Miami’s Freedom Tower will reopen as a museum honoring Cuban exiles

MIAMI (AP) – For decades, its powerful lighthouse illuminated Miami’s Biscayne Bay, and during the Cold War, what was known as the Freedom Tower stood as a beacon of hope for hundreds of thousands of Cubans to escape communist rule.

The 14-storey Spanish Revival Skyscraper was welcoming Cuban refugees with comfortable kits that included medical services, English lessons and essentials, as well as peanut butter, a completely exotic one of the new arrivals.

After decades of neglect, what once was Miami’s tallest building has earned the facelift of course. Next month it will reopen as a museum celebrating the history of Cuban exiles, with an immersive, cutting-edge exhibition that explores the meaning of migration, freedom and homeland.

Eris Island in the South

The reopening of what is called Eris Island in the south comes at a sensitive moment. Cuban Americans who dominate politics in Miami voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in the last presidential election. But the president’s Immigration crackdown – including the Cubans – is increasingly seen as betrayal, and its support leaves many second guesses. Naturally, recent protests against Trump have been rallied outside the tower.

The museum’s organizers are messing up the current politics, but still lack attitude in the embrace of the American Dream. Miami has a thriving intersection 70% of residents speak Spanish With their primary language and more than half of them are foreign-born, compassion for immigrants runs deep.

“It’s cyclical,” he said as Chief Archivist at Miami-Dade College. $65 million renovation The school is led. “There was a moment in this country where we saw clearly the value of immigration.

The iconic building opened in 1925 as the headquarters of the once-acclaimed Miami Daily News. It was designed in the style of a Moorish bell tower from Seville, Spain by New York construction company Schulze & Weaver.

It was renamed the Tower of Freedom when President John F. Kennedy launched a Cuban refugee assistance program and resettled the streams of middle-class individuals and families fleeing Fidel Castro’s revolution. It is estimated that around 400,000 Cubans are dependent on services provided in the tower by the US government, in collaboration with the then-covered Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami. The total cost of refugee aid had exceeded $730 million by 1971, earning nearly $6 billion in today’s dollars. This was the US government report that year.

A safe place for refugees

Known as “el refuge” or “refuge” for Spanish-speaking immigrants, it was a safe place to get the vaccine, fill out the paperwork and receive about $120 a month of financial support. According to a replica of the museum’s hall, the Pizzara de la Soute (fortune message board), with huge windows and Corinthian columns, carried work notices to help them adapt to their new life.

At the time, Metropolitan Miami was a tropical tourist town with fewer than a million residents. Most émigrés incited across the United States.

“They didn’t stay in Miami because they didn’t want warmth or sunlight. They had no work,” said Madeline Pumaliga, president of Miami-Dade University, where Cuban parents moved to Amarillo, Texas, after their Cuban parents arrived here.

But over time, exiles returned from the cold and snow, placing unmistakable Cuban stamps on what would become one of America’s most vibrant cultural and economic hubs.

Jorge Maragon, who teaches history at Miami-Dade College, was five years old when he arrived. However, he still remembered the difficulties of his departure and arrived in Miami on a “free flight” paid by the US government when Cuban customs officials tore apart the teddy bear in search of smuggling gems, and was soon closed from the tarmac to Freedom Tower on the school bus.

“Memories never go away,” Maragon said. “To this day, grilled cheese sandwiches with cheap, berbeta processed cheese are still a comfortable food for me.”

A national history landmark, Freedom Tower was overtaken by Miami’s burgeoning steel and glass skyline long ago. It was abandoned for years and was rescued in 1997 by Cuban-American businessman Jorge Mas Canosa, an opponent of Castro’s top exile. He later sold it to a prominent Cuban-American family, and was later donated to Miami-Dade College.

Even in its aging state, the tower remained the mecca of the Cuban diaspora. In 2003, tens of thousands of salsa fans gathered here to show their respect for Cuban-born singer Celia Cruz. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose parents moved from Cuba, used it as background. Announces bid for the US President 2015.

The current recovery was funded by a $25 million investment from Florida with additional funding from Miami-Dade College, private donors and federal grants.

Designed by the same company behind the National September 11th Memorial Museum in New York City, the gallery offers an intriguing account of American freedom journeys in Cuba. Includes exhibits dedicated to victims of communism Pig Invasion in 1961 The CIA was organized against Castro, with 14,000 minors of accompanist sent as part of US-led operation Peter Pan.

Huge media screens project scenes of protest and acts of courage by new residents of Magic City who have escaped the persecution of Venezuela, Haiti and Nicaragua. There is also a makeshift recording studio for those who have passed through Freedom Tower to add testimony to the archives of over 300 oral history interviews with exiles, including well-known voices like Singer Gloria Estefan.

The museum’s final stop, which often emerges from the dark gallery of trauma and trauma stories of exile, is a gallery filled with all the sun, salsa music and pastel hues, where you can love modern-day Miami so much.

“Miami and the world wouldn’t be today without them,” Pumaliga said. “That’s important, and so is the contribution that immigrants play in our country. I think I’ll continue to play beyond this moment.”