Travel and tourism in Miami reached even greater heights with the opening of Pan American Airways in Miami in 1928. After moving operations from Key West to the airfield on Dinner Key, Juan Trippe’s airline offered service first to Havana and eventually catered to the rest of Latin America. The birth of commercial aviation further tightened the connections between Miami and Latin America, and especially Cuba. Following the Spanish-American War of 1898, there were closer connections between the Untied States and Cuba as a result of the increasing presence of American businesses on the island as well as the American military presence now there. Wealthy American travelers often set sail for Cuba and made stops in Miami.

In 1921 Carl Fisher proposed the creation of the Havana-American Steamship Line that would ferry passengers between Miami and Havana, but the venture fell apart as a result of the economic recession following World War I. The cruise industry did eventually take off in Miami as a result of the dredging of Government Cut that allowed for the development of Miami Harbor in 1927. Soon the S.S. Florida began providing tourists with a “Havana Holiday” that featured an overnight cruise from Miami to Havana.

Of course, these opportunities for travel between  the two cities would spark the largest wave of immigration to South Florida in its history following the Cuban Revolution and the ascendancy of Fidel Castro in 1959. The influx of Cuban migrants coincided with the rise of the Civil Rights movement in Miami, and brought with it special challenges for confronting the history of racial segregation and injustice in South Florida. The 1980 McDuffie riots highlighted these challenges. The riots were sparked when an all-white jury in Tampa, Florida acquitted four white Miami-Dade police officers in the 1979 shooting death of black insurance agent Arthur McDuffie in Miami. Coming at the same time as the Mariel boat lift that brought over 100,000 Cuban refugees to Miami, the verdict and the resulting riots signaled the continuation of ethnic and racial tension in Miami.

Yet Cubans were not the only group immigrating in record numbers to South Florida. As a result of political and economic instability, groups such as Haitians and Nicaraguans, and later Columbians, Venezuelans, and Brazilians, among others, came and transformed the cultural landscape of South Florida. Now Miami truly can be called the "gateway to the Americas," as its economy, politics, and culture are intimately bound up with those of Latin America. Miami’s cultural offerings reflect this cosmopolitan character. Restaurants, theater, and arts institutions including the New World Symphony, Miami City Ballet, and the Museum of Contemporary Art have been transformed to showcase the influence of Latin culture on the region. Glossy magazine pieces, Hollywood films, and fashion photography all provide images of Miami as a site of dynamic cultural exchange, where tourists move to the pulsating beat of Latin rhythms through the hot spots of the city. Travel and tourism, then, continue to fuel the growth of South Florida and spark new challenges and opportunities for the future of this tropical urban landscape.

Dr. Robin Bachin
Project Director, Travel, Tourism, and Urban Growth in Greater Miami