UIU Location Dossier -- "Little Havana"
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Little Havana

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Pocket-Dimension/City-State

Founded ~1900s
Incorporated 1982
Discovery by the U.S.A. 1935
Discovery by the Foundation 1968
Government City Government
Structure Municipality of Little Havana
Mayor Horacio de la Cruz
Area 27 sq mi
(~70 km2)
Residents ~150,000
Daily Passersby ~2500 (average)
~12,000 (maximum)
Ethnicity Habaneros
Languages English
Spanish
Spanglish
Currency American Dollar
Mexican Peso
Cuban Peso
Euro

Little Havana (La Pequeña Habana), commonly called Habanita, She Who Has Freedom (SWHF), La Que Tiene Libertad (LQTL) or simply Habanados, is an independent city-state and a paranormal enclave located within a self-contained pocket universe, accessible through Ways located in and around South Florida and the Caribbean islands. With an estimated permanent population of approximately 120,000 people, Little Havana is the largest paranormal enclave in the Caribbean.

History

The exact origins of Little Havana are still unknown. The earliest known reference to the location is found in a 1910 letter to Richard Chappell of the Chicago Spirit. The Chicago Spirit used the site as a makeshift base of operations to smuggle rum, tobacco, sugar and other items into the United States illegally. During several years of operation, several members of the Caribbean's anomalous community began to move into Little Havana, opening businesses to cater to the gangsters who occupied the area. From there, a community began to grow.

Following the dissolution of the Chicago Spirit and the capture of Richard Chappell in 1938, the members of the Chicago Spirit who remained in Little Havana formed their own union known as the Chicago Rum Runners, and quickly industrialized the otherwise upscale city. Cigar packing plants, breweries and other businesses quickly opened.

In 1952, the then mayor and member of the Chicago Rum Runners, Yarlis Moreno, was assassinated by Francois Christolophe, owner of the Christolophe Boxing Club and also a member of the Chicago Rum Runners, as a protest measure after five fuel price increases in the same month. Although the increases were cancelled, Francois Christolophe was executed shortly thereafter by members of the Moreno Family. In 1954, the Christolophe Family murdered five members of the Moreno Family and displayed their mangled bodies in front of City Hall, forming the word 'Christolophe'.

In subsequent years, tension between the families, both members of the Chicago Rum Runners, grew, with multiple incidents including murders, vandalism of public property, and raids on their properties, causing economic destabilization due to the lack of security for workers and the immigration of civilians out of Little Havana. The conflict would not end until the end of 1958, after Naidelyn Moreno and Jean-Pierre Christolophe, later discovered to be a couple, died during a raid between the two families.

Due to the criminal nature of most of Little Havana's industry, the Nexus was sanctioned by the Hoover Mandate and effectively isolated from the United States until 1982, when the remaining Chicago Rum Runners were removed from the city by FBI agents and local authorities. Because of its time in isolation, technology in Little Havana stagnated, and even today it resembles a mid-1950s industrial city.

Following the influx of American visitors and businesses such as MC&D, the Nexus entered another state of rapid industrialization. The population nearly doubled, shantytowns built to accommodate citizens became high-rise apartment complexes, and a more centralized government was instituted.

Although MAC and GRU-P agents are suspected to have been operating inside Little Havana for most of the Cold War, this has not yet been confirmed by the FBI.

Today, Little Havana is the smallest but most densely populated Nexus in North America. It is home to MC&D's largest tropical resort and has the highest concentration of businesses per capital, with only Eurtec demonstrating similar statistics.


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Image of a mural in Little Havana.

Topology, Geography & Climate

The Little Havana Nexus is a finite island, approximately 27 square miles in diameter. Its surrounded by a seemingly endless ocean with alternating weather patterns that include rainfall, hurricanes, flooding, etc.

Although originally an undisturbed tropical island, most of Little Havana is now a large metropolis divided into three districts: the Industrial Sector, the Residential Sector and the Tourist Sector. Factories and many other industrial faculties occupy the Industrial Sector, and huge mile-high apartment complexes occupy the Residential Sector. Both sectors are heavily polluted and cramped, with little personal space, vegetation or animal life.

The Tourism Sector remains largely tropical and unspoiled and is home to a luxury MC&D resort. It is a popular tourist destination within the anomalous community and often hosts several AWCY? art exhibitions.

The weather within Little Havana is largely variable and unpredictable, however humid days with a temperature of approximately 90 degrees Fahrenheit are common.

Government and Laws

Due to years of embargo isolation and negative feelings towards the U.S. government, Little Havana operates as a city-state within the United States and has full autonomy, with a few limitations established by the 1982 Reagan Agreement.

The city-state's police force also serves the functions of an army, being extensively trained by the Global Occult Coalition in modern weaponry, simple alchemy and thaumatology. Despite their small numbers, Little Havana's Armed Forces have managed to repel several attempted pirate raids from Zaraguas, another anomalous settlement, throughout history.

So far, there have been no attempts by The Foundation to establish the Treaty of Free Anomalous Communities in Little Havana, possibly because of the governments' conflicts of interest in and around Cuba.

Transportation and Infrastructure

Little Havana is difficult for non-natives to navigate due to its twisting, winding and often absurd streets. Due to the island's size limitations and the city's tiny streets, transportation is mostly pedestrian, with a few rickshaws1 and double-decker buses taking to the streets. Most civilians own bicycles or motorcycles, although gasoline is expensive and hard to come by in the city, so many opt for rickshaws or the public streetcar system.

The city-state is divided into four sections: the Industrial District, the Residential District, the Tourist District and the Production District. The only neighborhoods with permanent population are the Residential and the Production Neighborhoods, since the Tourist Neighborhood is only accessible to tourists and the Industrial Neighborhood lacks farms.

The Production Neighborhood is home to Little Havana's agricultural and livestock production, as well as several thousand citizens. The Residential Neighborhood has tall, incredibly tall and ramshackle buildings, with nearly a hundred stories each and thousands of civilians. In addition, a small section of the Residential Neighborhood closest to the center of the island is designated for civilian facilities and organizations, such as the fire department, police station and city hall.

The Tourist Quarter is the most environmentally friendly of the areas, and maintains a pristine beachfront and skyline. Although there are several large hotels in this area, many of which are civilian-owned, the largest and busiest is MC&D's Royal Palm.

Education

Little Havana has a publicly funded school system and only two local colleges: the Hansarp School of the Arts and Marshall, Carter & Dark Academy.

The Hansarp School of the Arts is a university focused primarily on art and its history. Notable alumni include Valeria Amador, Ruiz Duchamp and Christian Morales.

The Academy of Marshall, Carter & Dark is ███████████████████. █████████████████████████████ ████████████████ ██████████████████████ ████████████ ████████████████████████████████████████████████ ███████████████████ ██████████ ███ ██████████████████ █████████ ██████████████ █████████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████, with over ███ deaths.

Despite the presence of two academies in the city, most Habaneros leave La Little Havana and attend universities in Three Portlands or Backdoor Soho.

Demographics & Culture

Little Havana is by far the most densely populated enclave in the Caribbean and North America, with an estimated 150,000 people permanently residing in the city. Due to the various undocumented immigrants, homeless civilians and unregistered Chicago rum runners living within the city, there are an estimated 12,000 additional permanent residents.

The following chart shows the estimated ethnicity of the population of Little Havana.

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Nearly 75% of Little Havana's residents identify themselves as Catholic, Christian or Baptist, while the remaining 25% identify themselves as having another faith or spirituality.

Industry and Economy

Little Havana lacks a localized currency and instead largely operates with the U.S. dollar. This is due to its roots as a smuggling outpost of a U.S. crime syndicate, which still maintains a presence in the city today. The most common industries in Little Havana in descending order are tourism, construction, distilling and tobacco farming. Although tourism is the most lucrative business for civilians, most of the profits are being consumed by the MC&D Royal Palm Hotel, leaving little for the natives.

The city's economy is largely insular, with most trade occurring within the city and very little material leaving legally. As mentioned above, the Chicago Rum Runners still operate within Little Havana and often use the pocket dimension as a shortcut between the Caribbean/Latin America and the United States. The FBI maintains surveillance on activities inside here, but due to the many entrances to Little Havana, most of the criminals using them have not been apprehended.

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