As I stroll through Biscayne Boulevard I glance up to see La Torre de la Libertad, a former political asylum center for Cubans. Although the Freedom Tower no longer carries out its administrative function, it continues to serve as a beacon of welcome for all Cuban refugees, those of the past and future. The tower […]
My father was a fisherman, as were his fathers, and since I followed in their footsteps, I am a fisherman, too. He fished the streams of Scotland as a boy and, when he came over to Orlando, he fished the freshwater lakes and Indian River, catching bass, trout and flounder. Later, one of his outstanding […]
It was the summer of 2003; I was living in a very old and ugly apartment building between Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast 2nd Avenue, off of 33rd Street. I had a bitter, mentally unstable landlord that walked around with a concealed weapon. I had a part-time gig at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, now […]
My dad, Anthony Abraham, just turned 99 and lives in the same Coral Gables house he bought in 1952. I wasn’t even born yet, but my mom, dad and my three siblings — George (7), Marion (5) and Judy (3) left Chicago and arrived in Miami in 1950 along with my cousin Dorothy, who was […]
I reached to pull the yellow lever that would release our glider’s tether to the noisy silver crop duster that was towing us to 3,000 feet over Homestead at the edge of Florida’s Everglades. This lever — and the towrope that connected us to the plane — was our only link to the powered flight. […]
They call Miami “the Magic City,” which is fitting, because it’s always able to reinvent itself. I was born in Hialeah Hospital in 1981. History is full of eras, but this specific moment was the beginning of change, an almost traceable line of demarcation. My mother fled Cuba in 1969 when she was 19 with […]
My sojourn to South Florida started before I moved here in 1957. My sister and brother-in-law were here from New York on a winter vacation on December 26, 1947. The metropolitan area of New York had a snowstorm of 26 inches in a 24-hour period. It was a record then and may still be to […]
My family and I arrived in Miami from Cuba in October 1956 and that was the start of my lifelong love for all things American. I have so many wonderful memories from that time, but a few stand out. The first Halloween and those sweet mallow pumpkins. Royal Castle hamburgers, eating roasted peanuts at Bayfront […]
I wanted to spend my retirement entertained with a million things to do each and every day. My husband Steve, on the other hand, wanted to spend his retired life in the sun, fishing for permit. He said, “Key West.” I said, “New York.” I was determined to remain in New York, and Steve was […]
Although my mother, the former Edith Leibowitz, was born in New York, she graduated from Miami Beach High in 1942. So it was only natural that she and my father, Marvin Kuperman, would move to Miami following their marriage in 1946. I was born in Victoria Hospital (which no longer exists) in 1948. We lived […]