The connection between the two islands is seen at shops and sometimes in the smallest details.

By Fabiola Santiago
Miami Herald

KEY WEST -- The tacky tourist T-shirt shops on Duval Street carry trendy cigar-box purses, old watering holes sport a "mojito madness hour," and the quaint shop Cuba! Cuba! sells arts and crafts by Cuban artists and the kind of nostalgic memorabilia seen only in Cuba-obsessed Miami.

On Mallory Square, at the traditional sunset celebration, Antonio Rodriguez, a Cuban artist who came to Key West as a child on the 1980 Mariel boatlift, sells his nostalgic watercolors of chickens and tropical fruits -- anon, papaya, coconuts -- as a small salsa band plays Top 40 salsa hits nearby at Don Pepe's patio bar.

Cayo Hueso (Bone Key), as the Spanish named this island when they found bones scattered everywhere, is embracing its Cuban heritage with unusual fervor. Even Key West's famous Ghosts and Legends tour makes a point to incorporate references to the practice of santeria on the island.

These days, the Key West of Mel Fisher and Jimmy Buffett shares the stage with the historic Cayo Hueso of Jose Marti and Havana ties that predate the Cubanization of Miami.

"The Cuban influence has always been here -- it's just more visible these days," says Larry Winters, owner of Cuba! Cuba!

Winters opened the store eight years ago when he realized Cuban culture -- via the food and the music and, he notes, the popularity of Gloria Estefan's "Mi Tierra" -- was making a resurgence in the United States.

"The only images we have of Cuba is Fidel Castro and the balseros coming over on rafts," Winters says. "So when I went over the first time and saw the architecture [of Havana] -- a combination of Rome, Madrid and Miami Beach all rolled up into one -- I said, 'Here is this beautiful, old culture Americans have no knowledge of,' and I wanted to do an upscale presentation of it."

His store carries some items you can get in Miami, like estampillas, prayer cards of Our Lady of Charity and the Virgin of Regla, but also some rare finds such as posters of Cuban classics hanging in Cuba's National Museum and landscape paintings and wood sculpture by Cuban artists from as far away as the eastern city of Holguin.

His store is an eye-catcher.

"Every Cuban that goes by comes in out of curiosity, but most customers are plain vanilla Americans," he says.

Winters says he stays out of Cuban politics completely. A sign at the store says so. "It's part of our mission statement to present the culture of the island and not get involved in anything political," Winter says.

The renewed interest in Key West's Cuban heritage also has been fueled by the 1992 restoration of the San Carlos Institute. An architectural crown jewel on Duval Street, it had been abandoned for almost two decades.

The San Carlos, named after Cuba's San Carlos Seminary and in honor of Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, father of Cuba's independence, opened in 1871 and hosted exiled Cuban leaders such as Jose Marti during their bid for independence from Spain.

It's now used primarily for educational conferences, many with a Cuba-related focus.

To the Margaritaville visitor, Cuban Key West -- old and new -- is in the details.

As in Cuba, you wake to roosters crowing, and they're seen all over -- crossing even busy Duval Street. Cuban Conchs, however, call their cafe con leche only "a con leche." They accompany it with the traditional Cuban bread and butter for breakfast and eat it standing up at little cafeteria counters. And regular visitors from Miami swear that the anon (sweetsop) and guanabana (soursop) ice creams at the Flamingo Ice Cream shop are the best anywhere.

At the bodega in the Casa Cayo Hueso y Habana complex, you can buy a Christmas tree ornament that's a set of bongos: One drum top says "Key West," the other "Cuba."

At the outdoor Don Pepe's bar, where an old sign boasts "Fly to Havana in 30 Minutes," a bartender named Rob mixes a mean mojito.

"Soy Roberrrrto!," the old Conch says, proudly showing off how well he rolls his "r."