Diario las Américas Newspaper, May 9, 1954, Page 23

Miamis Mayor, Abe Aronovitz INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK By ANTONIO RUIZ Declares that his Favorite Dream” is the construct- jon of a Center to promote geod relations with Latin America. He yrew up and went to school with the Latin boys in Key West. When Miami’s Mayor Abraham Aronovitz, was elected to his high office by an cverwhelming major- ity, it was truly stated that he had achieved victory “strictly on his record”. They sai' there were no political deals, bevause he hates even the mention of anything of that kind no exploit’ng of racial or religious feelings, since he is a Jew, and the Jewish people in Miami comprise less than 8 per cent of the voting population; no big corporations contributing to his campaign, since he is very well known as a champion of the com- mon man; no wealthy persons of shady character making fat con- tributions, since he has earned for himself the nickname of “Honest Abe.” What prompted, then, the citi- zens of Miami to go to the polls in record-breaking numbers to de- posit their ballots for Abe Arono- vitz?. Perhaps they were tired of what they were getting, and they saw in this straightforward gen- tleman a hope of seeing «the dreams they had for their home town become at last, a reality. If so, they have not been disappoint- ed, because His Honor has been doing a very good job of cleanning around City Hall. He has abolish- ed several departments of the Ci- ty Government, in which he consi- dered that the taxpayers were not getting their money’s worth. No more high-salaried press agents for the City, because the Mayor believes that the official acts of the public servants “should speak for themselves”. No more parties for which the taxpayer was the involuntary host. And, in the same way, the Mayor has been going through every department, like the traditional new broom, sweeping away all the waste that was clog- ging City Hall. And, after a few minutes of conversation with the Mayor, during which we could de- tect a grim determination behind a kind and pleasant personality, we cannot resist an impulse to, El Alcalde Aronovitz, de Miami (Continuacién de la Pagina 16) que venga a mi tienda y que pidan alli lo que necesiten, y que se lo anotaremos en este cuaderno”. En menos de 48 horas la tienda estaba easi vacia, a pesar de que tenia una existencia de casi 50.000 dola- res, lo que en aquellos tiempos era una considerable fortuna. “Pero, jsabe usted?” nos dice sonriente y complacido, “mi padre no perdié un centavo de ese dinero. Hasta el ultimo centavo se lo pa- garon”, y agrego que los cubanos, que habia sufrido las mayores pér- didas, empezaron a llamarlo des- de entonces “Martin”, en vez de David, y continuaron haciéndolo por el resto de su vida. Cuando insinuamos que San Mar- tin, segiin la Iglesia Catélica, dedi- cé6 toda su vida a hacer caridad, y que tal vez los cubanos quisieron demostrarle su agradecimiento es- tableciendo una similitud, el Al- ealde dijo: “Puede ser, posible- mente”. AgregO que su padre re- cibié una carta muy bonita del Go- bierno de Cuba, dandole las gracias por lo que hizo por los cubanos. Le preguntamos entonces si te- nia algin plan inmediato para fo- mentar las relaciones con los pai- ses latinoamericanos, a lo cual res- pondié: “Hace mas de 25 afos, cuando era muy joven, y Miami tenia co- mo Alcalde a E. G. Sewell, acos- tumbraba visitarlo y con frecuen- cia le oi hablar de lo que Mamaba su “suefio favorito”, que consistia en establecer una agencia o centro para fomentar las relaciones cul- turales y comerciales con los pai- ses del sur. Desde entonces, me he ido apropiando del suefo y cuando llegué a este puesto fué una de las primeras cosas que in- clui en mi programa. Hasta ahora, hemos organizado un plan que es el siguiente: “1—Construccién de un edificio, a un costo de un millén de dolares, para un Centro de Exhibicién Inter- americano, en donde los fabricantes de los Estados Unidos puedan mos- trar sus productos a los visitantes de la América Latina. También ha- bra espacio disponible para los latinoamericanos que quieran mos- trar sus productos a posibles com- pradores en este pais. A ese respecto el Sr. Alcalde ha estado en conferencias con los se- flores Alex Balfe, Presidente del Comité Industrial de Miami, y el Sr, Delio Cruz, Presidente del Co- mité Interamericano de Miami, so- bre la manera de llevar a feliz realizacién ‘el plan.’ “2—Un gran Centro Turistico, en el mismo edificio, en donde ha- brd espacio disponible para todas las agencias de turismo de los pai- localizarse alli. Los consulados po- drian alquilar oficinas alli también, lo que seria mucho mas facil y comodo para las personas que ten- gan que visitar varios consulados en un mismo dia. “3—La construccién de un cen- tro de actividades culturales, algo asi como un Auditorium, en donde se puede fomentar la amistad por medio del conocimiento de las acti- vidades culturales de cada uno de les paises de las Américas. En ese sentido hemos estado conferen- ciando con funcionarios de la Alian- | za Interamericana, sobre un plan bajo el cual ellos aportarian el va- | lor de la construccién de un audi- torium, en terrenos adyacentes al edificio comercial, los que Ja ciu- dad dara en arrendamiente por la suma nominal de_un dolar por); ano”. Preguntamos entonces al Sr. Al- calde si no creia que este plan pu- diera estar en conflicto con el otro | de construccién de un Centro In-| teramericano Comercial y Cultural, y nos dijo que, por el contrario, el | plan mas pequeno puede ser como) el primer paso hacia la realizacién | del otro mucho mayor. Sobre los planes para ensanchar el Puerto de Miami, nos explicd que ese proyecto esta ahora en ma- | nos de los Comisionados del Con- dado, pero que esta seguro de que, con la construccién del nuevo puer- to, a un costo de 17 millones de délares, habraé un gran aumento en el trafico de barcos, no sdélo de carga, sino de pasajeros y gi- ras a los puertos latinoamericanos. Con referencia a los latinoameri- canos, tanto residentes como visi- tantes, y su posible influencia en la economia y otros aspectos de la vida de Miami, nos respondié que, cuando vino a vivir en esta ciu- dad, era muy raro oir el sonido de una voz hablando espanol, obser-| vando que hoy hay alrededor de 50.000 latinoamericanos como resi- dentes permanentes, y que mas de 100.000 visitan a Miami anualmen- te, especialmente durante los me- ses de verano, gastando millones de doélares, que son una contribu- cion bastante deseable a la econo- mia de la ciudad. El Sr. Alealde concluyé diciendo que hara todo lo que le sea hu- manamente posible para atraer vi- sitantes de la América Latina en numeros cada vez mayores, esti- mulando, al mismo tiempo, el tu- rismo desde aqui. a la América La- tina, no sdlo por las ventajas eco- nomicas que se pueden obtener, sino porque crée que las visitas a nuestros respectivos paises ayuda- ran mucho a aumentar “el buen entendimiento y la buena voluntad que deberia prevalecer entre las hermanas republicas de este hemis- ges latinoamericanos que deseen ferio”. DOMINGO, 9 DE MAYO DE 1954 GOOD NEIGHBOR POLICY. — Miami’s Mayor, plans for the construction of a Million Dollar Display Center, for the promotion of commercial and cultural relations with the Latin American countries. With the Mayor (center) are, Mr. Alex Balfe, (right), president of the Industrial Committee for Miami, and Mr. Delio Cruz (left), president of Inter American Committee for Miami, who are enthusiastic supporters of the Mayor’s plan. | | State that this is a broom that intends to stay new, and will keep on sweeping right to the end of |the term in office. Although born in New York, where his mother was visiting her parents, Mayor Aronovitz grew up in Key West, where his parents, David and Kate, had been estab- lished since 1888. For that reason, it was very easy to switch our con- versation to things Latin Ameri- can He pauses for a moment when we mention the subject, and we see in his face a dreamy , far- away look, as if he was trying to bring back to his mind happy memories of a long, long ago. “To begin with,” he states with a big smile, “I want everybody to understand that my knowledge of the Latin people does not come from the movies, dime novels, nor any other such, source, as unfor- tunately is the case with too many | Americans. I grew among the La- | tin boys in Key West, went to school with them, played with | them. I had an opportunity to ‘learn. first- hand, in everyday con- tact, of their habits and culture, their aspirations and hopes, and at a very early age I reached the |conclusion that no matter where |we, or our parents, come from, | we are all brothers, we all have the same origin, and our aims and hopes for a better life are exactly \the same.” His Honor remarked then that he likes very much the Latin Ame- | rican music, and remembered that |as a child, when he was learning how to play the piano, he used to play some Latin American tunes fairly well. However, when this writer said that he would like very much to hear him play some of them, the Mayor replied quickly that he is too busy, much too busy, for sucha performance at the pre- sent time. But he gave us, instead, a story that, for human interest, is, beautiful musie to anybody’s ears. In the year 1911, related the Mayor, a heavy storm lashed Key West, destroying a good portion of the city, and causing great da- mage. Hundreds of persons were left homeless, and many lost every- thing they had. Mr. David Aronovitz, our Ma- yor’s father, had one of the larg- est stores on Main Street, and as a leading citizen he was consulted by city officials about what to do to alleviate so much suffering. He went out, bought himself a large book, went to the office of one of the officials and, placing the book on his desk, told him: “Here is my personal answer. You may tell the people to come to my store and get whatever they need. We will put it in this book”. In less than 48 hours the store was almost emp- ty, although it had a stock of al- HEMISFERIO most fifty thousand dollars, which was quite a large fortune in those days. “But, you know?” said the Ma- yor with a smile of complacence, “my father did not lose a nickel of that money. Every cent of it was paid back”, adding that the Cubans, who suffered the heaviest losses, started then to call his fa- ther “Martin”, instead and they did so for the rest of his life. When we suggested that Saint Martin, according to the Catholie Church, devoted his entire life to charity, and that the Cubans want ed to show their appreciation by establishing a similarity, the Ma yor said: “It could possibly be,” adding that his father received later a very nice letter from the Cuban Government, thanking him *hat he had done for the Cu- bans then asked the Mayor if he had any immediate plans for pro- moting relations with the Latin American countries, to which he replied: “More than 25 years ago, when I was very young, and Miami had E. G. Sewell as Mayor, I used to visit him, and very often heard him talking about what he called of David, MIAMI’S “HONEST ABE”, — Behind the pleasant smile of Miami Abe Aronovitz, discussing over the lIucheon table his “pet dream”, which consisted of establishing some kind of an ageney or center for the promo- tion of commercial and cultural relations with the countries to the South. Since then, I have been making it a dream of my own, and when I came to City Hall, that was one of the first things I included in my program. So far, we have put together a plan that calls for the following: “1, Construction of a building, at a cost of one million dollars, for an Inter American Display Center, where the United States manufacturers can show their pro- ducts to visitors from Latin Ame- rica. Also, there will be space av- ailable for Latin Americans who want to show their products to prospective buyers in this country. In that respect, the Mayor said that he has been discussing with Mr. Alex Balfe, President of the Industrial Committee for Miami, and Mr. Delio Cruz, president of the Inter American Committee for Miami, en the best ways to carry this plan to a happy conclusion, “2. A large Tourist Center, in the same building, where space will be available to all the Tourist Agencies from the Latin American ——(Continued op Page 15)——~ Mayor, Abe Aronovitz, is a grim determination to eliminate waste in City Hall. A very good friend of Latin America, the Mayor has been in contact with Latin people since his childhood days in Key West, and says he gets along very well with them. PAG 11