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Hialeah, Florida, Upscale Hotels, Tours and Travel Packages 

Hialeah is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 226,419. As of 2006, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau had the city's population reduced to 209,971, making it the fifth largest city in the state. Hialeah is part of the Miami metropolitan area and the Greater South Florida metropolitan area.

The city's name is most commonly attributed to Muskogee origin, "Haiyakpo" (prairie) and "hili" (pretty) combining in "Hialeah" to mean "pretty prairie". Alternatively, the word is of Seminole origin meaning "Upland Prairie". The city is located upon a large prairie between Biscayne Bay and the Everglades.

Hialeah is a large city with a well established cultural character, containing a diverse population from all over Latin America and the Caribbean. It is mostly a working class city, with bustling gritty commercial and industrial sectors. The city has been well known for its Cuban community since the late 60's and early 70's. Today the city is more diverse and known for its multi-cultural population from not only Cuba but all over the Caribbean, north and south America, and other smaller communities from around the world.

Hialeah History
 
Downtown Hialeah in 1923The Seminole interpretation of its name, "High Prairie", evokes a picture of the grassy plains used by the native Indians coming from the everglades to dock their canoes and display their wares for the new comers of Miami. This "high prairie" caught the eye of pioneer aviator Glenn Curtiss and Missouri cattleman James H. Bright who saw its great potential in 1921.

In the early "Roaring 20’s", Hialeah could have been considered a party city. Entertainment was plentiful. Sporting included the Spanish sport of jai-alai and greyhound racing, and media included silent movies like D.W. Griffith’s The White Rose which was made at the Miami Movie Studios located in Hialeah. Although the great hurricane of 1926 brought to an end many things, it could not quench the spirit of those who knew what Hialeah could be.
 
Group of tour buses sponsored by real estate developers in Hialeah in 1921.In the years since its incorporation in 1925, many historical events and people have been linked with Hialeah. The opening of Hialeah Park in 1925 (which was nicknamed the "Grand Dame") as a horse track received more coverage in the Miami media than any other sporting event in the history of Miami up to that time and since then there have been countless horseracing histories played out at the world famous 220-acre (0.89 km2) park. It opened as one of the most grand of thoroughbred horse racing parks with its majestic Mediterranean style architecture and was considered the Jewel of Hialeah at the time.

The Park’s grandeur has attracted millions, included among them are names known around the world such as; the Kennedy family, Harry Truman, General Omar Bradley, Winston Churchill, and J.P. Morgan. Hialeah Park also holds the dual distinction of being an Audubon Bird Sanctuary due to its famous pink flamingoes and being listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The famous aviatrix Amelia Earhart in 1937 said her final good-byes to the continental U.S. from Hialeah as she left on her ill-fated flight around the world in 1937.

Intersection of Palm Avenue and Okeechobee Road in the 1920'sIt was once envisioned as a playground for the rich, but Cuban exiles, fleeing Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, finished the work started by World War II Veterans and city planners and turned it into a working-class community. Hialeah historian Fernandez-Kelly explained "It became an affordable Eden." She further describes the city as "...a place where different groups have left their imprint while trying to create a sample of what life should be like." Several waves of Cuban exiles, beginning right after Castro's takeover in 1959 and continuing through to the Freedom Flights from 1965-1973, the Mariel boatlift in 1980, and the "balseros" or boat people of the late 1990s, have created the most economically successful immigrant enclave in U.S. history as Hialeah is the only American industrial city that continues to grow.

From a population of 1,500 in 1925, Hialeah has grown at a rate faster than most of the ten largest cities in the State of Florida since the 1960’s and holds the rank of Florida’s fifth-largest city, with more than 236,000 residents. The city is also one of the largest employers in Dade County. Predominantly Hispanic, Hialeah residents have assimilated their cultural heritage and traditions into a hard-working, diverse community proud of its ethnicity, as well as its family oriented neighborhoods.

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www.hialeahfl.gov

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