Cuban Theater in Miami: 1960 - 1980 - Conclusion

During the last decades, Miami has experienced unprecedented economic growth, attracting thousands of immigrants mainly from Latin America. An estimated half of its population is foreign-born, which led the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to rank Miami the most multi-cultural city in the world in 2004. Miami has become a world city with bustling banking and tourism industries and a considerable transient population that comes for business and pleasure. Culture and creative industries, in particular those produced in Spanish, have been an important source of economic as well as symbolic capital. This transformation has not been devoid of controversies, some of which are part of this story; others, such as race relations and immigration conflicts, remain beneath the surface of those images. With regards to the Cuban dilemma, only history will tell the outcome of the unresolved dialogue between Cubans from both shores.

The development of Cuban and Hispanic theater in Miami, through the different artists, organizations and places highlighted in this exhibition, was one of the ways in which dissimilar groups of people from diverse backgrounds came together to participate in community building asserting Miami as their "home." A culture with different codes and signs has come of age, combining local and global histories, ethnic values, and languages, making Miami a crossroads for Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.