Talk of Downtown

Is Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month in Miami Redundant?

America celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month September 15 to October 15.

Yesterday afternoon I went for my cardiac walk around Maurice Ferré Park overlooking Biscayne Bay. I often meet neighbors there, walking their dogs or enjoying the view. One told me that the Hispanic celebration seemed to her somewhat redundant, considering that here in Downtown Miami, “we celebrate Latin food, Latin Music, and Latin culture every day of the week all year long.”

Not a complaint, on the contrary. She loves it. She is not, she says, one of those recent transplants intent on coloring the adopted city to their liking with the Oh, in New York we do it this way, or why are you talking Spanish to me?”

Miami celebrates Latin culture all year long. The Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) exhibits regularly great Latin art, for example, left, a painting by Mariano Rodriguez. One iconic cultural event is the Miami Book Fair at MDC Wolfson Campus every November. It is, really, an all year-long affair, staging readings, forums and movies. Top right, a movie about the life and work of Sor Juana de la Cruz, the 17th Century Mexican nun, poet and feminist. Food and drink are two essential elements of culture, and we have plenty to enjoy, on example: La Cañita, Bayside Marketplace, lunch, dinner and happy hour with live Cuban music. The Arsht Center for the Performing Arts is our preeminent cultural venue, with opera, ballet, a concert hall, Broadway in Miami, and fine Spanish-language theater, bottom photo.

Hispanic

Which brings us to the question of what it means to be Hispanic. The Nixon Administration coined the term Hispanic in 1970 to classify a diverse population whose one common denominator is the Spanish-language. Hispanic is one who belongs or descends from a Spanish-Speaking community.

Hispanic derives from the Latin Hispanus, “relating to Hispania — the Roman appellation for a province in Iberia.” Hispanic is a synonym of Spanish. Some Hispanics resent the label Hispanic, alluding colonialism, and have opted for Latin. The word comes from Latinus, king of an ancient Italian territory. Romans assumed the term for themselves and their language. One can argue that Hispanic and Latin are synonymous since the term derives from Hispanus, the language of Hispania, a language that evolved from Latin after the fall of the Roman Empire. But in the US, Latin implies cultural characteristics, and Hispanic is used for demographics. We say Latin food and Latin music but Hispanic population and Hispanic purchasing power. In the last few years, younger generations, under inclusionary principles, use Latinx. Oxford Dictionary defines Latinx: “A person of Latin American origin or descent, used as a gender-neutral or non-binary alternative to Latino or Latina.

Miami is a bilingual and bicultural city

“Despite statistical reports that place Los Angeles, El Paso, even New York as the cities with the most bilingual populations, Miami might be the one truly bilingual city in the United States and the Americas, except Montreal,” said my fellow Downtowner. To substantiate her statement, she adds: “My bank’s manager speaks Spanish, the cleaning lady Speaks Spanish, the head of cardiology at my hospital, the elevator repairman, the priest, the chief of police, and the thieves who broke twice into my car. A scientist I dated did, ad do our politicians — Mayor Suarez and Senator Rubio — our teachers, developers, waiters, and the pharmacist at CVS.”

The Language of Cervantes

Cervantes, for those who might not know, is the man who gave English the word Quixotic — taking on seemingly impossible dreams and making such madness a staple of progress. Don Quixote is much better known than its author. Cervantes wrote the following lines centuries ago and still resonate as forcefully today: “The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water.” And: “Who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”

Don Quixote, Salvador Dali. Private collection.

Cervantes’ literary excellence had a distinguished progeny in Spain and Latin America. Eleven Nobel Prizes in Literature. One Hundred Years of Solitude, the novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, ranks high among the best of all time.

Fútbol also is part of our heritage

Literature and soccer intersect at that point of excellence. A diplomat told me: “In soccer and literature, Latin America, no offense intended, emerges from underdevelopment to claim the reins of the elite. In addition to all those Nobel Laureates, Latin America has won almost half of all the World Cups. Sure, European clubs and leagues are the richest, but their prominence is fueled by Latin American talent.”

The late Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano wrote: “I am attracted to soccer’s capacity for beauty. When well played, the game is a dance with a ball.” Come November, the World Cup starts, and when that physics-defying filigree on the grass happens don’t be shy, let out that heart-felt and loud English word unequivocally Spanish accented: GOOOOOOOL!

Bicycle kick, Chilena, by Ronaldo.

Back to the park

Interesting walk, exercise and community communion. Exercise makes me hungry. I call my wife, and we head to the new Primo Taco in the old DuPont Building, tacos and quesadillas to go. We go to Epicurean Wines, two blocks up NE Second Avenue in the even older Congress building. My wife opts for a glass of a Spanish tempranillo and I have the usual Mendoza malbec. The owner plays Placido Domingo’s love songs from Latin America to welcome nightfall.

¡Viva la Hispanidad!

To receive my articles and Downtown News, follow this page, and subscribe to Downtown News. One more thing, if you liked what you read, please share it with your friends.