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Travel south of Miami and you’ll find yourself in deep in the country. I’m talking farms and boots and old pickup trucks with radios blaring Toby Keith and Tammy Wynette. I’m talking about land that’s home to real cowboys.
There was a time when Dade County — what we used to call ourselves before we thought we had to add the word “Miami” just so people would know where we are — was renowned for it agriculture. Young Julia Tuttle sent an undamaged orange branch to Henry Flagler during a hard winter freeze and that act persuaded him to extend his railroad down to South Florida and, eventually across 7 miles of open ocean down to Key West.
Neighborhoods that are now home to endless suburban tract homes once hosted vast acreages of mangoes, avocados, and lime trees and pastures where cattle were raised for milk and meat. One vestige of our agrarian past is an annual festivity that was once focused on agriculture, but has since given way to celebrating youth, funnel cakes, and rides that render young and old alike dizzy.
There’s something a little more authentic that happens every year. The first stop on the Professional Rodeo Circuit is the Homestead Championship Rodeo in late January. The riders, horses, and bulls are rested and raring to go. This isn’t an amateur exhibition. This is real rodeo.
Our local rodeo tradition is endangered. The Homestead Championship Rodeo, which just celebrated its 75th birthday, is in need of a new home. It’s been using a small parcel in Homestead’s Harris Field. It’s outgrown its current digs.
When Hurricane Andrew struck in 1992, the rodeo grounds were leveled. The people rallied, rebuilding the stadium and the bleachers. The season was lost, but the rodeo went on again in 1995 and hasn’t stopped since.
Miami-Dade Commissioner Kionne McGhee is pushing to have the event move to the Homestead Speedway. The idea has received varied support from other Commissioners. Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins was cool to the idea of moving the Homestead Rodeo to the Speedway, citing a concern that ticket prices will rise.
The County should do more and help pay for the transition of the Homestead Championship Rodeo from Harris Field to the Speedway.
Otherwise, a unique event event and a marker of local identity and culture could soon fade away.
