✍ Scribed by Eduardo J. Padrón; Theodore Levitt
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Miami-Dade Community College opened its doors in 1960 in the midst of a momentous urban transformation. Once a haven for retirees and wintering northerners ("snowbirds"), South Florida' s ultimate transformation was ensured by Cuba' s revolution in 1958, which sent tens of thousands of refugees to Miami, beginning a wholesale demographic realignment there. Immigrants from throughout Central America, the Caribbean, and South America subsequently contributed to a new urban amalgam that in large part scripted the college' s mission.
The early Cuban migration brought a well-educated, entrepreneurial energy to South Florida. Those skilled immigrants began the transformation of Miami from a tourist and regional service center to a hub of international trade and banking. Alongside the new economic and cultural promise, however, frustration boiled over in the African American community. The riots that shook Miami in the 1980s were born of poverty and long-standing disenfranchisement. The influx of an estimated 125,000 Mariel refugees in 1980 further congested the pool of cheap labor. Although a great deal of attention has been dedicated to healing these wounds, poverty and economic debility remain for the African American community, and in large measure for Hispanics as well, an arduous context for community growth.
The modern irony for this and so many other urban communities is that although the region' s revamped economy has doubled since 1980, so too has the number of people living in poverty. In 1990 Miami-Dade County was ranked first in the nation for families living in poverty. At the center of the region, the City of Miami was the fourth poorest city nationally, with a poverty rate of 31.2 percent, and it had the lowest national median income of $16,925
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