CULTURAL AND SPATIAL PERCEPTIONS OF MIAMI‟S LITTLE HAVANA by Hilton Cordoba A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of The Charles E. Schmidt College of Science in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, Florida August 2011 Copyright by Hilton Cordoba 2011 ii CULTURAL AND SPATIAL PERCEPTIONS OF MIAMI'S LITTLE HAVANA by Hilton Cordoba This thesis was prepared under the direction ofthe candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Russell Ivy, Department ofGeosciences, and has been approved by the members ofhis supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty ofthe Charles E. Schmidt College ofScience and was accepted in partial fulfillment ofthe requirements for the degree of Master ofArts. SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: ~s~~.Q~ a;;;::;.~. - Maria Fadiman, Pli.D. a~~ Es~ f2~_--- Charles Roberts, Ph.D. _ Chair, Department ofGeosciences ~ 8. ~- ..f., r;..r...-ry aary:pelT)(kll:Ii.- Dean, The Charles E. Schmidt College ofScience B~7Rlso?p~.D~~~ Date . Dean, Graduate College iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Russell Ivy for his support, encouragement, and guidance throughout my first two years of graduate work at Florida Atlantic University. I am grateful for the time and interest he invested in me in the midst of all his activities as the chair of the Geosciences Department. I am also thankful for having the opportunity to work with the other members of my advisory committee: Dr. Maria Fadiman and Dr. Charles Roberts. Thank you Dr. Fadiman for your input in making the survey as friendly and as easy to read as possible, and for showing me the importance of qualitative data. Thank you Dr. Roberts for sparking my interest in Little Havana in both, your Cultural American Landscape and Urban Geography classes, as an undergraduate, and for your encouragement to pursue graduate school. In the analysis of this thesis, I received the help of two instrumental faculty members: Mr. James Gammack-Clarck and Dr. Jorge Restrepo. Thank you James for guiding me in the GIS analysis of this work, and thank you Dr. Restrepo for staying late after work (for numerous days) to help me with the quantitative analysis of the thesis. I would also like to acknowledge all the people that made the execution of the survey possible: the 153 survey respondents for participating; the authorities of the recruiting institutions for writing the letters of cooperation to the IRB; my friends Joseph iv Gebara and Mr. Jack Hart, who helped make the initial contact with some of these institutions; and Professor Christopher Migliaccio for inviting me into his classroom. Finally, I owe a deep debt of gratitude to two astonishing women: my wife „Hayley‟ for helping me and my family get through tough times, and for her sacrifices, patience, and understanding of the little time I have dedicated to her because of school. And to my mother for all of the sacrifices and hard work that she made to put me through school and to offer me a better future (Gracias mama). I love you both! v ABSTRACT Author: Hilton Cordoba Title: Cultural and Spatial Perceptions of Miami‟s Little Havana Institution: Florida Atlantic University Thesis Advisor: Dr. Russell Ivy Degree: Master of Arts Year: 2011 Miami‟s „Little Havana‟ is known by many for its famous Southwest 8th Street, the Calle Ocho festival, and for the many Latin people, particularly Cubans, that live in the area. However, the current name of the neighborhood hides all of the dynamics of neighborhood change and creates the notion that Little Havana is a static monoculture neighborhood. This study measured people‟s perception of Little Havana by surveying 153 residents to identify the cultural associations and to capture the participant‟s spatial perceptions of Little Havana. This study found that survey participants from inside the study area associated Little Havana more with Cuban culture and had more positive things to say about the neighborhood. Finally, this study suggests that the core of Little Havana was encompassed by West Flagler Street on the north, Southwest 8th Street on the south, Southwest 27th Avenue on the west, and Southwest 4th Avenue on the east. vi DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this work to all the people who believed in me and encouraged me to continue going to school. Thank you to all my teachers, cousins, and friends who tutored me in Nicaragua and were always there to help with homework and anything that was school related. Thank you to all my teachers, professors, and friends in the United States who upon my arrival did not hesitate in extending a hand and expressing their views of how important and necessary was for me to get an education. From the bottom of my heart, thank you! It is only because all of you that I have made it this far. CULTURAL AND SPATIAL PERCEPTIONS OF MIAMI‟S LITTLE HAVANA List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………..xi List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………...xiv Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………………….……………...1 1.1 The Setting…………………………………………………………………….1 1.2 A Decreasing Cuban Population………………………………………...…….2 1.3 Inconsistent Boundaries…………………………………………………...…..4 1.4 Objectives…………………………………………………………………..…6 1.5 Organization of the Thesis………………………………………………….....8 Chapter 2: A Brief History of Miami……………………………………………………...9 2.1 The First Settlements……………………………………………………….....9 2.1.1 The First Miamians (10,000 years ago-1500s)…………………...…9 2.1.2 The Spanish Conquest (1513-1763)………………………………....9 2.1.3 The Short British Rule (1763-1783)...................................………..11 2.1.4 The Second Spanish Rule of the Miami Region (1784-1821)……..12 vii 2.1.5 The First American Settlers in the Miami Region (1821-1870s)….13 2.2 Social and Physical Transformations………………………………………...16 2.2.1 The Beginnings of a City (1880-1900s)……………………………16 2.2.2 The Miami Migration (1920s-1940s)………………………………19 2.3 Contemporary Times……………………………………………………...…21 2.3.1 Miami: Gateway to the Americas (1950s-1960s)………………….21 2.3.2 New Arrivals (1970s-Today)………………………………………24 Chapter 3: Literature Review………………………………………………….…………28 3.1 Spatial Perception……………………………………………………...…….28 3.1.1 Variables Affecting Spatial Perception…………………………….30 3.1.2 Defining Neighborhood Boundaries……………………………….33 3.2 Paradigms of Neighborhood Change………………………………………...35 3.2.1 Ecological Perspective…………………………………………..…35 3.2.2 Sub-cultural Perspective…………………………………………...41 3.2.3 Political Economy Perspective…………………………………….43 Chapter 4: Methods…………………………………………………………………........46 4.1 Questionnaire Design………………………………………………………...46 viii 4.2 Pilot Test……………………………………………………………………..47 4.3 The Sample…………………………………………………………………..48 4.4 Interviews with Survey Participants……………………………………........50 4.5 Tabulating Survey Results…………………………………………………...52 4.5.1 Coding Responses………………………………………………….52 4.5.2 Geocoding Landmarks……………………………………………..56 4.5.3 Digitizing Boundaries……………………………………………...58 4.6 Summary……………………………………………………………………..61 Chapter 5: Analysis and Discussion……………………………………………………..62 5.1 Describing the Survey Sample……………………………………………….62 5.2 Testing Relationships with Nominal Variables……………………………...67 5.2.1 Cubans & Demographic Variables………………………………...70 5.2.2 Latin American Area & Demographic Variables………………….73 5.2.3 Positive & Demographic Variables………………………………..75 5.2.4 Negative & Demographic Variables…………………………….…77 5.2.5 Immigration & Demographic Variables…………………………...79 5.2.6 Others & Demographic Variables……………………………….…81 ix 5.3 Testing Relationships with Ordinal Variables…………………………….…83 5.4 Perceived Boundaries of Little Havana……………………………………...89 5.4.1 Boundaries of Little Havana & Survey Participants Inside and Outside the Study Area…………….................................................90 5.4.2 Boundaries of Little Havana & Age of Survey Participants…….…94 5.4.3 Boundaries of Little Havana & Time in Miami…………………...99 5.4.4 Boundaries of Little Havana & Cuban and Latin American Associations………………………………………………...…….102 5.4.5 Boundaries of Little Havana & Positive and Negative Associations…………………………………………...………….105 5.4.6 Boundaries of Little Havana: Immigration..……………………...108 Chapter 6: Conclusion…………………………………………………………………..110 6.1 Bringing Context…………………………………………………………...110 6.2 Considerations for Future Research……………………………….............113 Appendices.……………………………………………………………………………..116 A: Questionnaire in English……………..……………………………………...116 B: Questionnaire in Spanish…...…………..……………………………………119 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………….122 x TABLES Table 1. Boundary Description of Little Havana………………………………….………6 Table 2. Code Book for Demographic Variables………………………………………...53 Table 3. Categories Created from Question 8……………………………………………54 Table 4. Frequency Distribution of Demographic Variables-All Survey Data….………64 Table 5. Frequency Distribution of Demographic Variables-Data Inside Study Area…..64 Table 6. Frequency Distribution of Demographic Variables-Data Outside Study Area...64 Table 7. Age Proportions………………………………………………………………...66 Table 8. Hypothetical Crosstab between Cubans & Language……………………….….69 Table 9. Crosstab: Cubans & Language…………………………………………………71 Table 10. Crosstab: Cubans & Gender………………………………………............…..71 Table 11. Crosstab: Cubans & Age………………………………………………………72 Table 12. Crosstab: Cubans & Time in Current Residence…………………..…….……72 Table 13. Crosstab: Cubans & Time in Miami…………………………………………..72 Table 14. Crosstab: Cubans & Housing Tenure…………………………………………72 xi Table 15. Crosstab: Latin American Area & Language……………….………………...73 Table 16. Crosstab: