I’ve driven past Cartagena Plaza approximately one billion times. You probably have too, if you’ve ever been near Le Jeune Road, Sunset Drive, Old Cutler Road, or Cocoplum Road in Miami. It’s the scenic shortcut most of us locals take to avoid the traffic jams along “La Uno,” aka U.S. 1.
Like most people, I always assumed this was just a well-kept traffic circle. You know, it was just one of those places the city beautifies so, when you’re stuck in endless gridlock, you can look around and think: “Ah, yes, natural beauty.”
But one day, in a moment of reckless abandon, I did the unthinkable. I stopped. Right there, next to the better-known Ingraham Park, I pulled over, parked my car, and explored a place hidden from my fellow Miamians and me for so long. What I found was shocking: peace and quiet. And shade. There was so much shade. And central to it all? A giant pair of bronze shoes, looking like they had walked straight out of a giant, mythical abuelito’s closet.
Of course I had to ask why? Why was there an open and peaceful park, with big shoes, in a busy roundabout in the Magic City?
Cartagena Plaza Has Giant Shoes
At the center of Cartagena Plaza I found big shoes grabbing the spotlight. Not like a “sculpture of a historical figure wearing shoes. But these are not your average shoes, either. They’re big, clunky, well-worn-looking things, the kind your abuelo might have refused to throw away when he was a kid.
Turns out, these shoes are very important shoes. They are a replica of a sculpture in Cartagena, Colombia, which honors poet Luis Carlos López and his famous work “A Mi Ciudad Nativa.” In this poem, López compares his city of Cartagena to a pair of comfortable, broken-in shoes. The poem is inscribed on a plaque near the bronze shoes, designed by Colombian sculptor Hector Lombana and given to the city of Coral Gables in the 1980s.
So Why Has No One Stopped Here?
Great question. The problem is that Cartagena Plaza is located in a death-defying vortex of intersecting roads, and stopping to admire it feels like an act of rebellion against Miami traffic laws (which, as we all know, are more of a “suggestion” than a rule).
“Well how many times have I been on this roundabout and NEVER noticed this in the centre of it? says it all really imo!” Miami local Sarah P. writes on Yelp. “This is a gorgeous area – don’t get me wrong – as it is located right on the canal, Near a park, and has huge dripping Banyan trees and is most definitely in a POSH area. But these shoes are hard to see, and get to!”
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But once you’re inside, it’s … peaceful. Shady Banyan trees, soft grass, the occasional lizard giving you the side-eye. It’s the kind of place that makes you wonder why you never noticed it before. I blame it on the city’s relentless hustle and bustle vibe.
“it’s a nice spot to park and stroll to take on all the beauty that Miami has to offer,” Alexa explains on Yelp. “Sure, the cul de sac has its dose of Miami drivers that don’t necessarily yield when they’re supposed to but I’m already used to it.”
A New Perspective (and Free Parking)
I sat there for a bit, admiring the big bronze shoes and thinking about how sometimes, in a city as fast-moving as Miami, we forget to stop and appreciate the little things. I wasn’t alone. Others who have visited before me, and will visit afterwards, have had similar thoughts.
“I remember the poem, the sculpture and the park fondly as I consider Cartagena to be a truly magical city,” Gustavo A. L., writes on Yelp. “ … I now live in the Magic City. and everytime I circle by Cartagena Circle, a flood of memories come streaming through, and so I circle again just because I know the true meaning of the Old Shoes and their true place in the universe.”
