 Freedom Tower
Miami’s Freedom Tower, built in 1925, is an example of Spanish Renaissance Revival architectural style. The building’s tower and cupola, which shines as a beacon of light over Miami Bay, are said to be designed after the Giralda Tower in Seville, Spain.
Up until 1955, the building housed the former Miami News newspaper. In 1962 the U.S. General Services Administration took over the 16-story building and, in the wake of Cuba’s political changes, opened a service center, providing Cuban refugees with orientation, basic supplies and dental and medical care. Over 400,000 Cuban refugees were processed there.
 Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity
The Miami Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity (Ermita de la Caridad del Cobre) was built in the 1970s from contributions collected from the exiles over several years. Many of them contributed even an hour’s wage every week, while others donated a great part of their paycheck. The shrine faces the island of Cuba. It has a circular shape, and it’s supported by six large columns that represent the six provinces of Cuba. The shrine’s centerpiece is a sepia mural behind the altar painted by exile artist Teok Carrasco in 1976. It depicts Our Lady of Charity surrounded by the major events of Cuban history beginning with the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Declared the patroness of Cuba by Pope Benedict XV in 1916, Pope John Paul II solemnly crowned the image in 1998.
Calle Ocho Festival
The intersection of 8th Street and 27th Avenue marks the western perimeter of the famed Calle Ocho Open House, the world’s largest outdoor Hispanic festival, held every second Sunday in March, since 1978. The parade stretches as far east as S.W. 4th Avenue, and features live music, a myriad of vendors, the world’s longest conga line, and participants from many Hispanic countries.
Latin Quarter
The heart of Little Havana, is called the Latin Quarter, an area designated as such by the City of Miami in 1984, in an effort to improve it and attract visitors. Hundreds of visitors daily are brought here by tour groups. They see a dynamic core area of Little Havana filled with store front cigar factories, art galleries, bricked sidewalks, an Hispanic Walkway of Stars, restaurants like Casa Panza and El Pub, and the historic Tower Theater, which carried the first Spanish language subtitles (beginning in 1960) of any theater in the county.
 Domino Park
Domino Park is in the epicenter of Little Havana. It began in 1963 when a group of Bay of Pigs veterans meeting across the street decided to play dominoes in a vacant lot across from them. Eventually the city purchased the lot and established on that site Maximo Gomez Park, for a Dominican military officer who aided Cuba in its War of Independence in 1898. We know it as Domino Park and it serves as a magnet for scores of retirees who play animated domino games and chess matches. The wonderful mural on the east wall of the park, Painted by Oscar Thomas, an African-American artist, with assistance from a group of Southwest High School students, depicts the 38 democratically elected heads of state in this hemisphere who attended the Summit of the Americas in Miami in December 1998.
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