Cuban Memorial Boulevard

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  • Address
    Calle Ocho, Little Havana
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Lonely Planet review

The two blocks of SW 13th Ave south of Calle Ocho contain a series of monuments to Cuban patriots and freedom fighters, which here includes the dead of the Cuban Independence struggle and anti-Castro fighters.

The memorials include the Eternal Torch in Honor of the 2506th Brigade (the exiles who died during the botched Bay of Pigs invasion); a huge brass map of Cuba, dedicated to the 'ideals of people who will never forget the pledge of making their Fatherland free'; a bust of José Martí; and a Madonna Statue, which is supposedly illuminated by a shaft of holy light every afternoon.

Bursting out of the island in the center of the boulevard is a massive ceiba tree, revered by followers of Santeria and an unofficial reminder of the poorer Marielitos and successive waves of desperate-for-work Cubans (many of whom are santeros ) who have come to Miami since the 1980s.