Experience History and Fuel the Future: Conversation with Miami Historian Arva Moore Parks

At the 26th annual Miami Book Fair International, Premier Guide Miami's Jennifer Hebert caught up with Arva Moore Parks — lifelong Miami resident, Emmy Award-winning historian, and author of Miami, the Magic City — to talk preservation, the city's cultural evolution, and why a sense of history is essential to a sense of place.. Premier Guide Miami sat down to find out what that means — and what comes next.

The 26th annual Miami Book Fair International was well underway, having commenced on Sunday, November 8 with the Evenings With... program. For the first six nights of the book fair, notable authors from the U.S. and abroad read and discussed their work. The festival concluded with its beloved street fair on November 13-15, with over 350 authors from all over the world taking part in the Festival of Authors.

According to the Miami Book Fair International website: "The first book fair ever held in Miami was called Books by the Bay, in 1984. The two-day street fair grew steadily each year and by the 1990s, the renamed Miami Book Fair International had become the largest literary festival in the country. The eight-day book party draws hundreds of thousands of book lovers to downtown Miami each November for a festival of all things read and written."

Premier Guide Miami's Jennifer Hebert caught up with Arva Moore Parks — lifelong resident and Miami historian — who discussed her book Miami, the Magic City at the fair. Moore Parks has authored, co-authored, edited and contributed to over 30 books, films and documentaries on Miami. She received an Emmy Award from the Florida Academy of Television and Arts and Sciences, is an ardent Miami preservationist, and a self-proclaimed "card-carrying book freak."

PGM: Your newest book, Miami, the Magic City, came out this year. What sets it apart from your other work and from other books about Miami?

AMP: This is the third revision of a book I wrote in 1980. This time, I completely re-worked the entire book — adding, subtracting and re-interpreting as necessary. This is a comprehensive history of Miami from its geological beginning until 2009. I don't believe there is anything else like it. I hope the readers will understand today by understanding our past and how it impacts today's life. My mission is to help build a sense of place — something that I believe is impossible to do without a sense of history.

PGM: As a lifelong resident of Miami, what are you most passionate about when it comes to this city?

AMP: Since I have no place else to call home it has always been easy for me to feel at home in Miami. I have watched it change maybe three or four times in my lifetime. I think we have thrived on this change and by this constant arrival of people. I know Miami and its people very well. I learn something new every day. That is what makes me love Miami.

PGM: How long have you experienced the Miami International Book Fair? How have you seen it grow?

AMP: I was a brand new member of the Miami Dade Community College Board of Trustees when the first Book Fair began. As a card-carrying book freak with a huge personal library and bookaholic personality, I have attended all the Book Fairs — usually coming home with new ideas and a bag full of new books. I think it has proved that we have more thinking people than anyone imagined. It makes me proud.

PGM: What do you think are the most important parts of the city that need preservation efforts?

AMP: I worry especially about Coconut Grove, Miami's oldest and in many ways most unique area. It is being threatened by McMansions and overdevelopment. I also worry about Little Havana where the bungalows are going down without a whimper — the Cuban culture may lose its "Plymouth Rock." The most immediate threatened treasure is the Marine Stadium. We have come a long way since I first got involved in preservation in the 1970s, but there is still much to protect.

PGM: Do you have a fun or little-known fact about Miami for us?

AMP: Most of Miami history is unknown to most Miamians. One thought comes to mind — the Everglades started just north of the Miami River and west of 27th Avenue. Today, more than a million people live on former wetland.

Fun fact for PGM readers: Miami got its nickname "the Magic City" in the early 1900s because Miami became a city almost overnight — without ever being a town.

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