In Havana, the pastel facades are faded and crumbling: in Miami, they are plastic.
Many of the immigrant communities in South Florida hold festivals to celebrate their cultural heritage but the Cubans go a little further than most. For one weekend every year, the Miami-Dade County Fair Center is transformed into a replica of central Havana. The city’s famous streetscapes are recreated on large sheets suspended from the ceiling which bear photographs of the original.
You can walk from Havana Cathedral at one end, along the Paseo del Prado which was once lined with elegant boutiques and theatres, past El Floridita bar where Ernest Hemingway used to hold court, to the Club Tropicana where bands played late into the night.