(gentle music) - We're here with my friend and hero, Alberto Ibarguen, the CEO of the Knight Foundation, the former Publisher and CEO of the Miami Herald.

He's now, among other things, on the board of the National Museum of the American Latino.

- Thank you.

- And on on my left is Aida Levitan, and she is the Chair of U.S. Century Bank, the first Cuban-American woman Chair of a U.S. commercial bank.

A.J.

D'Amico, who is at the Knight Foundation as Director of the Center for Media and Democracy, and a lawyer.

Having been a practicing lawyer here in Miami.

And Sam Verdeja the Editor and Author of "Cubans: An Epic journey."

800 pages of everything you want to know about Cuban-Americans in Cuba.

- Second edition.

- And this is the second edition.

So, thank you all for being here and being a part of this conversation.

And, you know, I want to start out, because you're all representatives of this, and ask a question for all of you, Cuban-Americans, the Cuban Exile community and all the Cuban-Americans have been one of the great success stories in the history of American immigration, what's the reason for that?

- Well, I think it started with the first wave of Cuban exiles, which came from the upper and middle class, very educated and professional classes of Cuba.

So they came already with relationships in the United States.

They came with many of them with the ability to speak English and with a very entrepreneurial spirit.

And they established businesses and professions that they revalidated, their degrees and so on.

And I think they created a foundation for the other ways of Cuban exiles that would establish an economic foundation for them to take advantage of.

So that's one reason.

- Sometimes called the golden generation of Cuban exiles.

- No, and not just for the next few waves of Cuban immigrants and exiles, but also the next generation of Cuban-Americans like myself, I think, this is the only city in the world and Cubans are some of the only immigrant and exile communities in the country where they had the blueprint from their parents.

They see success on buildings, on streets, in their communities, and in their families, and in their friends networks as well.

- And Miami is the only large American city in which, which is a majority foreign born, which makes Miami a very interesting city with Cubans as leaders in that.

And Sam, in your book, you've got a list, a long list and pictures of all the Cuban success stories, the entrepreneurs, the business men and women have been so successful in this country.

- Well, in my case, I think, I represent the first wave that is called the historic among ourselves.

- Yeah.

- Sounds a little bit, but we call- - The historic exile.

- [Sam] The historic- - Right.

- Group of exiles, which is just the first 20 years.

And I came, as I say, running because I had the advantage or had an education in the United States.

My family sent me to the United States in 1956 BC, before Castro.

And had the advantage of having the language and having the know how of the United States, and that's what Aida says, the key year was 1965, 1966, when the period who was called the suitcase period.

- [Crosby] Suitcase period.

- We all were ready to go back to Cuba.

But something happened suddenly the Kennedy, Khrushchev, President Kennedy and Chairman Khrushchev, agreement came out saying, the United States will not evade Cuba, will not allow Cubans to, from the United States to do it, and we realized that we are here to stay.

And that was, I believe in my judgment, what really put everybody to say, whatever we know, we know we are gonna be here, we have to do it.

- And Alberto, the Knight Foundation has been very important in funding the arts in Miami, and you've been a part of that culture.

It seems that there's a huge Cuban influence, and it's across all the arts, all the art forms.

- Where there can't not be a Cuban influence?

At one point, some, I don't know, some 60-65% of the county of Miami-Dade is Hispanic, and at least half of that is Cuban, Cuban-American.

So, of course, there's a Cuban influence to virtually anything that you do in this town.

I think one of the things that all three of my friends have suggested, but there's a, that really ought to be highlighted is that there's a big difference between an exile, a concept of exile, and the concept of immigration.

And I think, I did not live here during that golden age, I came in the mid '90s.

Sam was one of my first friends here, and Aida as well, but one of the things I realized is that this was a community of people who had no apology.

There was no, I've come to join the other team, it was, I'm here for the time being, I'm as good as you are, deal with it.

- Yeah.

- And- - Lucky to us.

- It was a community of very proud strivers.

It was a very different kind of community from an immigrant community that has made a choice to go and stay, that really makes a huge difference.

The other thing thing that made a huge difference, I think, is that after Muriel Mas Canosa, Jorge Mas Canosa insisted on the concentration of Cubans in Miami, which gave an already rising economic group, the political numbers to basically run the town.

- And there's an interesting, of course, the Freedom Tower itself is kind of interesting from your point of view, Alberto, because originally, it was James Cox who created Cox Enterprises, and a newspaper man, and failed presidential candidate.

And the tower was built to be the tallest building in the south as headquarters of his newspaper at the park.

- [Alberto] And a replica of the Giralda in- - [Crosby] Giralda Tower- - [Alberto] In Seville.

- [Crosby] Seville.

- In Seville in Spain.

Sam, did you ever work there or did you work at the- - No, no, I never worked in that.

They moved with the Miami Herald in 1966.

- When they did the joint operating- - [Sam] The joint operating agreement.

- And the interesting thing about the Freedom Tower is sort of the symbol of this particular immigration in that we are so committed to freedom and to fighting against dictators.

And this is where we're devoted to the Declaration of Independence.

Freedom to us is very special because we have experienced what it's like to live in an autocratic regime that persecutes people for their beliefs and for expressing them.

And that puts them in jail, even to today, where there's 1000 political prisoners in Cuban jail, simply because they participated in a peaceful demonstration.

So I think this whole idea of freedom is a very characteristic aspect of the Cuban exile community and the Cuban-Americans also.

- And I think one of the thing that we have proven is what is the American dream?

And it is, given the opportunity, if you have the hard work, the talent, and the values, you can achieve your dreams.

And I think that's very important, I think.

And that's why most Cubans that I know are very appreciative of the opportunity that this country gave us for our freedom.

And we haven't given up the struggle, the fight for it, even that we have been successful here, we still are struggling to see democracy and freedom in Cuba.

- I think there's also something that's often not, I agree with what you just said.

There's also something else that really does need to be said, and that is that there was a government policy of open door and support the Cuban, later came the Cuban Adjustment Act, but from the beginning, there was a government attitude that said, we want these people in.

Even while the society often would reject because there were so many Cubans that came at the same time.

And there are plenty of instances of no dogs, no Cubans allowed in this restaurant and all that stuff, but the government policy was one of bringing people in and of support, and I think that that was critical.

I really do think that the political genius of Jorge Mas Canosa in seeing the value of the grouping of people here, concentration of people here though, is one of the things that just led to the inevitable election of so many Cuban public officials that still are the ones who are so important in the governance of South Florida.

- And there's an interesting timeline here about immigration too, that all immigrants may owe something to Cuban-Americans, Cuban exiles.

We didn't pass the generous and liberal immigration law until 1965.

And Lyndon Johnson, when he signed the document on Ellis Island in October of 1965, referenced the Cuban experience and said, explicitly, "We are now welcoming all Cuban refugees."

The success of the Cuban exiles, as early as 1965, had something to do with the passing of the immigration law, at least from Lyndon Johnson's point of view.

- And you have to give credit to the, before the Cuban experience in 59, 60, 61, Nicaraguas ones were already here in exile, and that was also the beginning of an exile mentality to the Latin-American community here.

And then subsequently, there were lots of others from Columbia, from Venezuela who came exiled after Chavez and because of the disturbances in other countries.

And it's fascinating to see the demographic map of Miami, Miami-Dade County, it's 5% Hispanic in 1960, it's something like 50%, 49-50% somewhere in the '90s, and then it's 65, maybe even more today.

- But one of the interesting things about how Cubans transformed Miami is that they saw the geography of Miami.

And not only Cubans, by the way, Maurice Ferre, who was mayor- - Yeah.

- Of Miami.

He was from Puerto Rico, but he saw what the Cubans saw, which is the geography of Miami, made it the ideal place to become the bridge to Latin-America.

- Perfect.

- Bridge.

- And we started building these ties, these economic ties to Latin-America.

- And relative to other large American cities, Miami is so young, it's only 127 years old, 126 years old compared to a New York or a Boston that are, you know, more than 300, almost 400.

So the Cuban exile and the influx of Latin-American culture really catalyzed the growth of the city into an international hub.

- [Crosby] Yeah.

- And going back to the Freedom Tower, what I find somewhat poetic about the city is that you see the skyline of the city, which, I think, is the third largest metro skyline in the country.

And you see all these new buildings that have, you know, feel like they're coming up every five or six years, there's another super tall skyscraper, but the one thing that's not changed has been Freedom Tower in the Downtown Miami skyline.

And I think that's like a really beautiful remembrance to like everyone who made it possible for such a city to rise up.

- This is, it's really important as big set of boosters as you have brought to this table.

And all four of us are walking chambers of commerce- - We are.

- For the place.

- There are housing issues.

Affordability is a huge issue.

Transportation, my god, it is an awful problem because it's so narrow and so many people, hundreds of thousands of people.

- [Crosby] And everybody wants to be close to the beach.

- Everybody wants to be close to the beach.

And even if you don't wanna be close to the beach, you're still stuck in traffic.

- [Crosby] Right.

- Climate change- - Climate change is a big one.

- [Alberto] They, whether- - The biggest.

- Whether you believe in climate change or don't believe in climate change, you cannot deny that the streets flood and that the water table is practically up to the surface.

And it was not designed for this many people and this much construction, so we need to have technological solutions.

- And Miami and South Florida is on the forefront of that battle with climate change, you know?

Hurricanes are getting stronger by the year, regular rainstorms are really affecting how the city operates and does business, so it's really undeniable.

- And Freedom Tower, there is a $25 million renovation going on as we speak, and it's largely in response to being so close to the harbor, so close to the waterfront.

And they know that they've gotta protect the infrastructure, so most of that will not be visible, it's gonna be the infrastructure of the building itself to protect it from future surges, et cetera.

- Well, I look forward to it, to a Miami where people are informed about the issues and about how things happen, how all of this changes, how this climate change is happening.

And we also have this phenomenal tech community that will look around and say, in order to preserve what we have built, we have got to find new tech solutions, and so the combination of being ground zero and having this fantastic new way of thinking, I think, I think says you ought to look for answers here.

- Yeah.

It creates the biggest opportunity to respond to the challenge.

- [Alberto] Yeah.

- Because it could provide a model for other at-risk cities and municipalities around the country on how to fight climate change and these challenges because we have to deal with them first, because the problem is more severe in our backyard.

- So it's interesting to listen to this conversation and see how Cuban, Cuban-American community, which very focused at one point and may still be focused in some ways on Cuba, on the revolution, on the response to the revolution, is looking forward so much in this country.

That's an extraordinary- - But the people who are leading the community are second and third generations.

I mean, with all due respect to Sam, who is not even as old as I am, and we're not talking about you Aida.

- [Aida] Thank you.

- But we- - We're the young side of the table.

- We had our shot, it's A.J.

now who's gotta figure all this out, so, deal with it.

- And one thing that is really interesting about all these things that are being discussed about technology solutions that are innovative, that provide a new way forward is that the Cubans who came here and who couldn't go back because of what was happening in Cuba, had to find new ways of surviving.

They had to be innovative, they had to be audacious, they had to be bold.

One of the reasons immigration is so important to this country, innovation, new ways of thinking, diversity, new ways of providing solutions.

And I think that this is the reason Miami is such a wonderful city because we have been able to meld all these different points of view, do it in a civil society, and at the same time provide this innovation and this new way of looking forward.

- And so is there a change in consciousness as we get, as the generations become second, third, fourth generation?

I know Carlos here talks about his heart still being in Cuba, many of the great Cuban writers, Cuban exile writers talk about their hearts being in Cuba still, is that changing?

Is that in new generation?

- I'd say among my generation, we want to go back just to see where our parents came from.

There's this allure and this idea of Cuba based on the stories that we've heard, but we want to see it for ourselves.

My grandmother can still give the directions from the capitol building to her house, on the 10 de Octubre on the road in Havana where she lived.

And you know, I, you know, once communism ends on the island, I wanna go back there and retrace her steps.

And it's very common with a lot of my friends and family.

- This is when it will become evident.

Once we are free, again, hopefully, within my lifetime, I think a lot of these young people will go back to help, will go back to establish businesses there.

That doesn't mean they're gonna establish their permanent residents there, but they have this emotional tie that we have created in them.

- I have gone back.

If my father had been alive, I think I wouldn't have gone, but I did.

And I'm glad I did because it was a discovery.

I don't know where anything is in Havana, but I never felt lost.

- Interesting.

- That's the sense in which there's, and I feel the same way about going back to Puerto Rico, but I am not in any way, mistaken, that I was raised here from childhood on, I am an American, and I visit there as a kind of cultural heritage issue and language and spirit and so forth, but I am an American.

And there's no question at all in my mind.

- We're very proud Americans, very proud Americans.

- From my generation, maybe to you too, we remember two dates.

One, the date we were born, and the date we left Cuba.

- Right.

- [Crosby] Right.

- That's right.

- [Aida] Yeah.

(gentle music) (piano music)