Were Mariel and the riots of 1980 related? Was it possible for two huge events to hit a city in a single year that were completely unrelated, and if they were unrelated, what does that say about the city?
Some keen observers, such as author Marvin Dunn, don’t believe that the riots were sparked by long-standing anger in the black community about severe inequities in the criminal justice system, another other things, and that anger had nothing to do with foreigners arriving on boats.
Others, such as County Manager Merrett Stierheim and Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre, believe that these two events had to be intertwined on some profound, if not specifically stated, level.
Milian’s brutal attack was a horrific early flash point for a medium that, two decades after Castro’s revolution, had become the face of Miami’s Cuban struggle. The bombing cast into stark relief the battle between hardliners, who believed