David Rojas - The City of Progress: A Reflection on Hialeah’s Many Eras

 

The City of Progress: A Reflection on Hialeah’s Many Eras

David A. Rojas

SPC2608

Professor S. Sinkoff

6/4/2024

The City of Progress: A Reflection on Hialeah’s Many Eras

In this blog post, I will discuss my experience as group leader for this past set of presentations that the class did regarding the different eras of Hialeah. Specifically how the “city of progress” has evolved from its beginning stages into its current state, and we even discussed some future outlines for the city of Hialeah that might become a reality sooner than we think. Being able to work closely with each group is a genuine privilege and watching as their presentations and slides evolved was something I watched happen in real time, it felt great seeing the entire project come together like it did. I also would like to thank my fellow class leader Nathalia for this, as we helped each other out immensely with introductions/conclusions and everything she did for both the groups and I really helped the project come together that much more perfectly. In all though, I really enjoyed working on this project, and I can’t wait to get in to each group’s topics!

Group 1 - A Tour Through Hialeah’s Past

For the first group, their main area of focus was on Hialeah’s early stages. This group begins by discussing Hialeah’s early politics, delving into the different mayors in the years, past city councils, and the city’s electoral history. Then, they go into some leisurely activities that Hialeah is known for, like the racetrack, baseball fields, and libraries and how they evolved from then to now. For me, I found that the most interesting part of this section was how similar yet different Hialeah was from how it is today. Specifically with things like the racetrack, which have been repurposed and changed to fit the modern landscape and how different the past forms of these famous landmarks looked in comparison to what I know today. Next, they talk about the industrial and architectural landscape of the past. For the industry, the group establishes how immigrants coming to Hialeah helped shape the city as a gold mine for industrial work, as many hard-working individuals set up shop here in the city and created a great culture as a result. In terms of architect, they talk about how past homes were built and some specific examples of famous Hialeah architecture (i.e. Bright House and the Amertec Building). Finally, they talk about Hialeah’s social life, public health, and education of the past, and how that helped shape Hialeah as we know it today. First, they talk about a woman’s club, the aforementioned racetrack, and some famous Hialeah citizens to cover the social aspect. Then, they talk about Hialeah’s disparities with public health, and how these hardships inspired change in the city. Finally, they talk about how Hialeah has a historic elementary and high school, and how Miami Dade College installed a campus right on 49th Street. Overall, this group brought some very interesting facts about Hialeah to the table and it was very nice getting to work with them.

Group 2 - The City of Progress: Migration

In terms of the second group’s presentation, they focused a lot on how Cubans immigrated to Hialeah from the Mariel boat in 1980. This section of the presentations specifically hits close to home for me, as I had an aunt and cousin who came on the Mariel at this time, though they later moved to Tampa. Regardless though, the group delves into the political history of how the Mariel boatlift came to be, and how the immigration of Cubans to the United States or, in our case, Hialeah affected the culture and landscape of the city. For example, they talk about cultural integration through certain landmarks, statues, and restaurants, as Cuban immigrants helped develop all these amenities and as a result left an impact on the city as a whole. They also talk about how immigrants faced challenges like language barriers and social instability, which caused many to feel ostracized from the rest of the community. However, in due time, immigrants became one of the strongest driving forces to Hialeah’s success, and they are considered some of the most crucial parts of Hialeah’s history and current landscape. In all, group two offers an interesting commentary on Cuban immigration to the city, and how it has been a great benefit to both the immigrants in question and the city of Hialeah itself.

Group 3 - Hialeah in Today’s World

The third group’s presentation was focused on Hialeah in the present day, which is obviously something both I and most likely all of the class has some sort of understanding about. The group’s presentation was done in a video form, which was new to me as I had to introduce this video live (which was something I had never done before, but the experience was fun regardless). Regardless, I thought group three handled the video format really well and they edited it together extremely nicely. In terms of the presentation, they open by talking about how there are currently 27 public schools in the city, and delve into the religious makeup of Hialeans (many of which are Catholic.) Then, the group delves into the current housing situation that takes place in Hialeah, essentially taking note of some statistics that show off what the current state of the real estate market is like. Also, they go over Seminola, which is an incredibly influential neighborhood in the city with tons of camaraderie. Next, the group discusses the culinary and artistic sides of Hialeah, as they go over the different kinds of cuisine commonly found in Hialeah, and some prevalent art districts and studios that are located within the city. Lastly, they go over Hialeah’s social life. Specifically, they cover the different kinds of malls and shopping plazas, as well as Calle Ocho (which is a renowned festival that takes place across 8th Street.) Overall, this group’s presentation provided some much-appreciated insight on what Hialeah is like today extremely well and in a creative manner with the video.

Group 4 - The Future of Hialeah

As the name suggests, group four’s presentation deals with the future plans for Hialeah as a city. To start, the group talks about how Hialeah intends to improve the quality of life for its citizens (which they state is due to housing projects that are looking to increase the amount of affordable living in the city.) Then, they delve deeper into these housing projects while also discussing future projects dealing with transportation and workforce-related issues. Next, they discuss how education is going to continue to evolve in Hialeah. This is because of how much technology has played a primary role in education in the past few years, and city officials are looking to implement technology even more than it already has been in the classrooms. After, they discuss the future of shopping malls in Hialeah, specifically the expansion of Westland Mall, and the construction of the American Dream Mall (which is shaping up to be the biggest mall in American history.) Then, they delve into the future of transportation, which includes cars, the metro, scooters, and buses. They hope to make transportation more accessible and expand upon where these vehicles can go. Finally, they discuss some future plans for the city as a whole with the Hialeah Master and Comprehensive Plan, which are meant to further develop and improve the city in an attempt to make it a better city for the future generation. Overall, the group provides a wonderful overview on what the city of Hialeah plans to do to improve over the next few years and decades which hopefully improve life for everyone involved.