May 5, 2004
FREELOADERS?:
Mexicans finding rich lives in Miami: Fleeing unpleasant conditions, well-heeled Mexican professionals and entrepreneurs are finding the Hispanic atmosphere of South Florida makes a welcome new home. (FABIOLA SANTIAGO, May. 05, 2004, Miami Herald)
Tired of living under the threat of kidnappings, assaults and perennially polluted gray skies that kept their children homebound, Mónica Cassave and her family moved from Mexico City to Miami three years ago. Her husband, a banking lawyer, had a job offer in Los Angeles, where they have close family ties. But like many Mexican professionals these days, the family chose to resettle in what they perceive as the most appealing U.S. region for Latin Americans -- Miami-Dade.''It was a question of security and lifestyle,'' said Cassave, 33. ``The quality of life here is so much greater than in Mexico or Los Angeles. Miami is smaller, has less traffic, but what I love the most is the freedom to go out into the street with my sons without fearing that we're going to be kidnapped or robbed or that my children's health is going to suffer.''
South Florida is not known as a haven for Mexican immigrants, but more and more it is becoming one as a new wave -- a professional and entrepreneurial class -- settles in Miami, a city seen more and more as a place where upper- and middle-class Latin Americans find ambiente among their well-heeled Hispanic peers.
''Miami is very fashionable in Mexico right now,'' said Verania Belauspeguigoitia, a Mexican Realtor and mortgage broker who moved to Miami four years ago after she and her husband were held up at gunpoint several times.
Belauspeguigoitia says she averages about 10 sales a year to Mexicans for Miami properties, ranging from $500,000 to $7 million. Most of the Mexicans are well-to-do and looking to make Miami their second home or invest in the city's real estate boom, she said. Some professionals get job transfers to the Miami-based Latin American divisions of U.S. companies and settle here permanently, she added. Others commute between Miami and Mexico, where they own businesses.
She travels to Mexico every 45 days ``to sell Miami.''
''Miami is very Latin and you find people of your same culture and education level,'' Belauspeguigoitia said.
A real drain on the economy...
Posted by Orrin Judd at May 5, 2004 10:49 AM
Miami is seen abroad as a melting pot of Latin American culture and American entrpenueralism and free markets. A great place to work AND play. Transforming Miami into a vibrant (and wealthy) hub for Latin American and (other international) business has been a key contribution Cuban-Americans have made to their adopted country. This kind of diversity and assimilation of differences we should all want.
Posted by: MG at May 5, 2004 11:50 AMIt's interesting that to this Mexican, the
threat of crime in Miami seems low. Also, I find it even more interesting that the quality of life
is seen as much higher than L.A. which probably
to his mind has been flooded with too many
Mexicans of the lower caste.
Hanover, NH. Now that is what the Mexican's should check out.
Posted by: h-man at May 5, 2004 12:04 PMI wonder if all these Mexican aristos scent a coming revolution and are getting out of Dodge before their peons can lynch them.
Posted by: Ken at May 5, 2004 12:21 PMh:
It's a college town--walk out my front door and throw a rock and you'll hit a foreigner (well, they've gotten a little quicker after a few test runs of the theory).
Posted by: oj at May 5, 2004 12:38 PMDon't expect this type of wealthy oligarch to
understand the American middle-class ideal. They
are used to sitting at the top of the pile and
exporting their problems.
I guess there are certain problems I support
exporting (primarily those that we have unwillingly imported from others).
Otherwise I a generally suspicious of the motives
of the Mexican elites on matters of emigration/immigration policy.
Jim
Posted by: JH at May 5, 2004 2:31 PMYes, so far we note "suspicion" of Jews, Arabs, and Hispanics...
Posted by: oj at May 5, 2004 2:38 PMThe difference between Miami and LA is that Miami is a truly bi-lingual city, while in LA, Spanish is only spoken in the Latino eastside and in pockets of Hollywood and the Valley. For someone coming from Mexico (or anywhere in Latin America), the assimilation in Miami would be much easier.
Posted by: Foos at May 5, 2004 4:29 PMNo, no, no h-man.
Not throw rocks at foreigners. Just throw a rock in any direction and you are very apt to hit a foreigner.
I understand that it is very difficult (perhaps impossible) for some folks to grasp the difference but there actually is a one.
Posted by: Uncle Bill at May 5, 2004 5:54 PM