We would love to hear your Miami Story, the tale of how your family found its way to South Florida.
Email your stories and photos to MiamiStories@HistoryMiami.org. We'll post your stories on this page and print a sampling in Sunday's Neighbors. You'll find more Miami Stories on the Newsmakers program on Comcast Channel 29 and on WLRN/Herald Radio.
Look for the South Florida history 'Question of the Week,' Thursdays on this page.
ABOUT THIS PROJECTMiami Stories is part of Make Miami History Now, a project of HistoryMiami and The Miami Herald, author/historian Arva Moore Parks, Miami-Dade County Public Schools and National Conference on Citizenship Chaiman Michael Weiser.
It is hard to believe that I have called Miami home for over 35 years. Actually I am just another transplanted Ohioan who landed in South Florida. Yet each time I cross over any of the causeways to Miami Beach, I tend to believe that this was all part of a master plan.
My great-grandfather, Joseph Rapisardo, Sr., was a farmer in Chester, New York, with my grandfather, Leo Nicotra. As the cold and nasty winters arrived every year making crop growing a challenge, they decided to move to sunny Florida in 1950.
As it happens with all the affections destined to last, my love for Miami was initially tentative, and needed time to mature. Since my childhood, living in Argentina, I associated South Florida with intrepid pirates raiding the Caribbean waters. Its name awakened the traveler in me, that wanderer that we children of immigrants carry in our hearts.
Just like so many other Cuban-Americans, we came to Miami to escape the ravages of the Communist regime that had taken over our island-nation. We were lucky enough to come on a regularly scheduled Pan Am flight.
A mother and daughter arrived from Cuba in 1962 and were immediately sent to St. Louis, where they lived fo...
My parents, Harry and Mildred Grand, met each other on South Beach in 1946.
In 1937, when I was 9 months old, my parents, Thomas J. Lee Smith and Lila Smith, moved from Tampa to Homes...
I was born in Miami in 1940 when Victoria Hospital still existed as a full-service hospital with a maternit...
My first encounter with Miami was in the 1940s after the war. We lived in Curacao, Netherlands West Indies,...
In 1904 my family moved to Miami in horse and buggies from Gillette on the west coast of Florida.
Journey along the streets in the Brownsville neighborhood and you’ll see solid homes and well-kept law...
RSS|
My Yahoo|
Newsletters|
Mobile|
Alerts|
Twitter
Terms of Service| Privacy Policy| About our ads| Copyright| About The Miami Herald| About the McClatchy Company| Corrections| Contact Us| Advertise| Work for Us
Partners: El Nuevo Herald| Newspaper in Education| WLRN | Miami Herald News| CBS4 WFOR-TV| More
Copyright 2012 Miami Herald Media Co. All rights reserved
