THE JURY DELIVERED THE VERDICT AT 12:47 p.m. on December 3. 1990. All six police officers were found not guilty of conspiracy in the beating of a Miami Puerto Rican. alleged drug dealer Leonardo Mechado. Such acquittals had generated riots before, but the rioters had always been African Americans. The Miami Puerto Rican neighborhood of Wynwood pinchei in between the city’s two largest African-American communities, Overtown and Liberty City had no history of mass violence. Police said they bad no reports that residents there were on edge follow- ing the verdict, The police and the rest of Miami soon learned that frustration with police brutality and the injustices of the criminal justice system were not limited to African Amen- cans. Rocks and bottles greeted firefighters who arrived at 6:20p.m. to quell a house tire. An hour and a hal.f later. tiames roared out of the offices of a constn.iction company. Fires quickly engulfed eight buildings and looters sacked numerous stores. On one cornera small group huddled waving the puerto Rican flag and chanting, “Tostones y chuleja, Puerto Rico se iespeta”(Plaintains and porkchops. respect Puerto Rico). Many Miami residents first learned that there was a Puerto Rican nLighborhood in Miami from the late evening news reports during the crisis. Granted, many knew that former long-time mayor Maurice Ferre was Puerto Rican, but he was one of Miami’s elite, a member of a small group of Puerto Rican professionals who have both the money and the pres tige their Wynwood counterparts lack. Most Miamians had forgotten, or never even known, that in the 1950s, Puerto Ricans constituted an important component ot south Dade County’s agricultural labor force. Since Puerto Rican baseball great Roberto Clemente visited Wynwood in the I 960s and gave his name to the area’s only park, political and business leaders promised much financial aid to its low-income residents, but they delivered little. A plan to attract businesses engaged in foreign trade never materialized, and a proposed upgrade of Roberto Clemente Parknevermoved forward. A 1990 study indicated thatthe neighborhoodhadthecity”s highestcrimerate. While the 1990 Census found over 72.000 Puerto Ricans in Miami. Roberto arnacho of the National Puerto Rican Forum claimed, 4’It’s a connunity that has been neglected by government officials. They have not been listened to.” The riot momentarily focused attention on Miami’s Puerto Ricans, but the improvements to Roberto Clemente Park were still not completed until mid-1992. Other than that. little has changed. Miami’s Puerto Ricans have returned to being inisihle to the majority.
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