Culture and language: for more than half a century cultural diversity has been a hallmark of Greater Miami. Today its population mix is a mirror of the Americas

individual of the stories that local historian Arva Moore Parks likes to run over about Miami comes from early in the last hundred when Miami Beach was first associateed with the mainland via the Venetian Causeway upon the first span of bridge that left downtown Miami, there was a sign pointing to the beach, written in English, Yiddish and Spanish.

As prophetic as that sign was, it was not until 1959 that Miami was in fact launched into its multi-lingual, multi-ethnic time to come with the coming to power of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. That l to the first waves of Cuban immigrants, and to the foundations of a city that has become literally half Hispanic, laced with neighborhoods representing virtually each culture in the Americas.

The signs of Miami's cultural diversity are everywhere, from the Patois-language butcher stores in Little Haiti to the multilingual executive offices of Visa International near Miami International Airport. There, all employee are required to know at least sum of two units languages; the main conference swing looks like a mini United Nations, with glass booth for translators.

"The three things I mention one by one people that are the greatest things here are the weather, the ease of travel and the diversity of our people" says Ron Shuffield, the president of Miami-based real estate firm EWM "I'm from Tennessee for a like reason everything is foreign to me on the contrary anyone here can find their aliment and their culture. Among our employee there are 17 languages nuncupatory and more than half of [the employees] were born somewhere other In a lot of ways, we are setting up the prototype of the international city of the future"

While there are clusters of Europeans and Asians in southern Florida, however, the dominant foreign tillages come from Latin America and the Caribbean. That is readily apparent over October, when South Florida celebrates its diversity of Hispanic heritage with a variety of cultural circumstances and outdoor festivals.

however in many ways, South Florida celebrates its bases in the diverse cultures of Spanish-speaking Latin America, Brazil and the Caribbean islands each day. From Domino Park in Little Havana to the Colombian neighborhoods in the western suburb of Sweetwater, Greater Miami is a moveable feast of agricultures from the Americas.

About 51 percent of metropolitan Miami's population of 23 million were born outside the United States. The foreign-born population of Broward shire adjacent to Miami-Dade County, was lately estimated at 26 percent of its 16 million total; many of those residents mov to Broward as housing crushings grew in Miami-Dade. Indeed, as a region, southerly Florida is the third largest Hispanic market in the nation. It lags behind solitary Los Angeles and New York, according to the "2002 U Hispanic Market Study" by the agency of Miami-based Strategy Research Corporation. That inquiry shows a total of 17 million Hispanics in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties.

The largest single clump of Hispanics -- about 650000 clan -- were, as expected, born in Cuba. greatest in quantity emigrated to the US after Castro took power in 1959 on the contrary many thousands crossed the Florida Straits in 1980 during the Mariel boatlift, or have escaped from Cuba by the agency of raft or aircraft in the intervening years.

As tectonic as the first shift of Miami's Hispanic population was in the 1960 the greatest in quantity striking change in South Florida's demographic composition in the past decade has been the growing diversity of its Hispanic population. The percentage of Cuban-born residents has steadily fallen in the wake of increased immigration from Central and southerly America.

"Hispanic growing in recent years has draw near from Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Peru and Venezuela," says Dick Thomas, senior vice president, Strategy Research. "Many of these newer immigrants have established businesses here, adding to southerly Florida's commercial ties with the region.

US Census figures present to view that Miami-Dade's 1.29 million population of Hispanics now include 80000 Puerto Ricans, 70000 Colombians, 38000 Mexicans and 36000 Dominicans, as well as significant numbers from all other Central and southern American nations.

"In the business world, that means the southern Florida population has a personal understanding of the economies and tillages of the principal nations of Latin America," says Thomas. "These novel immigrants tend to be from the middle or upper classes, with the white-collar skills demanded by dint of multinational companies or institutions, of the like kind as the FTAA Secretariat."

southern Florida's cultural diversity, of course, reach forths well beyond the Hispanic world to embrace Brazil and the Caribbean basin. freshly released figures from the Miami-Dade shire Planner's office indicate there are more than 39000 Jamaicans here, and at least 9300 Brazilians--though unofficial estimates range abundant higher. In addition to cheering their soccer team to the 2002 World chalice championship in clubs, restaurants and family get-togethers, the region's Brazilians include prosperous professionals in many walks of life.