8.5 Square Mile Area

Community protruding into Everglades National Park, often regarded as within the loosely-defined agricultural region of “The Redlands”. Area is entirely rural, largely consisting of five-acre hobby farms, although professional operations are prevalent and not limited to; plant nurseries, fruit tree groves, sugarcane fields, corn fields, cattle pastures, palm tree farms, and banana groves.

The community is roughly 95% Latino in origin, of generally Cuban and Mexican stock.
A large number of migrant farm laborers live in the area, mainly residing in travel trailers and converted sheds. Additionally, the area is noted for it’s “guajiro” culture, referring to Cuban farmers and cattlemen exiled by Castro’s administration. These individuals often own “finquitas”, five-acre estates centered around concrete-block ranch homes, often extensively planted with tropical fruit trees and utilized for equestrian purposes.

Although the majority of the community’s roads have been paved in the past twenty years, many remain packed-gravel. Regardless, both paved and unpaved remain treacherous, with littered potholes and frequent flooding. The area’s remote situation allows for a hotbed of illegal dumping, often in the form of animals, boats, vehicles, roofing material, industrial waste, and furniture.

During the 1990s and 2000s, the 8.5 Square Mile Area was targeted by the national park service for acquisition and demolition, in the name of Everglades restoration. Following years of controversy, a compromise buyout was realized that only targeted the community’s western quarter, a sparsely-inhabited bushland of sawgrass, melaleuca and Australian pine. A levee was constructed around the remaining community for the purpose of flood mitigation.