Little Havana Experiences founder Dr. Corinna Moebius has led Little Havana walking tours since 2006
Little Havana Experiences offers unique small group and custom, private Little Havana walking tours and experiences led by expert Corinna Moebius, Ph.D., co-author of A History of Little Havana. Dr. Moebius is a cultural anthropologist and geographer, a public historian, and a popular figure in the Little Havana community.
Her Little Havana tours stand apart from other walking tours of the neighborhood. And here’s why:
KNOWLEDGE OF LITTLE HAVANA & CUBA
Got questions? Please ask! The knowledge I share about Little Havana goes well beyond what you can already read about in a travel article or hear on other tours.
I have devoted more than a decade of my life investigating Little Havana’s history, its significance, cultural traditions, and more. My award-winning dissertation focuses on Little Havana.
And I’ve spent years studying Cuban cultural practices, Cuban history and U.S.-Cuban relations. I’m the Senior Cuba Tour Leader for the #1 rated walking tour company in the world, Classic Journeys.
In addition to writing a “people’s history” of Little Havana, I’m finishing a second book on the history and widespread impact of the Calle Ocho heritage district.
MULTI-SENSORY EXPERIENCE
You can find lots of food tours of Little Havana these days. But what about the other senses through which we can get to know a place and the people who live there?
On my tours, learn about and listen to music and rhythms, learn cultural gestures, see a dance demo (and try a few steps if you want), and use your sense of touch and smell.
Although I also offer my clients at least one tasting, I recommend places where you can experience a sit-down meal before or after the tour.
I am also happy to recommend places to drink, dance and hear live music in Little Havana. Sign up for my e-newsletter and get my recommended 12 Recommended Spots to Eat in Little Havana!
ExperienceD TOUR GUIDE AND PLANNER
The best tour guides don’t just walk and talk. They activate connection to people and place. Ideally, they take you on a journey that sparks Aha! moments.
I’ve had plenty of time to hone my craft. More than 15 years ago, in 2006, I designed and led my first walking tour of Little Havana. I completed Miami’s tour guide training course as well.
Since then, I have led hundreds of tours for people from all over the world. I also work with the world’s most prestigious tour operators.
Read my testimonials to hear what my previous clients have to say about my Little Havana walking tours, including my custom tours. I have designed a wide variety of experiences, involving food, dance, and more for large and small groups.
ECO, PEOPLE & CULTURE Knowledge
As a Little Havana resident for 15 years and an award-winning civic leader, I’ve cultivated a web of trusted relationships. As much as I can, I’ll introduce you to locals we encounter during our walk.
You’ll learn about “culture” as something that is fluid and always changing. As an eco-social scientist, I’ll help you discover why and how “traditions” shift and why people can interpret these traditions in very different ways.
So, you’re “ready to rumba”? I’ve studied rumba and other Afro-Cuban folkloric music and dance (and Cuban popular dances) for more than a decade. I also give lectures on Afro-Cuban music and dance. For custom tours, I offer music and dance workshops with Miami’s finest talent.
NO SINGLE STORIES
Perhaps, you don’t want to settle for a “single story” about people and place. I share the facts and intriguing stories that are too often silenced, forgotten or overlooked. For instance, few tour guides will mention the contributions of Afro-Cubans to Little Havana (or to Cuba)–but I do!
My clients don’t want to hear stereotypes or the “same-ole” tired scripts endlessly repeated on other tours. They want to build knowledge and understanding. Myths about Little Havana are already easy to find.
On all of my tours, I strive to expand awareness of the complexity, creativity and interconnectedness of communities past and present, near and far.
LOCAL & COMMITTED TO COMMUNITY & ENVIRONMENT
My tours abide by my guiding principles, grounded in respect for people, place and planet.
I offer tours in a way that contributes to my local community instead of exploiting and negatively impacting local residents, businesses or the environment. For example, none of my tours produce plastic or styrofoam waste.
When you purchase a tour from me, you’ll know your money will be recycled in the local economy, as I support local businesses. In the tourism industry, I am an advocate for sustainable and equitable tourism.
ABOUT DR. CORINNA MOEBIUS
And how I began offering Little Havana walking tours
I abide by a personal mission to cultivate a more just, caring and sustainable / regenerative world. That’s why I founded and lead TerraViva Journeys, LLC and its subsidiary brand, Little Havana Experiences.
In addition to my work leading transformative walks, tours and multi-day “journeys,” I teach, write and speak publicly. I’m also an advocate for equitable and sustainable tourism.
Below is the history of my tour guiding in Little Havana, and the birth of Little Havana Experiences and TerraViva Journeys, LLC:
MY FIRST WALKING TOURS OF LITTLE HAVANA
I began leading custom walking tours of Little Havana nearly 20 years ago, in 2006. I was then a neighborhood resident and director of Little Havana’s monthly arts and culture festival, Viernes Culturales (Cultural Fridays).
My first “teacher guides” were Cuban-American Viernes Culturales board members. Among them were men who had belonged to the Little Havana Development Association, the organization that had planned Little Havana’s heritage district (Latin Quarter) years ago and launched the very first Little Havana tours.
IMAGINE MIAMI
When I was offered at job at Catalyst Miami (then called Human Services Coalition) in 2007, I left Viernes Culturales. Catalyst hired me as Director of Imagine Miami, its South Florida civic engagement initiative. In this role, I launched a Summit on Arts & Civic Engagement and a series of Changemaker Conferences connecting grassroots community leaders.
Despite the success of these ventures, I felt drawn back to Little Havana.
THE BORDERCROSS ECO-CULTURAL CENTER ON CALLE OCHO
I left Catalyst Miami to open what I called the Bordercross Ecocultural Center, located on Calle Ocho across from Cuban Memorial Park. The “center” sold locally made goods, including local honey, books by local authors and CDs by Miami musicians, and hosted workshops and events. Visitors and locals loved the center but I didn’t have enough capital to keep it open, and soon closed my doors.
Nonetheless, I realized that the #1 thing people were looking for when they entered my center was information: “what there was to do” in Little Havana. Calle Ocho was not nearly as lively and popular back in 2008 as it is now.
Inspired, I decided to launch an online guide to the neighborhood and open a full-time tour guiding business. At the same time, I was also trying to dispel the largely negative portrayals of Little Havana by fellow Miamians.
LITTLE HAVANA GUIDE and LITTLE HAVANA TOURS
Little Havana Guide, as I called my website and business, would grow to have nearly a hundred original articles about the neighborhood (Little Havana Guide) and a Facebook group for residents.
The board of Viernes Culturales asked me to serve as interim Executive Director once again, and I began offering the city’s first weekly cultural tours of Little Havana. Soon, other tour operators began to follow suit.
WRITINGS AND ACADEMIC RESEARCH ON LITTLE HAVANA
After co-authoring the first in-depth book on the history of Little Havana (A History of Little Havana) with Dr. Guillermo Grenier, I spent another decade researching its fabled heritage district. I took down my LittleHavanaGuide.com site because I had no time to maintain it.
The new book I’m writing draws on my award-winning Ph.D. dissertation on Little Havana, which was based on ethnographic fieldwork, more than fifty interviews, and archival research.. As a Graduate Fellow with the University of Miami’s Cuban Heritage Collection, for instance, I had access to the largest U.S.-based archive of materials on Cuba and the Cuban diaspora.
CIVIC LEADERSHIP IN LITTLE HAVANA
During my 15 years living in Little Havana, I received awards for my civic leadership, including the Calle Ocho Community Champion award. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has also recognized my work.
In addition to directing the monthly festival and organizing numerous cultural events on my own in the neighborhood, I co-founded the Little Havana Merchant Alliance (LHMA). I served on local boards and championed equitable and sustainable development in the area.
The director of Florida Atlantic University’s urban planning department also asked me to serve as an Advisor for a specialty graduate course on civic engagement in Little Havana. In addition to offering unique tours for the students, I connected them with local residents affected by place-related issues of concern like housing and abandoned properties.
LITTLE HAVANA TOURS becomes LITTLE HAVANA EXPERIENCES
When another business started using the brand name I’d used for years, Little Havana Tours, it caused a lot of confusion among my clients. I tried fighting the company, but to no avail, and so I simply changed my business name to Little Havana Experiences.
Since I was in graduate school, I focused on custom and private tours for clients who hailed from all parts of the world. I was also beginning to experiment more and more with a new kind of tour guiding, emphasizing self-transformation and critical thinking during the tours. My clients gave me extremely positive feedback. Something new was evolving …
In 2019, I finally earned my interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Global & Sociocultural Studies at Florida International University (FIU), specializing in cultural / ethnohistorical anthropology/geography and Cuban Studies. At FIU, I also earned Graduate Certificates in Afro-Latin American Studies and African & African American Studies.
TRANSFORMING THE TOURISM INDUSTRY
By 2018, I’d been working extensively in the travel industry — as a tour guide, a tour consultant, and a guest lecturer on cruise ships. The #1-rated walking tour company in the world hired me as its Senior Tour Leader for its educational tours to Cuba.
Yet I was uncomfortable with the many inequities I saw in the tourism industry (in the U.S. and Cuba), including the sometimes negative impact on destinations (and residents), the lack of diversity in better paying roles, and “single stories” that dominated tour guide scripts. I also disliked the excessive waste produced by the tourism industry, including plastic bottles, food tour plastic, etc.
Increasingly, I have become a strident voice in the transformation of the tourism industry, advocating for sustainable tourism that also emphasizes inclusion, diversity, equity and regenerative approaches.
BEYOND COVID: THE RETURN AND THE LAUNCH OF TERRAVIVA JOURNEYS, LLC
Everybody’s life shifted after COVID-19 arrived, and it hit the tourism industry particularly hard. All of a sudden, I had no work except teaching classes online at Florida International University.
When a DC-based consulting firm I’d worked with in the past recruited me for a full-time position as Senior Associate (and later Director of Research and Education), I accepted. I moved to Baltimore, Maryland and bought a house.
While I enjoyed being a subject matter expert on equity for governments and organizations across the U.S., I felt like I was straying from a deeper purpose. I still wanted to launch a hybrid and transformational kind of walking tour. After co-presenting a successful webinar on Equitable & Sustainable Urban Heritage Districts for Smart Growth Online, I began thinking about moving back to Miami.
And I did, by February of 2023! Visit my TerraViva Journeys, LLC to learn more about the new tour concept I am launching in 2023: eco-sociocultural wellness tours.
What makes a walking tour is the guide and Corinna is definitely terrific …
I can honestly say (that of all things we did on both vacation) this was my favorite thing.
The Little Havana Stories You Haven’t YET Heard
Hear the counter-narratives, the silenced stories, the buried secrets …
