Miami

Marion Manley: Miami's First Woman Architect

priyanka — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Marion Manley was not merely Miami’s first female architect, she also played a crucial role in the area’s planning. Responsible for much of the design of the University of Miami—dubbed “the first modern university”—Manley was also a pioneer in what we now call “green building” and ecological preservation.

Authors Catherine Lynn and Carie Penabad, both professors of architecture at the University of Miami—where Manley spent much of the 1940s designing a wide variety of buildings, from housing for veterans to student worship centers—have done much to bring Manley’s legacy back into the spotlight. This beautiful book, complete with photos and artist renderings of the buildings Manley designed, also includes technical details that architects and design-buffs will appreciate. Above all, however, it’s an overdue tribute to a woman who accomplished so much so far ahead of her time.

Throughout most of her career, though she was a groundbreaking professional, Manley’s work was largely eclipsed by lower-ranking men in her field. She got little credit for the work she did—which was impressive not just because it was a first for her gender, but for their architectural and technical merit—and what credit she got, she had to fight for. Working into her eighties (Manley died in 1984 at age ninety), Manley also served on numerous state and national boards and commissions, donated her design work for charitable causes, and did professional work to support the war efforts in WWI and WWII.

Though I enjoyed the book, I would have loved to have read more about Manley’s personal life. The authors throw out teasers now and then (her “cussing out” of incompetent contractors, and telling interviewers that she was “a hedonist” in her eighties both come to mind), but for the most part stick to the straightforward—and at times, dry—account of her work. Nevertheless, it is a step toward restoring Manley’s contributions to their rightful place in design history.

There is precious little to be found about Manley on the internet; most of what does exist is related to this book. Let us hope, then, that this tome on her body of professional work spurs a renewed interest in Manley and her accomplishments.

Written by: M.L. Madison, December 10th 2010

How to Leave Hialeah

admin — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:04:00 +0000

By Jennine Capó Crucet

University of Iowa Press

In real life, I have had only a small glimpse of Miami, driving through on the way to the Florida Keys. After reading Jennine Capó Crucet’s story collection How to Leave Hialeah, I feel I have witnessed Miami life on the most intimate levels.

This debut story collection won the 2009 Iowa Short Fiction Award and was a finalist for the thirty-fourth Annual Chicano/Latino Literary Prize. The eleven stories, one of which is set in Cuba, are about characters who could be part of one big, extended family in Miami’s Cuban American community. With narrators and protagonists ranging in age from childhood to retirement, Capó Crucet demonstrates her ability to write in a believable voice for a variety of characters.

While Capó Crucet has brought to life a particular community, the themes in her stories translate across cultures: love and loss, familial and marital relationships, desire for success, the generation gap. Finding a balance between independence and familial obligations has a central place, and one narrator describes his family as being “like the heat in a car you’ve left parked in the sun.”

The stories deal with ordinary, painful struggles such as facing illness and making ends meet; the soap opera dramas of family resentments and grudges; and the challenges of transmitting values and culture to the next generation. Moments of beauty are sprinkled throughout, in the kindnesses shown to one another and the small, physical pleasures of daily life. My favorite story was "The Next Move," about a man whose wife had gone home to Cuba for a visit, and how he coped with a glimpse of life without her. This old man’s voice was so clear, vivid evidence of Capó Crucet’s gift for listening to real voices and transforming them into print.

Even when the stories have bizarre and outlandish plot devices, the results are fantastic. A couple of times I had to realize that what seemed odd to me would not to another reader (and vice versa), depending on life experience. (For example, the opening story has a young woman go from a dance club to church, and while at first surprising, that seemed reasonable to me.) I look forward to Capó Crucet’s next book, and will check her website regularly in the hopes of seeing information about new stories published.

Written by: Lisa Rand, November 9th 2009