Flagler Theater
Notes:
This was an art deco theater. Oscar Ramírez opened Teatro Flagler in downtown Miami in 1953. It was the first theater in Miami to show Spanish movies. It was demolished along with the buildings surrounding it in the 1960s in order to build highway I-95 and its downtown interchanges.
On November 20, 1955, Fidel Castro along with Juan Manuel Márquez, a leader from the Orthodox party who was also in exile in Mexico, spoke here collecting thousands of dollars for the Revolution-to-come. "One thousand Cubans, including Castro’s sister Lidia and his son Fidelito, heard the now familiar themes and appeals for money" (Patterson 20). As part of the speech, Castro is reported as saying:
Dije públicamente en el Flager: «Reuniremos a nuestros compatriotas detrás de una idea de dignidad plena para el pueblo de Cuba y de justicia para los hambrientos y olvidados y de castigo para los grandes culpables… El dinero robado a la república no sirve para hacer revolución. Las revoluciones se hacen con moral. No es revolucionario el movimiento que tiene que asaltar bancos o aceptar dinero de ladrones. No se le puede dar beligerancia a los ladrones que con el 10% de lo que se robaron pretenden congraciarse con el pueblo.
Tocaremos a sus puertas después de la revolución… Los malversadores no tienen opinión pública. Los malversadores no pueden ser enemigos de la dictadura, porque la dictadura les cuida sus bienes mal habidos. Los malversadores prefieren la tiranía a la revolución. Por eso los malversadores quieren llevar a la Sociedad de Amigos de la República a una gran componenda con el régimen, como único modo de sobrevivir políticamente».
As a result of this act, the fourth M-26-7 revolutionary club was founded, with Félix Elmusa Agaísse "El Morito" as one of its leaders. A front page article in The Miami Herald promoted the rally at this theater and had several quotes by Castro himself: ''Castro said he will hold a public meeting at 10:00 a.m. Sunday in the Flagler Theater, 313 W Flagler St., 'and we expect at least 1,000 people to attend'"(Southworth 1, 7.). But the only newspaper that covered the event was Diario Las Americas who sent photographer Wilfredo Gort. Miami Herald's follow up articles were really on Batista; they minimized Castro's presence in Miami and honed in on Castro's criminal activities: "He and his men invaded a hospital and shot patiends down in clod blooded killings" (N.A., 2).
(Bohemia, Dec 15, 1955; Elfrink, Tim. "Latin American Dictators Love South Florida." Miami New Times. Sep 16 2010. Hernández Serrano, Luis. El quinto expedicionario. La Habana, Centro Pablo de la Torrente, 1999; Morales Blanco, Armando. "Frente a todos." Cuba Periodistas Jan 19, 2019; Thomas G. Paterson, Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution. oxford UP, 1995.)
Author: Lillian Manzor (Spring 2012)