Viernes Culturales (Cultural Fridays): Little Havana's Free Art & Cultural Event

Viernes Culturales (Cultural Fridays): Little Havana's Free Art & Cultural Event

Since 1960, when Cubans had to leave their homeland, they settled in Miami around South West Calle Ocho (8th Street), known as Little Havana ever since. Artists have flourished, painting and opening their studios as art galleries. Also, new art galleries established in Calle Ocho have become part of this eclectic art scene.

The last Friday of each month "Viernes Culturales" take place and the artists' studios and art galleries are opened until 10 pm. Also, the City of Miami sponsors singers and musical groups at a stand usually set up at the intersection of 14th avenue, next to the "Parque del Domino" (Dominoes' Park) where old friends have been gathering to play dominoes since they arrived from Cuba in the sixties.

Miami's Little Havana has become well known over the past four decades as Florida's Ellis Island. Hundreds of thousands of refugees from Cuba and emigres from Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and other Spanish-speaking countries first stopped in this neighborhood.

Little Havana and Calle Ocho (southwest Eighth Street), its main artery, bustle with a pedestrian life seen in few other places in Greater Miami. The human scale of its old structures, glitzy restaurants with their surfeit of blinking lights and ubiquitous outdoor coffee counters, and the animated conversations of men and women (fueled with pungently sweet cups or "thimbles" of cafe) over the latest events and conditions in Cuba help set it apart.

With its many Spanish-speaking nationalities, Little Havana is anything but monochromatic. It is a quarter of political protest, marches, shrines, and museums, and vendors selling produce and flowers. The quarter's parks are popular gathering places for viejos, or elderly men, who play dominoes, as well as for young mothers pushing little children in strollers. Little Havana is exotic, flamboyant, and ever evolving as new residents pour into America's New Ellis Island.

Below please find a listing of Dinning, Entertainment and Shopping in the Little Havana area.

Galleries:

Latin Art Core | Maxoly cuban fine art
1600 SW 8th St | 305 631 0025

Molina Art Gallery
1634 SW 8 St. Miami, Fl 33135 | 305 642 0444

Zu Galeria
2248 SW 8th St. Miami Fl 33135 | 786 443 5872

For more information please visit http://www.viernesculturales.com