To many within the Caribbean, Florida is taken into account an honorary member of the area. The sheer focus of Caribbean tradition discovered within the state is super, with roughly 40 p.c of Caribbean immigrants calling it house. Arguably one of many prime cities in Florida that exemplifies this phenomenon is the town of Miramar.
Boasting a majority Black and brown inhabitants, the town of Miramar stands proud with simply round 150,000 residents. This wasn’t at all times the case, based on Miramar’s Commissioner Alexandra P. Davis. She notes that the town started as a employee’s city for Italian laborers. It was solely as lately as 1992 that an inflow of individuals of colour ceaselessly modified the demographic, she explains. Right this moment, Miramar has the most important focus of minority residents within the already ultra-diverse Broward County. The 2020 census revealed that Black and/or Hispanic individuals make up slightly below 83% of Miramar’s inhabitants.
Commissioner Davis is one member of a workforce of elected officers of Jamaican descent – both have been born and immigrated to the USA or born to Jamaican dad and mom. That is the one such suite of elected officers within the nation. She believes this distinctive facet of native authorities supplies unmatched, first-hand perception into the individuals’s desires and wishes.
In 2003, Commissioner Davis created a non-profit group referred to as Caribefest, Inc to foster additional variety, tolerance, and unity in Miramar’s ever-growing Caribbean inhabitants. In 2019, these efforts culminated within the Afro-Carib pageant – a celebration of Caribbean, African, and Latin American tradition. This yr’s occasion was headlined by Jamaican Grammy Award-winning reggae singer, Koffee, but in addition featured Nigerian celebrity Tekno, Haitian hitmaker J. Perry, and the Cuban icon Jacob Ceaselessly. “In a pageant like we simply had lately you may get the style of the varied meals, hear the music, the sounds, combine with individuals, and study one another,” shared Commissioner Davis. The 2023 version of the Afro-Carib Competition skilled a file turnout.
The Commissioner hopes that the broader US can study from the methods the disparate cultures in Miramar discover widespread floor and stay harmoniously, “We relish our variety as a result of we are able to study from one another no matter nationality or tradition,” the Commissioner stated.