Miami Taxi: Seven Immigrants One Medallion
People come to Miami for many reasons, but the city is built on only one: survival.
For more than half a century, Miami has been shaped by men and women who arrived with nothing except determination, landing by plane, by boat, or on anything that could float. Their stories rarely make headlines, yet they carried entire chapters of Latin American history into the streets of a single American city.
Miami Taxi follows one taxi medallion as it passes through the hands of seven immigrants who remade their lives behind the wheel. The characters are composites drawn from countless real stories shared by drivers who fled revolutions, dictatorships, collapsing economies, and the daily grind of societies that no longer offered a future.
A young Cuban escapes the end of Batista and the rise of Castro. A Haitian flees the terror of the Tonton Macoutes. A Nicaraguan loses everything to the Sandinistas. A Peruvian watches as hyperinflation and terrorism tear his country apart. A Venezuelan holds his family together while his nation collapses into hunger and repression. Each one arrives in Miami carrying the weight of the world he left behind.
Their taxi becomes more than a job. It becomes a lifeline and a front row seat to the transformation of a city that grows with every wave of newcomers. Through their eyes, we see the Freedom Flights, the McDuffie riots, Mariel, the cocaine era, the rise of Doralzuela, and the constant arrival of those searching for safety and opportunity.
These stories reveal the Miami that tourists never see. Miami was built by ordinary people who refused to quit. The Miami where courage is measured in long hours, low wages, dangerous nights, and the stubborn belief that tomorrow can be better.
Seven immigrants. One medallion. One city that never stops changing.
This is the Miami that built itself one fare at a time.
Customer Reviews
ThriftBooks® and the ThriftBooks® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
