Summary

In Chapter 5, Didion writes that on the 150th anniversary of the founding of Dade County, where Miami is, four amateurs of local history were asked to name the top ten people and events that had the greatest impact on the county’s history. None of the lists named a Cuban, but the Cuban population was named in the sense of a civic challenge which Miamians – by which was meant white Anglo Miamians – had to work together to mitigate. Didion expresses surprise at this, finding that the tone of the city, the way people met and spoke and worked, was inherently Cuban given that population’s outsized influence in the county. They did not comprise an invisible 56 percent of the population, but a vocal and visible one. The lavish quinceañera parties thrown by wealthy Cubans for their coming-of-age daughters, the gala events for...