{"id":34958,"date":"2025-11-05T22:20:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T22:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/34958\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T22:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T22:20:11","slug":"this-winter-is-a-celebration-of-florida-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/34958\/","title":{"rendered":"This Winter is a celebration of Florida freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

As winter comes to Miami, Floridians can brace for the same old swell in visitor traffic. Despite\u00a0reports of diminished tourist interest<\/a>\u00a0in South Florida, the state is (still) very much trending up.<\/p>\n

Empirically,\u00a0heightened excitement about holiday travel<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0Caribbean hotspots<\/a>\u00a0suggests that Miami will receive its fair share of beachcombers, golfers, and partiers. In 2026, a\u00a0record 21.7 million Americans<\/a>\u00a0are expected to go on ocean cruises, many of them leaving from PortMiami. Anecdotally, locals know that Bostonians, New Yorkers, and other northerners will scratch their itch for warm weather sooner rather than later. This is nothing new\u2014death, taxes, and snowbirds.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s new is what the Magic City has in store for tourists, current Floridians, and future ones alike. Last month, Miami\u2019s Freedom Tower\u00a0reopened after an extensive two-year renovation<\/a>, commemorating a century of history as a gateway to freedom for Cuban immigrants escaping Castro\u2019s communism in search of the American Dream. Walking by the renovated Freedom Tower (Miami\u2019s first skyscraper), the building earns its nickname as the \u201cEllis Island of the South\u201d and is open to the general public<\/a>\u00a0as a museum.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the only one. At the nearby\u00a0American Museum of the Cuban Diaspora<\/a>, visitors can explore \u201cThe Cuban Experience,\u201d a permanent exhibit that immerses them in the brutality of the Castro regime and shares the stories of those who fled Cuba. From a simulated execution wall to recreated prison cells, The Cuban is a necessary reminder that freedom is not actually free; it must be cherished and protected from one generation to another. After all, Cuba went from an up-and-coming republic to an utter disaster under Fidel Castro in a single generation.<\/p>\n

New York City seems to have forgotten the history lesson. Long considered\u00a0the\u00a0symbol of entrepreneurial spirit and free-market prosperity in the United States, the Big Apple has become a city where Zohran Mamdani\u2019s brand of collectivism and redistribution can win a\u00a0mayoral election.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mamdani, who has\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0for \u201cseizing the means of production,\u201d may be the latest to put a smile on the face of government oppression, but Cubans and Venezuelans in Miami know better. I know better, as a child of escapees from what was once communist Yugoslavia, where the socioeconomic repercussions of socialist dogma are still felt today.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that New York will turn into Havana overnight. Still, Mamdani\u2019s popularity is an affront to the free market that built New York into a shining city on the hill in the first place. In this city, even socialists and communists reap the rewards of the American Dream.<\/p>\n

Wealthy New Yorkers are already\u00a0fleeing for the suburbs<\/a>, and many won\u2019t return to Manhattan with their credit card purchases and jobs in tow. Some will surely test out the Miami waters for good, as they did in 2020.<\/p>\n

And they should. Miami, not New York, is now the symbol of American freedom. Just ask Cuban dissident Jos\u00e9 Daniel Ferrer, who arrived here after being freed from\u00a0months of torture and humiliation<\/a>\u00a0in a Cuban prison.<\/p>\n

Ferrer\u2019s crime? Speaking out against the Castro regime.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ask the\u00a0hundreds of political prisoners<\/a>\u00a0who remain imprisoned on the communist island where freedom lives. Or ask Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, who recently won the Nobel Peace Prize after years of\u00a0exposing the Nicol\u00e1s Maduro regime<\/a>\u00a0for its authoritarian practices and human rights violations.\u00a0Machado was herself\u00a0imprisoned<\/a>\u00a0earlier this year for daring to support democracy in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

This winter, there is no better time to celebrate these freedom champions and the unique cultural heritage of Miami \u2014 home to Calle Ocho and Little Havana, Little Venezuela in Doral, and built testaments to the privilege of being American.<\/p>\n

From the Freedom Tower to The Cuban, residents and visitors alike are reminded that there is much, much more to Miami than beach bars, nightclubs, and frustratingly slow traffic.<\/p>\n

What makes Miami magical \u2014 especially in the winter months \u2014 is its multifaceted charm. This includes our collective appreciation for the American Dream, whether we hail from Caracas or Bosnia and Herzegovina (in my case).<\/p>\n

To\u00a0quote<\/a>\u00a0Ferrer, whose fight for a Cuba Libre is honored at The Cuban, \u201cI want to see a free people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferrer included, we\u2019re on full display\u00a0here. That is worth celebrating over and over again.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Luka Ladan is president and CEO of\u00a0Zenica Public Relations<\/a>, based in Miami.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As winter comes to Miami, Floridians can brace for the same old swell in visitor traffic. Despite\u00a0reports of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[24335,24336,24337,28,24338,30,29,6674,24339,5880,5642,21587,24340,24341,24342,24343,24344],"class_list":["post-34958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-american-museum-of-the-cuban-diaspora","tag-calle-ocho-little-havana","tag-fidel-castro-regime","tag-florida","tag-florida-freedom-tourism","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-jose-daniel-ferrer","tag-luka-ladan","tag-maria-corina-machado","tag-miami-cultural-heritage","tag-miami-freedom-tower","tag-miami-winter-travel","tag-nicolas-maduro-venezuela","tag-portmiami-cruises-2026","tag-the-cuban-experience-exhibit","tag-zohran-mamdani-socialism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}