-Miami’s Haitian Community Braces for Deportations
- The first documented arrival of Haitian refugees in South Florida occurred in 1972, when the sailboat Saint Sauveur ran aground off pompano Beach, Florida, carrying sixty-five asylum seekers...
- Many Haitian families initially settled in Lemon City, Miami, a neighborhood established in the late 1800s and originally populated by Bahamian lemon-grove workers.
- Today, Little Haiti is a vibrant cultural hub, symbolized by a seven-foot bronze statue of Toussaint Louverture, a leader of the Haitian Revolution, installed in 2005 in the...
Little Haiti‘s Origins Trace Back to 1972 with the arrival of Haitian Refugees.
The first documented arrival of Haitian refugees in South Florida occurred in 1972, when the sailboat Saint Sauveur ran aground off pompano Beach, Florida, carrying sixty-five asylum seekers fleeing the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier.
Many Haitian families initially settled in Lemon City, Miami, a neighborhood established in the late 1800s and originally populated by Bahamian lemon-grove workers. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s,as more Haitians arrived,they established businesses,churches,markets,and cultural centers,contributing to the area’s growing identity. Viter Juste, a businessman and activist, is credited with naming the neighborhood “Little Haiti” in the early 1980s.
Today, Little Haiti is a vibrant cultural hub, symbolized by a seven-foot bronze statue of Toussaint Louverture, a leader of the Haitian Revolution, installed in 2005 in the City of Miami Freedom Garden. The statue’s installation occurred three years after the author moved to Miami and a little more than a year after the bicentennial of Haitian independence. On Haitian Independence Day, January 1st, the plaza becomes a gathering place for celebrations, including the sharing of soup joumou, a traditional “freedom soup.”