Cultural and Demographic Shifts

Throughout this book, Didion depicts Miami as a city shifting from Anglo-American cultural dominance to Cuban cultural dominance, a shift which causes significant tension between the two communities but also implicates the Black community in Miami which has historically lacked a voice or power in the city’s institutions. Didion uses language as an example of and marker for cultural dominance in order to highlight these observations.

Didion provides the reader with relevant statistics which illuminate Miami’s cultural make-up. She says that at the time of her writing, 53% of Miamians were Cuban, a significant change from earlier decades when Anglo-Americans vastly predominated over Cuban and Black populations in the city. Anglo-Americans, she notes, view the population change as a loss of their ‘stronghold’ in Dade County, demonstrating their anger and perception of population as integral to cultural dominance. Given that so many in Miami...