 I'm Christine Rupp, the executive director at Date Heritage Trust, Miami's largest historic preservation organization. Date Heritage Trust is turning 50 this year, and so we are honored to be a part of Pass Forward 2022. You know, Miami's a diverse melting pot, ever evolving, ever changing, and ever vibrant, and so environmentally, architecturally, and culturally rich. You know, with rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods that burst with great food, art, and culture, like Little Havana, Allopata, Little Haiti, places like Virginia Key Beach Park Trust, Miami's designated Black Beach of the 1950s, climate change, archaeological treasures being uncovered in downtown Miami, and a growing population wedged between the Atlantic Ocean and the Everglades. Miami-Dade County provides an example of just about any current historic preservation issue. Date Heritage Trust is fortunate to work with elected officials, municipal staff, and nonprofit organizations in addressing affordable housing, the quality of life in Miami's historic neighborhoods, and engaging the development community to promote the economic benefits of historic preservation. I encourage you to visit our website, dateheritagetrust.org, to find out more about what we do. We are so honored to be a National Trust's first historic preservation partner working for the last six years on the Trust National Treasures, the Miami Marine Stadium, and Little Havana. For the conference, we partnered with the National Trust team to provide you a little Miami flavor exploring food and music in historic places. We hope you enjoy, and we hope to see you in Miami soon. Miami, tropical paradise by day, dazzling playground by night, and best of all, the food. Miami is home to worldwide flavors, the Caribbean and Latin America fusing with global cuisines. Head down any street in Miami and you'll pass at least a dozen ventanitas, a quick source of cafecito. Well, I'm from Texas and I can tell you nothing's as sweet as this. It's very rich, it's great, I can see why people here are used to it, and I love it. Cuba's culture and cuisine washed over this one sleepy tourist town, and there is no better place to experience this heritage than Gaia Ocho in the heart of Little Havana. But just as Miami is key lime pie, ceviche, and gator strips, if you're brave enough to try this unique dish, head over to locale in Covenant Grove. While you're there, enjoy incredible comfort foods like Miami's best burgers or chicken and waffles. This locally owned restaurant taps local farmers for their ingredients, bringing Florida's amazing flavors to the table. In the heart of Miami's oldest community, locale serves up neighborhood favorites like no other. I'm originally from Pennsylvania, so I come from a small town and with Miami being so diverse and, you know, cultural, I love that as well, but Covenant Grove really gives you that home feeling. And when you can't decide what flavor you want, head over to Windward for second Saturday art walks and enjoy food trucks from all over Miami. We love it, we're both artists, so we love the walls, food trucks, this is like our staple, like we love being here. We can't stop looking around, there's so much to say. And while you snack on arepas or tostones, take in one of the hottest art hubs in the city. The whole place is a canvas for artists. So sit back, relax, and let Miami's flavors wash over you. Okay, are you hungry now? Our first stop on the tour is the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. We are going to explore the history, architecture and famed cuisine of the hotel, which was deemed a national landmark in 1996. First, a little history to whet your appetite. The Biltmore Hotel was the dream of Coral Gables founder and developer George Merrick. Merrick, who came here as a boy with his family prior to 1900, eventually inherited the family's 1200 acres of grapefruit farmland and through his education and hands-on experience small development projects in the county, decided to create a beautiful planned community, which he named Coral Gables, after the name of his family home, which was fashioned out of Coral Stone, like many pioneer residences in the area. To those interested in geology, South Florida is basically an old reef of Ulitic limestone, also known as Coral Rock. If you dig in the ground about eight inches, you hit this rock, which was quarried and used as a building material. Coincidentally, a quarry was smacked up in the middle of the Merrick family's land and in true city beautiful fashion was reimagined to become the famed Venetian pool. So the city was incorporated in 1925. The same year Merrick and partner John McKinty Bowman broke ground on the Biltmore Hotel, located in a residential area of the city. Merrick felt the luxury hotel would help market the city of Coral Gables and thus increase his real estate sales, which in fact it did. Coral Gables was marketed as a happy, helpful community with beautiful old Spanish architecture, public art embellishments, driving entrances, and wonderful educational opportunities. In fact, it was Mr. Merrick who ensured that a university, the University of Miami, was located in Coral Gables. When it opened in 1926, the hotel was a smashing success with celebrities, sports figures, and even royalty enjoying the beautiful venue. The hotel, however, could not overcome the effects of the stock market crash and great depression and was forced to close its doors. Sitting empty, the hotel was eventually taken over by the United States Army who turned it into a military hospital during World War II. South Florida was a hotbed of military activity during the war with over one million soldiers training on Miami Beach, where all of those famed Art Deco hotels were turned into military housing. Most of the original furnishings and fixtures were removed and the hotel was painted a stark white, reflecting its time as a governmental institution. After the war, the hospital became a veteran's facility and then when the VA built a new hospital north of downtown Miami, the building was left vacant. In 1980, the US government gave the hotel to the city of Coral Gables. With no plan in place, there were calls for demolition and redevelopment of the site which fronted the beautiful golf course. Area residents came together in a campaign to save the Biltmore and the city of Coral Gables listened. Under city ownership, the Biltmore hotel was restored and reopened as a resort hotel in 1990. Today, the Biltmore is known worldwide as a destination for beautiful lodging, wonderful amenities, superb golf and swimming, and of course, incredible food and dining. Ready to explore? The Biltmore offers a variety of dining options and beautiful venues for any time of day, any type of activity, and any size of pocketbook. Let's start with Posto Dolce, where you can start your day with a friendly staff, a fine international selection of pastries and breads, and of course, a delicious rich cup of coffee located on the hotel's lower lobby level. Maybe you'd rather start your day with a mimosa, the Biltmore bar, just around the corner from Posto Dolce. A warm, cozy, woodsy atmosphere awaits you at the intimate Biltmore bar. Also located at the lower lobby level is the entrance to the hotel's main restaurant for fine dining, La Fontana, featuring both inside and outside seating. My favorite spot is outside in the beautiful courtyard adjacent to the fountain that is the namesake for the Biltmore's signature eatery. For a beautiful casual lunch, it's hard to beat the scenery at the fabulous poolside cascade. With a great bar and seating as close as you can possibly be to one of the largest pools in the country, the cascade offers a great menu for the perfect lunchtime escape from the office. If golf is your game, then a great place to tally up your score is at the Biltmore's 19th hole, adjacent to the pro shop and to the golf course. Designed in 1925 by Donald Ross, the Biltmore's famed golf course is one of the oldest in the southeast. Now that we have filled you with history, architecture, a little geology, and the dining options at the hotel, we want to leave you with a little music. The Biltmore has a resident musician, Juan Areco. One has performed at the hotel for years and is a regular at Sunday brunch. Juan, take it away. I come from Asuncion Paraguay, South America, and I come from a family of musicians, father, brother. We were 11. We had a big orchestra. I mean, everybody plays instruments. And guess what? I had to become a musician myself. I used to listen to my father. He taught me first note on the guitar. Actually, it was two. And I started with that. And then he was impressed. I impressed. And I said, listen. And he said, I can teach you a little bit more if you really want to play it. He said, yes, I really want to play it just like you, father. So he started teaching me. And I learned right away because all his son and daughter were musicians, all kind of music. So I think in the six, eight months already we're playing some music with a guitar. I picked up the guitar and I tried to get it at such a level that I'd go other countries. And that's what I did. I went to Brazil and then studied a little bit more. I was influenced especially when I was in South America by the Brazilian music. I like Brazilian music. And I like the flowchloric stuff. In Argentina, Brazil, Chile, all Venezuela, all the country had beautiful music for Chloric. But I was inclined to play the electric guitar. And one of my main was the Beatles, Carlos Santana in a couple of groups. And Spanish group. And until I came to United States and I found more musicians, incredible musicians here from Paco de Lucia, John McLaughlin, Alde Miola, Eric Lu, George Benson. And I keep starting to get more knowledge of the guitar here in Miami-Dade Community College. I arrived in United States in 1975, coming from Brazil, playing Brazilian music that was sectional for me, for my career. But I came under contract to perform at the Disney World, the Contemporaneous Hotel. So I did that for a year and then something, it did work out. And I was planning to go back to Brazil. But then they offered me a job here in Miami, where I would have stayed playing with the group. When I came to the United States, my first thing was to record something and record my own songs. And I achieved that with my first album in 1992. And then like every year I did once a year, one maybe in two years album. And I did quite a lot. Ten albums. I record all my music, I perform all my music and record it. In my entire career, I think I sold like more than 250,000 albums of my music, my music. I really love what I'm doing. And I'm going to keep doing for a long time, because the music and the guitar helped me to share a career with, I mean, incredible people. The Queen and Lisa, Queen and King from Spain, Prince of Monaco, and great musician like a Placido Domingo, Alde Miola, and many more. One of my biggest achievements was to play at the Jamaica Josh Festival. So they invited me over there. And we played the big name, Erwin and Fire. We opened, I opened for Erwin and Fire. So that was my highlight of my career, really. This is quite like 30,000 people and it was scary, but it was an incredible show. One of the biggest achievements in my life here was to perform with the first meeting of all the presidents here in Miami. These were 34 presidents all over the world. Bill Clinton, everybody was there. So they asked me to perform in front of them. And that was scary for a moment, but that's really, really nice. This has been a long, a long and beautiful career here. I achieved a lot of incredible things that this country gave me. I'm very proud to be here. I know we always have to work hard, but we achieve everything that we want here.