{"id":366579,"date":"2026-08-09T01:40:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T01:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/366579\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T01:40:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T01:40:30","slug":"memories-of-cuba-for-sale-in-little-havana-shop-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/366579\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories of Cuba for sale in Little Havana shop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carmen \u00c1lvarez is the owner of the Sentir Cubano shop\u2014located at 8th Street and 31st Avenue in Miami\u2014which sells items, maps, photos, and board games dedicated to preserving Cuban heritage. Sentir Cubano has expanded its activities to include book presentations and documentary screenings on Saturdays.<\/p>\n

Pedro Portal<\/p>\n

pportal@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n

What do a book of poetry, a cigar humidor, a 1928 map of Cuba, an image of the dictator Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel in a prison uniform, and a Virgen de la Caridad found on an empty raft have in common?<\/p>\n

They are all part of a Cuban ritual, though far from sacred, in the middle of Miami on Calle Ocho and 31st Avenue. Sentir Cubano started more than 20 years ago as a souvenir shop and today, with increased ambitions, has become a social and cultural center where literary gatherings and book and documentary presentations are held on Saturdays at 2 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to create a place where Cubans could sit and share their opinions. That\u2019s how it used to be, a boiling pot,\u201d says owner Carmen \u00c1lvarez, remembering the days when Sentir Cubano benefited from the proximity of the Libreria Universal, a bookstore that left a void when it closed in 2013 after 48 years of bringing books and Spanish-language culture to Miami.<\/p>\n

Click to resize<\/p>\n

A natural conversationalist, \u00c1lvarez had the vision to set up a small salon where visitors could do what Cubans love most: talk. Among school yearbooks from Colegio de Bel\u00e9n before 1959, photos of music legends like Benny Mor\u00e9 and politicians like Eduardo Chiv\u00e1s \u2014 the leader of the Partido Ortodoxo \u2014 \u00c1lvarez says she was born in Tampa with the Cuban national anthem playing in the background.<\/p>\n

An image of the Virgin of Charity found on an empty raft, symbolizing the exodus of rafters who leave Cuba in flimsy vessels and never reach the shores of Florida. To the right, an image of Cuba\u2019s unelected leader, Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel, who is responsible for the intensification of repression on the island. Sarah Moreno <\/p>\n

To relax her mother during delivery, the doctor decided to bring her the sounds of her homeland. Digna, as \u00c1lvarez\u2019s mother was named, worked until the last months of pregnancy at the gas station she owned with her husband.<\/p>\n

Those were the hard exile years, when Cubans expected to celebrate the next Christmas in Havana and conditioned the sale of their house on the fall of Fidel Castro, while trying to build businesses and careers because the stay did not seem short.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m here I feel like I\u2019m in my grandparents\u2019 time, like that painting,\u201d \u00c1lvarez says, pointing to a picture of a Cuban landscape and a peasant with a machete in his hand.<\/p>\n

Memories of paradise<\/p>\n

Sentir Cubano holds that prosperous paradise so many Cubans remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father had a business in Victoria de las Tunas and came to the United States every year to buy cars. He told me that American cars were driven in Cuba before they were driven here,\u201d \u00c1lvarez recounts.<\/p>\n

The shop also carries that note of nostalgia for those born on the island. There\u2019s a section dedicated to coffee makers of many sizes and colors; reproductions of El Morro castle with a small slot for a paper roll that tells the story of the fortress; and maracas made in Cuba by artisans.<\/p>\n

View of posters, paintings, etc, on display at \u201cSentir Cubano\u201d a store established in 1999 on the iconic Calle Ocho and 31st Avenue, full of Cuban related memorabilia dedicated to advancing and preserving the Cuban heritage, in Miami, on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Like a bazaar without order to be explored slowly with the pleasure of discovering gifts, memorabilia and items of historical value, Sentir Cubano also has a section aimed at those who have never visited Cuba.<\/p>\n

Cuban\u00f3metro has 200 trivia questions \u2014 it\u2019s a game about Cuban identity and traditions created by two young men, Carmen says.<\/p>\n

There is also Cuba-Opoly, a Cuban-style Monopoly game designed to bring the family together around a table to test their knowledge of the lost island. Other traditional games add to the selection: cubilete, trompo, yaquis, parchisi, Chinese checkers and tambourines.<\/p>\n

Valuable and old books like \u201cA Taste of Old Cuba\u201d by Mar\u00eda Josefa Lluri\u00e1 de O\u2019Higgins, with more than 150 recipes \u2014 \u201cdelicious, authentic and traditional,\u201d as the cover proclaims \u2014 revive memories of the author\u2019s childhood in pre-Castro Cuba.<\/p>\n

A \u2018gift\u2019 for D\u00edaz-Canel and other Cuban humor vendettas<\/p>\n

Sentir Cubano carries items that brighten the day, like a Betty Boop figure that is the centerpiece of an aluminum espresso cup set \u2014 with the Cuban flag, of course. That irony \u2014 that an American cartoon star is so popular on the island \u2014 is not surprising. So many have dreamed of Betty Boop\u2019s curves under a red dress that the little doll appears on birthday cakes, balloons, even on the license plates of many Cubans in Miami.<\/p>\n

Items featuring figures popular among Cubans\u2014such as the classic American cartoon character Betty Boop \u2014 make this set of aluminum cups bearing the Cuban flag unique. Sarah Moreno <\/p>\n

That is one of the shop\u2019s advantages: Cuban-ness is not always obvious. Sometimes you want to give a wooden cigar humidor with a touch of luxury. Or you\u2019re looking for a Cuban detail to send to a friend in France, but you\u2019re determined not to pick something trite. At Sentir Cubano you can find that flamboyant orange ceramic tile to place by the entrance, in the kitchen, on the terrace or in the patio \u2014 next to a malanguita plant \u2014 just as your grandmother dreamed.<\/p>\n

But the shop\u2019s best humorous gesture is in the restroom, open to customers, who certainly want to grant a wish. The toilet bowl has D\u00edaz-Canel\u2019s face painted on it, so people can leave their deserved offering.<\/p>\n

The dictator will go down in history for saying, \u201cLa orden de combate est\u00e1 dada\u201d (The combat order has been given) when Cubans took to the streets to demand freedom on July 11, 2021. Pure catharsis that exiles can dedicate in the name of those silenced on the island. You can also bring the fun home: They sell a target game with D\u00edaz-Canel\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

The business expands<\/p>\n

Carmen and her husband, anti-Castro activist Santiago \u00c1lvarez, bought Sentir Cubano from its founders, Miguel and Mar\u00eda V\u00e1zquez, just under two years ago.<\/p>\n

With the change of ownership, they inherited the merchandise in the shop and began buying new items, Carmen says, showing a bust of Jos\u00e9 Mart\u00ed that once stood in the office of Cuban ruler Fulgencio Batista and that people have tried to buy from her for a large sum. But she won\u2019t sell it, because beyond her admiration for Mart\u00ed, the bust has become a sort of guardian of the place.<\/p>\n

Actor Ricardo Becerra, who worked with the previous owners, now handles publicity and the social media for Sentir Cubano.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m like the store\u2019s ambassador in several places, not just on social media,\u201d says Becerra, one of the protagonists of the film Plantados, directed by Lili Vilaplana<\/a>. \u201cSometimes I go to a place wearing a Sentir Cubano guayabera. That\u2019s intentional.\u201d<\/p>\n

View of \u201cCaf\u00e9 Cubano\u201d coffee cups, on display at \u201cSentir Cubano\u201d. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

Becerra says Sentir Cubano hosts two regular monthly literary gatherings: Lunetreando, presented by Editorial Lunetra and run by writer and editor Pablo Socorro, and the Pe\u00f1a de la Buena Suerte, organized by editorial Vel\u00e1menes and presented by the writer Juan Carlos Recio.<\/p>\n

The other Saturdays are filled with various cultural events, such as the X Convenci\u00f3n de la Cubanidad (10th Convention on Cuban Identity) on Aug. 8, in tribute to Jos\u00e9 Lezama Lima, coordinated by the Ego de Kaska foundation and Ediciones Exodus. On Aug. 22 singer Marcelino Vald\u00e9s will present his album De Vald\u00e9s a Vald\u00e9s, in which he performs songs by composer Marta Vald\u00e9s.<\/p>\n

Sentir Cubano combines culture, history and celebration, as it has a department for customers who come to buy or rent what they need to throw a Cuban-themed party.<\/p>\n

One of the objects Carmen \u00c1lvarez considers most valuable is a reproduction of a boat like those that brought Cuban migrants during the Mariel exodus.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was made by an American who, when Mariel was distributing hot dogs and hamburgers to those arriving in Key West. She gave it to me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we Cubans have to come together, because we\u2019ve had many exoduses. If we Cubans don\u2019t unite, we\u2019re not going anywhere,\u201d Carmen noted.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the generosity of those who donate objects, or the indifference of others who inherit Cuban items from their parents, Sentir Cubano\u2019s collection has grown.<\/p>\n

Carmen receives them with love and displays them in that labyrinth of Cuban-ness, as colorful and sometimes as moving as the nation\u2019s history and its exile.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to emphasize an image of the Caridad in tatters,\u201dBecerra said, \u201ca little plaster virgin found on a raft at sea that had no crew. It\u2019s one of the objects with the most meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sentir Cubano, 3100 SW EighthSt, 305-644-8870.<\/p>\n

Posters and paintings on display at \u201cSentir Cubano\u201d. Pedro Portal pportal@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n


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

Sarah Moreno<\/a><\/p>\n

el Nuevo Herald<\/p>\n

Sarah Moreno cubre temas de negocios, entretenimiento y tendencias en el sur de la Florida. Se gradu\u00f3 de la Universidad de La Habana y de Florida International University. @SarahMoreno1585\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carmen \u00c1lvarez is the owner of the Sentir Cubano shop\u2014located at 8th Street and 31st Avenue in Miami\u2014which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365516,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[225,227,226],"class_list":["post-366579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366579","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=366579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}