffed the idea that this stretch of Calle Ocho has become a facade, like New York City’s Little Italy.“Calle Ocho is everything,” said Raúl Musibay, one of the “Three Guys From Miami” whose Web site (http://www.icuban.com/) and cookbook “Three Guys From Miami Cook Cuban” strive to bring the Cuban side of the city to the masses. Mr. Musibay, 65, a Citgo station manager in nearby Coral Gables, took time between car-repair customers to speak of being a political prisoner in Cuba before fleeing with his family to Florida, via Spain, in 1980. “You will find more restaurants from other countries there now, just as you’ll find Cubans all over Miami,” he said. “But Calle Ocho is the place.”Among an influx of new businesses on this part of Southwest Eighth Street are Alfaro’s (No. 1604), a wine and tapas lounge, and a couple of new cigar shops including Art District Cigars (No. 1638), where Marco Incer — a native of Nicaragua, incidentally — rolls cigars and holds live music performances. And there are plenty of stalwarts: Lily’s Records (No. 1419), packed with CDs in genres from Buena Vista-style son to Mexican ranchera, and restaurants like Exquisito (No. 1510) or Versailles (No. 3555), both serving guava-stuffed sweets, hot Cuban sandwiches and steaming plates of ropa vieja (stewed shredded beef).A branch of Sedano’s Supermarket (No. 2425) has aisles of Caribbean fruits, meats and canned goods, and the Little Havana to Go souvenir shop (No. 1442) is stocked with Panama hats, dominoes and colorful sets of maracas. Outside its door, a local Walk of Fame in the brick sidewalk pays tribute to entertainment figures including Gloria Estefan.But it’s the dozen or so Latin-art galleries that really anchor the neighborhood. “I love Calle Ocho because it represents Cuba, and I paint in a very Cuban style,” said Molina, 64 (an artist admitting to only one name), emerging from the back-room studio of his Molina Fine Art (No. 1634) wearing a Yankees baseball cap and whistling along with softly playing son music. Molina, whose vibrant paintings and giclée prints reflect themes of Afro-Cuban folklore, left Cuba for New York City in 1980 and came to Miami six years ago.His storefront is around the corner from the small Bay of Pigs Museum, a cramped collection of memorabilia, writings and photos honoring the felled 2506 Brigade of 1961. It puts the neighborhood in immediate political context, as does the Cuban Memorial Boulevard, a few blocks north on Southwest 13th Avenue, with its 2506 Brigade memorial, a brass relief of Cuba and a bust of the 19th-century poet and freedom fighter Jose Martí. A ceiba tree receives offerings from Santeria worshipers, its giant roots pressing up out of the earth like rough-skinned dinosaur claws.OTHER Cuban landmarks radiate outward from Little Havana. The Freedom Tower, a butter-yellow Spanish Renaissance Revival-style beacon in downtown Miami, served as an immigration processing center for more than 400,000 Cubans in the 1960s; a museum is planned there. On the shores of Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove, the Ermita de la Caridad is a tepee-shaped shrine to displaced Cubans, a Catholic chapel featuring a striking sepia mural of exiles’ struggles.In Coral Gables, the Cernuda Arte gallery shows only Cuban work; “Important Cuban Artworks: Volume Six,” opening next week, will feature a group of contemporary painters. Nearby, a show running through Feb. 3 at the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami is made up of 56 Afro-Cuban prints and drawings, including a familiar image of Che Guevara by Rafael Queneditt-Morales.“It’s really through the arts that you get the true pulse of what is Cuban,” Dr. Fernandez noted.Food helps, too. In West Miami, the jammin’ Palacio de los Jugos doles out tasty Cuban tamales, grilled pork and fresh papaya or mamey juice to Sunday mobs. And Enriqueta’s, a bright orange, family-owned diner, is a festive island on a gritty stretch of the city’s Wynwood district.“This is the place where you will have the best pan con bistec,” declared Mabel Castro, 57, a real estate and bail-bonds agent and an Enriqueta’s regular. She sat perched at the counter with hers, a freshly delivered sandwich of grilled steak topped with shoestring fries, while a flurry of women in the open kitchen served coffee through a side window, worked blenders for frothy mamey shakes and toasted Cuban sandwiches in heavy metal presses.Between bites, Ms. Castro said that while Miami’s Latino community has indeed been diversified with Central and South Americans over the years, Cubans still feel special. “Because we were the first to arrive here,” she said, “we like to think we are different.”VISITOR INFORMATIONAccommodations most convenient to Little Havana are in Coral Gables and include the Westin Colonnade (180 Aragon Avenue, 305-441-2600; www.starwoodhotels.com/westin/coralgables); rooms from $499.Los Pinareños Fruteria (1334 Southwest Eighth Street; 305-285-1135) sells fresh fruits and Cuban snacks. At Enriqueta’s (186 Northeast 29th Street; 305-573-4681) the pan con bistec is $5.50. Palacio de los Jugos (5721 West Flagler Street; 305-264-8662) sells Cuban tamales for 50 cents apiece.Hoy Como Ayer (2212 Southwest Eighth Street, 305-541-2631) posts a performance schedule at http://www.hoycomoayer.net/.Bay of Pigs Museum and Library (1821 Southwest Ninth Street, 305-649-4719; http://www.bayofpigsmuseum.org/) is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday to Saturday. Admission is free.Ermita de la Caridad (3609 South Miami Avenue; 305-854-2404) is open 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. daily.Cernuda Arte (4155 Ponce de Leon Boulevard; 305-461-1050;) lists artists and shows at http://www.cernudaarte.com/.