I’ve been all over Hialeah from high school days on (early ‘60s). I got new tires on my pickup at Wally Mart there yesterday. Language barrier - yes, but I’ve never had an evil eye cast my way - ever. Day or night.
That having been said, driving* in around Cubans will make you crazy - they have hair triggers on their adrenalin glands. Rule one: Never, for any reason, use your turn signal - it means you’re from out of town and don’t know where the hell you’re going ;o)
Up until the late ‘60s, Hialeah was redneck city. The “Latinos” (Cuban immigrants, really) began displacing them.
Remember the “Will the last American leaving Miami please bring the flag” bumper stickers? By the time Jimmuh Carter’s Mariel boatlift was over, there wasn’t a redneck within 50 miles of Hialeah - they’d all moved “up North” to central Florida. BTW, here’s a good Mariel/Miami immigration summary:
http://www.miamibeach411.com/news/fleeing-cuba
* Do-gooder Dade County Sheriff E. Wilson Purdy encouraged this. See my post #17 at:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2802934/posts
Well...at least as far as Broward Co., next county to the north. Those who moved to Broward were called “Broward Cowards.” I guess the rhyme was convenient.
My second ex-wife and I moved from Stanford CT to Pembroke Pines in far southwest Broward Co in early 1982, right after the Time Magazine article entitled “Trouble in Paradise” hit the stands featuring all of the blowback from the Mariel boat-lift.
My Ex commuted down Flamingo Rd to get to Ryder System just west of the Miami airport and I went down Flamingo to get into the heart of a run-down Hialeah warehouse district just a few blocks from the racetrack where I worked at Coulter Electronics, which was located there due to an historical accident (and later sold to Beckman Instruments for $800M to form Beckman-Coulter).