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TELL THE STORY
CHINA VALLEYS
August 21, 1997
(Mr. Alex Milford): My name is Alex Milford. Today is August
the 21, 1997. I'm at the home of Mr. China Valles, I'm
interviewing him on the relocation and transportation and history
of Overtown Community for the Black Archives.
Good evening, how are you doing Mr. Valles.
(Mr. China Valles): Fine thank you.
(Mr. Milford): The first set of questions I'm going to ask
you is regarding family life.
(Mr. Valles): Family life, okay.
(Mr. Milford): Where were your parents born?
(Mr. Valles): They were born in the Cape Verde Islands, Brava
it's called, Brava in the Cape Verde Islands.
(Mr. Milford): Did they ever live in Overtown?
(Mr. Valles): No, my people come from Massa...they come from
the Cape Verde Islands originally but they lived in Massachusetts.
I came here from Massachusetts in 1962.
(Mr. Milford): Where were your grandparents born?
(Mr. Valles): Same place in the Cape Verde Islands.
(Mr. Milford): The next set of questions is regarding
employment from 1945 to 1970 or in your.case from the time that you
lived in Overtown. Can you describe the jobs that you had?
(Mr. Valles): I was a radio broadcaster doing a music show
from over WMBM Radio and ah by...in 1962, January of 1962.
(Mr. Milford): Do you remember what kind of hours did you
work?
(Mr. Valles): Yeah it was always the late hours, we worked
form midnight to 6 in the morning, overnight.
(Mr. Milford): How did you find this job?
(Mr. Valles): How?
(Mr. Milford): Umm hum.
(Mr. Valles): I was sent here to, to...from Washington, D.C.
to ah open up a brand new radio station that was opening here in
Miami, Florida. I stayed with the station I guess what, 6 months,
a year?
(Mrs. Valles): I'd say a year.
(Mr. Valles): About 6 months and then I went to WMBM Radio
from that station and that's how I started on WMBM, doing jazz,
rhythm and blues, jazz.
(Mr. Milford): When and why did you leave those jobs?
(Mr. Valles): Hun?
(Mr. Milford): When and why did you leave the jobs?
(Mr. Valles): When and why? Well the man who owned this
radio station and brought me down here to open it up didn't' keep
his promises and that was the reason for my leaving. He didn't
keep his promises job wise and money wise so I...I left, that's why
I went over to WMBM radio.
(Mrs. Valles): Station turned Latin.
(Mr. Valles): Hun?
(Female voice): Station turned Latin.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah, then the station turned Latin too so I
went to WMBM.
(Mr. Valles): Do you remember where the other members of your
family worked?
(Mr. Valles): Do what?
(Mr. Milford): The other members of your family, where did
they work?
(Mr. Valles): Do other members of my family work?
(Mr. Milford): Un hun, where did they work?
(Mr. Valles): Where?
(Mr. Milford): Un hun.
(Mr. Valles): is my wife she's in, she's in the
school system and she's a librarian at Toussaint L'Ouverture
School.
(Mrs. Valles): At the time I was at Earlington Heights.
(Mr. Valles): Is that what they called it? Oh she was also
at Earlington Heights, yeah, before Toussaint L'Ouverture. Do you
want to tell them the years.
(Mrs. Valles): Well none of the family was living here except
for my husband and I...
(Mr. Valles): ...During those days.
(Mrs. Valles): ...and most of my family is in Washington and
his family is in Massachusetts but I have a daughter and a son that
were raised here. My daughter is in Glen Vernon, Maryland, my son
is still here.
(Mr. Milford): Beginning in the late '50s many immigrants
move to Miami from the Caribbean including Cuba, Haiti and other
countries. Did those immigrants competed with Overtown residents
for jobs?
(Mr. Valles):
(Mrs. Valles):
Umm that's a...
We weren't here in the '50s.
We saw the
influx.
Valles):
Milford) :
Valles):
Milford):
Valles):
Milford):
Valles):
Milford):
Valles):
Milford):
Valles):
We weren'there in the '50s. We came in 1962.
At the time that you were there?
At the time that I was there?
Was there any competition?
Competition?
Umm hum.
With who, with what?
With the immigrants during the time...
immigrants?
Yeah.
Not to my knowledge, like I said I was in radio
and I wasn't involved in any of that.
(Mr. Milford): Do you recall people moving into the area from
out of town?
(Mr. Valles): Oh, absolutely, sure. It was an influx I
recall of Cubans coming over here by plane back in those days. I
think that was the beginning of there exodus.
(Mrs. Valles): '62, it was '62 when they came.
(Mr. Valles): Was it '62 when they came? Yeah, they was
bringing plane loans over from Cuba during those days.
(Mrs. Valles): I saw in the...because I was at Earlington
(Mr.
(Mr.
(Mr.
(Mr.
(Mr.
(Mr.
(Mr.
(Mr.
(Mr.
(Mr.
(Mr.
Heights and when the...I-95 ah, when they extended the expressway
to Overtown, a lot of the people from Overtown moved to my area and
they built special apartments or duplexes that could hold, had 3 or
4 bedrooms to house them so Earlington Heights was overcrowded and
they had to build Arcola Lakes and so we were housing...I saw
Kelsey Far first and then I saw Arcola Lakes so Earlington Heights
was on double shift because of the influx from Overtown moving into
the Liberty area.
(Mr. Milford): Do you remember where these immigrants lived
in Overtown?
(Mr. Valles): Where?
(Mr. Milford): Umm hum.
(Mr. Valles): Oh, gosh, all over Overtown, Second Avenue,
Third Avenue, all over, all over. Second Avenue, Third Avenue were
very, very business in that immediate area by the Sir John Hotel it
was very busy, very congested.
(Mr. Milford): Do you remember what sort of jobs that they
had?
(Mrs. Valles): They lived on welfare that I knew from the
school system.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah, when they first came over. But Overtown
during those days was a very striving community on it's own, now,
a lot of them worked right in Overtown and the various jobs because
there was a lot of business in Overtown in those days in addition
to restaurants, clubs, hotels and so forth.
(Mr. Milford): The next set of questions I'm going to ask you
is regarding neighborhood life between '45 and '70 or in your case
from '62 until the time that you left. Could you describe your
place of residence?
(Mrs. Valles): We lived on Sixty-First by Glade View
Elementary, Sixty-First and Twenty-Ninth Avenue.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah. Sixty-First Twenty-Ninth, is that
where that was?
(Mrs. Valles): Umm hun and we stayed there until we went to
Fiftieth Street, a duplex on Fiftieth Street right across from
Manna Park. We were, we were on Sixty-First and Twenty-Ninth
Avenue for a year and then we moved to Fiftieth Street and we were
on Fiftieth Street about 3 or 4 years and we left there and we
moved to Eighth Avenue, 7744 Northwest Eighth Avenue and we were
there until 1969 from about 1965 until '69 and we moved here, were
we are now.
(Mr. Valles): Umm hum.
(Mr. Milford): Who lived in your household?
(Mr. Valles): Who lived where?
(Mr. Valles): In my household?
(Mr. Milford): Umm hum.
(Mrs. Valle): The two children.
(Mr. Valles): We had a boy and girl and ah my wife and I,
there's four of us.
(Mr. Milford): Who were your neighbors?
(Mr. Valles): Neighbors? Umm well...
(Mrs. Valle): On Sixty-First Street, Jacqueline Harold
was on one side and ah, oh I can't recall the couple in back of us.
When we moved to the Manna Park area, James Cash was right next
door to us.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah, I remember James.
(Mrs. Valle): He is now deceased but he was the principal and
a minister. So my kids grew up with the Cashes, Ida, the two
children, Yolanda and Jimmy Cash and we were there 4 years and then
we moved to Eighth Avenue and umm.
(Mr. Valles): Eighth Avenue, who was there on the corner?
Remember?
(Mrs. Valles): Well Johnny Jones was around the corner.
(Mr. Valles): Who?
(Mrs. Valles): Johnny Jones at Tenth Avenue and Seventy-
Fifth.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah, yeah. Johnny Jones and I'm trying to
think.
(Mrs. Valles): Next door to us, the neighborhood was
changing, there was a White family lived next door. There was a
lot of other families around us but we didn't know them personally.
Audrey the singer lived on the corner.
(Mr. Valles): Who?
(Mrs. Valles): There was a singer that lived on the corner
that we knew. Audrey, Wild Man Steve lived around the corner.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah, Wild lived there, Wild Man
Steve.
(Mr. Milford): Do you recollect where they worked?
(Mr. Valles): Umm, no. No, not, not really. We knew...
(Mrs. Valles): One was in radio.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah, Wild...
(Mrs. Valles): Of course Johnny Jones was in the school
system, one was a singer, Jacqueline Harold worked at the
University of Miami as a secretary and, of course, the Cashes were
both in the school system.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah, yeah.
(Mr. Milford): What had happened to those neighbors?
(Mr. Valles): Oh gosh.
(Mrs. Valles): Well, Johnny ah, Jacqueline Harold is now a
lawyer in Texas and, of course Johnny Jones is deceased. Ah Audrey
is still a singer, ah who else?
(Mr. Valles): Yeah but Johnny Jones became the school
superintendent didn't he?
(Mrs. Valles): He became a superintendent of schools but at
that time he wasn't. He was an administrator.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah.
(Mrs. Valles): Wild Man Steve is still on the road promoting
different shows, R&B show.
(Mr. Valles): Well, first he worked at WMBM radio. We worked
together. Thurman Butterball, Fred Hanna.
(Mr. Milford): Do you remember what year they left?
(Mr. Valles): The reason what?
(Mr. Milford): What years did they leave?
(Mrs. Valle): Left Miami do you mean?
(Mr. Milford): Left the Overtown area.
(Mrs. Valle): Oh.
(Mr. Valles): Who left Overtown?
(Mr. Milford): The neighbors, the neighbors like ah...the
neighbors you mentioned.
(Mrs. Valle): What, well they were still there except for the
ones who passed, or you know, they moved on. Jackie left in the
'80 and moved to Texas to study law and ah...
(Mr. Valles): The neighbors. Oh, they moved on. Yeah, yeah
and who else?
(Mrs. Valles): And I think Wild Man Steve's family is still
there on, on ah...
(Mr. Valles): I think so, I think he is still there, Wild
ah... a comedian, he traveled around the country as far as I know.
(Mrs. Valles): He's on Tenth Avenue and Seventy-Eighth
Street.
(Mr. Milford): Could you describe the main business areas you
went to in Overtown?
(Mr. Valles): Oh, thriving, a terrific business area. But
you could ride...like I said, there were restaurants, there were
clubs, there were hotels, they were all busy and other business of
course and in those days we had to ah...well, we had to shop in our
own community. White folks didn't want us for some reason
(laughter) ding dongs. We, we, so we had everything was right in
the community, all of the business work and so forth, there was a
lot of it. We were thriving, the way I remember it. It was really
thriving, a lot of different kind of businesses in Overtown.
(Mr. Milford): Could you describe where your family bought
groceries?
(Mr. Valles): How what? Where?
(Mr. Milford): Where your family bought groceries?
(Mr. Valles): Where?
(Mrs. Valles): Shell City. When Shell City was around.
(Mr. Valles): Shell City, yeah that was the place it was
Seventh Avenue, right? Seventh Avenue in Liberty City here. Shell
City had ah, ah...
(Mrs. Valles): It was a big market.
(Mr. Valles): A big market, a bunch of stores and it was like
a what, like ah, ah...
(Mrs. Valles): Well it was a department...it sold clothes, it
sold food and they had a restaurant.
(Mr. Valles): They sold everything, now they had different
stores, you know, it was like ah...
(Mrs. Valles): And when we first came here we went to Stevens
Market which was off of Twenty-Seventh Avenue and Sixty-Second
Street.
(Mr. Milford): Could you describe where your family went to
the barber or beauty shop?
(Mr. Valles): The barber?
(Mrs. Valles): Opal King's Beauty Shop in Overtown.
(Mr. Valles): Mop City. Oh, what do you call this place, the
other barber shop? The one that ah Muhammad Ali asked me about,
after he to me to say to guy tell him, tell him I
said hello?
(Mrs. Valles): I can't remember.
(Mr. Valles): You talked to his wife. That owns the
barbershop down on Seventh Avenue but way down.
(Mrs. Valles): Oh, Sonny's Barber shop, yeah.
(Mr. Valles): Sonny's! Yeah. I remember Muhammad Ali come
to me once and say, hey, tell all the guys at Sonny I said hello,
at Sonny's I said hello because he use to hang out there (laughter)
back in those days when he was here at Fifth Avenue, you know Fifth
Avenue ah gym, you know.
(Mr. Milford): Could you describe where your family went to
the drugstore or the neighborhood cleaners?
(Mr. Valles): Well like I said, we did your shopping at Shell
City right in our neighborhood, not, not...you know, did you go...
(Mrs. Valles): Not in Overtown, we lived in Liberty City. He
worked in Overtown but we lived in Liberty City.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah for the most part. Yeah.
(Mr. Milford): How long did you continue to patronize those
businesses in Overtown?
(Mr. Valles): How long?
(Mr. Milford): Umm hum.
(Mr. Valles): Oh, gee.
(Mrs. Valles): A long time we were living in that area.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah, long time, sure. Until other stores...
(Mrs. Valles): When we were on Sixty-First, we were there
about a year until Twenty-Ninth Avenue. We were shopping in the
Steven's, I think it was the Steven's Market which was like a Winn
Dixie and they had a cleaners over there. For us to go the beauty
parlor I would go to the one I liked and I like Opal King who was
in Overtown at that time. Umm and then when we moved on Fifieth
Street we started going to Shell City which is Liberty City.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah, well Sonny was the one that cut hair all
through the years, you know, before we moved up...to Mop City
there.
(Mr. Milford): During the period that you lived or worked in
Overtown what where the main things that made Overtown a community?
(Mr. Valles): Made Overtown a what?
(Mr. Milford): A community?
(Mr. Valles): A community?
(Mr. Milford): Umm hum.
(Mr. Valles): Well, the way I remember it, people stuck
together more I think in those days. You know, I remember coming
to work to the Night Beat, to the Night Beat Club, I use to park my
car at a garage right behind the Night Beat but there was a gas
station there. I had to walk one block to get to the club, walk
around the corner and go get in my booth and in the one block, show
you how friendly people were...they'd be hanging out the windows,
hey China plays some James Brown tonight, play some Ray Charles,
hey...and everybody sort of knew each other, you know it was very,
very friendly. Very, I found it very friendly. The people got
together more and so forth. I found a very friendly atmosphere in
Overtown.
(Mrs. Valle): You said what made it a community, they had the
stores and the shops right there in the community and you didn't
have to go far to shop...
(Mr. Valles): Right, exactly.
(Mrs. Valle): ...to shop to get there groceries or to go the
cleaners or, or the shoe shop or whatever. It was right there for
them. They didn't need Metro at that time.
(Mr. Valles): Everything was right there. I found it would
be a lot friendly I think than what you, what you see today in
comparison. People stuck together more.
(Mr. Milford): How and when did that sense of community
change?
(Mr. Valles): When did it change?
(Mr. Milford): Umm hum.
(Mrs. Valles): When 1-95 was...the expressway scattered the
people and took their land from them.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah, when they, when they...that was one of
the most horrible things they could have ever done to this
community, especially the Black community, of course, was put that,
that expressway right through, right through Overtown. That divided
everybody. People were moving out.
(Mrs. Valles): And it sent the people to Liberty City and
some went to Carol City. It spread, it spread them out so now they
had to adjust to a different community.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah, that's what they did, they separated the
whole community, the community was a thriving one and they busted
it up so to speak with the 95 thing. We hated it.
(Mr. Milford): Mr. Valles, the next set of questions is
regarding the future of the Overtown area. What are the most
important and misconceptions about Overtown?
(Mr. Valles): What are the most important misconceptions?
(Mr. Milford): Umm hum.
(Mr. Valles): Umm...
(Mrs. Valles): Well people think ah...it's dangerous to
travel through Overtown, they think the people will hurt you.
(Mr. Valles): Well, that's what they say. I don't know. I
don't have much reason to go to Overtown these days, I guess but
when I do go through there like when we went to what do you call
it?
(Mrs. Valles): We go the Lyric Theater.
(Mr. Valles): The Lyric Theater, we had a...we had a, we had
a get together there recently. I...give him a copy of the, the
event we had there at the Lyric and umm...
(Mrs. Valles): We have a jazz station that plays music to
Overtown.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah, I don't know the area any more. The
clubs are gone, the stores are gone, all that...all that stuff that
was back in the '60s and before, all gone, now it's ah not the kind
of thriving community it was then it seems and ah, I'm not...I
don't know. I could tell you we lived there for a few years and I
don't know Overtown today. I really don't. It's a shame.
(Mr. Milford): What do you think public officials need to
know most about Overtown?
(Mr. Valles): Well, number one, I think they need to restore
it and work on it and bring the people back together again and get
and get that place going again as a community that was a thriving
community that it use to be and ah now I don't know. It seems like
it's kind of separated.
(Mrs. Valle): Whatever they do to Overtown it has to include
the Black people. We can't be excluded from it.
(Mr. Valles): Exactly.
(Mrs. Valle): I came from Washington, D.C. and what they...in
the southwest parts of Washington, D.C. was mainly Black and now
it's nothing but government buildings and it's not a place for
Black people, they go there to work and then they leave but it's
government buildings. It's all business now and high rise
apartments they can't afford so only the affluent live in those
apartments and condominiums or whatever that they have.
(Mr. Valles): That something that's kind of subject to happen
here to
(Mrs. Valles): There's no low income housing.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah.
(Mr. Milford): What do you think should be done to improve
Overtown, like for example, the transportation projects,
attractions, job creation or beautification programs.
(Mr. Valles): Every bit of that. Transportation, yes.
Businesses, yes...And there wac so much entertainment in Overtown,
all the White people use to come from all over to come to the Night
Beat to hear the James Browns and the Aretha Franklins and the Sam
Cookes and all the rest of them. They uses to come from their area
to ours to listen to the music but we couldn't go there you know.
But they use come in droves to the Night Beat, you see them in
there every night listening to the, to the music and the shows in
the Night Beat. Not just the Night Beat, where? Hampton House,
there's another one, up there on Twenty-Seventh Avenue where there
had live entertainment, Jazz and Blues and so forth where they use
to come. Ah where was the other place? Double Deck around ah
Seventy-Ninth Street, that was...that was another place. I use to
do my show out of there too. I did my show out of the Double Deck,
out the Hampton House and the Night Beat, all three places, I use
to do broadcast from in those days.
(Mrs. Valles): Whatever they do in the future, the parks,
they should provide the parks and other types of entertainment but
whatever they do they need to include Black people when they employ
and I don't mean just in the lower class jobs. They should include
them in all types, administrative and above as well.
(Mr. Milford): What should be the relationship between
Overtown and Downtown Miami?
(Mr. Valles): The relationship?
(Mr. Milford): Umm hum.
(Mr. Valles): I hope I don't sound like I'm dreaming, I'd
like to see it all as one, the way it should be, not divided and
you know, you go your way and I go mine and that business, that's
ridiculous in this day and age. Yeah, 1997, still thinking and
doing life out of...it's ridiculous. It should be more together.
People should be working together, helping one another, you know
working together, the way it should be.
(Mr. Milford): When you have visitors from out of town, where
do you take them to show them culture and history of Dade County's
African-American community?
(Mr. Valles): Oh, I've had a number of people that have come
through town and I'm talking about entertainer like even big name
entertainers that I...Dizzy Gillespie and people like that, you
know, they always, when they'd come to town, they would always come
here. They would come to the house because they know...we all know
each other, we've worked together in the past and if we take them
out, we take them to the different clubs. I mean along in those
days we had the clubs to go to so to speak. Today it's a different
story, today it's like, I don't know finding Jazz and umm...there
is no Jazz in Overtown that I know of or even in Liberty City
that's Jazz per se. You'll find live music with funky bands but
Jazz live, umm...none that I know of.
(Mrs. Valle): Since he's in music, he takes them to places
where they have live music.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah, well they have live music. I use take
them, take them, you know around, we'd go hang out. If they were
in town for overnight or they'd played...they were playing an ah,
ah, engagement here, they's more than likely be staying over. Some
of them have stayed here in our house and we'd take them out, them
out and show them around in our neighborhoods, in the Black
neighbors and what's going on at time and, of course, you know in
the early days you couldn't go the White places anyway. Yeah, I've
taken them, I've taken them around a few places, sure. Well, Yeah
I would like to see it come more together than it is today. I wold
like to see people, people getting together with people and ah, you
know working, helping. Gee whiz, the kids for instance are the
future, you know, they should, they should have a better ah, I
think chance to, you know, to work in the community and they
ah...I'd like to see it come together more.
(Mrs. Valle): But in order for it to come together, you need
the Blacks to plan along with the other groups, they have to be
included in the planning.
(Mr. Valles): Yeah. Absolutely.
(Ms. Valles): And if they are not then we will be left out.
(Mr. Valles): I think some of our Black government officials
are doing a very good job in that direction too.
(Mrs. Valles): But they are not doing enough. A lot of money
has been spent...
(Mr. Valles): Well, they're doing what they can. I talking
about Barbara Carey, Carrie Meeks, ah, ah who am I thinking?
(Mrs. Valles): A lot of money has been spent...no no. But in
the past a lot of money was spent to change and should have been
given to people in Overtown in...it was given but it wasn't used in
the right way, we still didn't see any change there is still
nowhere to go. They didn't get the jobs, they weren't included in
the planning.
(Mr. Valles): Well I still say they're doing a good job.
Look at L.C. Hastys, ah what he's trying to do up there in the
Congress.
(Mrs. Valles): He's still fighting for what should have been
a long time ago.
(Mr. Valles): He doing a good. Well! He just got there,
he's working on it and I give them credit, I really do but we need
more help, we can't. We all have to get together. I think people
can help themselves to but we all need to work together and help
one another more, I believe. I would like to see that.
(Mr. Milford): This is Alex Milford, today is August 21, 1997
and this will conclude the interview with Mr. China Valles, Mrs.
Valles. I want to thank both of your for your time and for sharing
your history with us.
(Mr. Valles): It's a pleasure, we'll, we'll keep our fingers
crossed.
PRE-INTERVIEW QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED BY TELEPHONE:
Name: Fredericka D. Wanza
1. Where and when were you born? Miami, FL. 1918
2. Where do you live now? 1441 NW 168th Terrace, Miami, FL.
3. How long have you been there? 14 years
4. What places have you lived since 1960? 7011 NW 10th Street, Miami, FL.
5. What years did you live in Overtown? 1918-1937 During the Summers and from
1935-1935Year Round
6. Where did you live in Overtown? 1530 NW 5th Court
7. Did you own a business in Overtown? If so, what kind of business was it? No
8. Did you change your place of residence because of 1-95, 1-395, a public housing
project, or an urban renewal project? If so, which one or which ones? No
9. Was your home or business taken by the State under eminent domain? No
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