I've been splitting my time between New York and Florida for the past 17 years. And prior to that, my parents had a place in Sunny Isles (North Miami Beach), and prior to that, my maternal grandparents has a place in Miami Beach as well. And my grandparents on my father's side had a place on Key Largo. They were two of the first Italian born landowners in Monroe County. Italians and Jews are very similar in that regard (they call it being born with sand in their shoes). They equated a few months a year in Florida as the personification of the American dream .

So needless to say, I have a lot of Cuban American friends down there. And Castro Cuba fascinates me because I see them as being similar to the Italians under Mussolini. Cubans are also very big on family and Catholicism, very much like Italians.