Key West

Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent, at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. The island is about 90 miles (140 km) from Cuba.

Key West is politically within the limits of the city of Key West, Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city also occupies portions of nearby islands.

The island is about 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 1 mile (1.6 km) wide, with a total land mass of 4.2 square miles (11 km²). Duval Street, its famous main street, is a mere 1.1 miles (1.8 km) in length in its 14-block crossing from the Gulf of Mexico to the Florida Straits/Atlantic Ocean. In the late 1950s, many of the large salt ponds on the eastern side were filled in, nearly doubling the original land mass of the island. The island is 3,370 acres (13.6 km²) in area.

History

Colonial and precolonial times

In Pre-Columbian times Key West was inhabited by the Calusa people. The first European to visit was Juan Ponce de León in 1521. As Florida became a Spanish territory, a fishing and salvage village with a small garrison was established here.

Key West, Florida

Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States. The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S. 1 (the Overseas Highway) (east), Sigsbee Park (north, originally known as Dredgers Key), Fleming Key (north), and Sunset Key (west, originally known as Tank Island). Both Fleming Key and Sigsbee Park are part of Naval Air Station Key West and are inaccessible by civilians. Key West is the county seat of Monroe County. Key West is the southernmost city in the Continental United States. It also contains the southern terminus of U.S. 1, State Road A1A, the East Coast Greenway and, before 1935, the Florida East Coast Railway.

Key West is 129 miles (208 km) southwest (229.9 degrees) of Miami, Florida, (about 160 miles (260 km) by car) and 106 miles (171 km) north-northeast (21.2 degrees) of Havana, Cuba. Cuba, at its closest point, is 94 statute miles (151 km) south. Key West is a seaport destination for many passenger cruise ships. The Key West International Airport provides airline service. Hotels and guest houses are available for lodging. Naval Air Station Key West is an important year round training site for naval aviation due to the superb weather conditions. It is also a reason the city was chosen as the Winter White House of President Harry S. Truman. The central business district primarily comprises Duval Street, and includes much of the northwest corner of the island along Whitehead, Simonton, Front, Greene, Caroline, and Eaton Streets and Truman Avenue. The official city motto is "One Human Family."

Key West (TV series)

Key West is a 1993 hour long comedy-drama television series set in Key West, Florida. Thirteen episodes aired on Fox between January and June 1993. It was created by David Beaird and Allan Marcil. The show was produced by Viacom Productions (now CBS Television Studios).

The main character is Seamus O'Neill, played by Fisher Stevens, a factory worker from New Jersey who dreams of being a writer. When he wins the lottery, he uses his newfound wealth to move to Key West to pursue his writing career, where his idol, Hemingway, had lived. Seamus finds the island inhabited by eccentrics. He takes a job as a reporter for The Meteor, a local newspaper.

In addition to Stevens, Jennifer Tilly, Denise Crosby, and Brian Thompson led the large ensemble cast as the town's high-class prostitute, conservative mayor and eccentric sheriff, respectively.

Original cast

Mexican wine

Mexican wine and wine making began with the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, when they brought vines from Europe to modern day Mexico, the oldest wine-growing region in the Americas. Although there were indigenous grapes before the Spanish conquest, the Spaniards found that Spanish grapevines also did very well in the colony of New Spain (Mexico) and by the 17th century wine exports from Spain to the New World fell. In 1699, Charles II of Spain prohibited wine making in Mexico, with the exception of wine for Church purposes. From then until Mexico’s Independence, wine was produced in Mexico only on a small scale. After Independence, wine making for personal purposes was no longer prohibited and production rose, especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many other European immigrant groups helped with the comeback of wine in Mexico. However, the Mexican Revolution set back wine production, especially in the north of the country. Wine production in Mexico has been rising in both quantity and quality since the 1980s, although competition from foreign wines and 40% tax on the product makes competing difficult within Mexico. Mexico is not traditionally a wine-drinking country, but rather prefers beer, tequila and mezcal. Interest in Mexican wine, especially in the major cities and tourists areas (along with the introduction into the US on a small scale), has grown along with Mexican wines’ reputation throughout the world. Many Mexican companies have received numerous awards. Various wine producers from Mexico have won international awards for their products.

Mexico (barque)

Mexico was a barque that was wrecked off Southport on 9 December 1886. She was repaired only to be lost in Scottish waters in 1890.

Shipwreck

On 9 December 1886, the Mexico was on its way from Liverpool to Guayaquil, Ecuador when it was caught in a storm. Lifeboats were launched from Lytham, St. Annes and Southport to rescue the crew. The Lytham lifeboat Charles Biggs, which was on her maiden rescue, rescued the twelve crew but both the St. Annes lifeboat Laura Janet and the Southport lifeboat Eliza Fernley were capsized, and 27 of the 29 crew were drowned. To date, this is the worst loss of RNLI crew in a single incident.Mexico came ashore off Birkdale, opposite the Birkdale Palace Hotel.

Aftermath

Sixteen women were left widows, and fifty children lost their fathers. Queen Victoria and the Kaiser sent their condolences to the families of the lifeboatmen. An appeal was launched to raise money to provide a memorial to those killed, and the organisation by Sir Charles Macara of the first street collections in Manchester in 1891 led to the first flag days. The disaster has a permanent memorial in Lytham St. Annes lifeboat house. An appeal has been launched by the Lytham St. Annes Civic Society for the restoration of four of the memorials.

Mexico (novel)

Mexico is a novel by James A. Michener published in 1992.

The main action of Mexico takes place in Mexico over a three-day period in the fictional city of Toledo in 1961. The occasion is the annual bullfighting festival, at which two matadors — one an acclaimed hero of the sport, the other a scrapping contender — are prepared to fight to the death for fame and glory.

Through the memories of the book's narrator, Norman Clay, an American journalist of Spanish and Indian descent, Michener provides plenty of historical background, including a depiction of the gruesome human sacrifices that took place hundreds of years before on the city's periphery. The story focuses on bullfighting, but also provides great insight into Mexican culture. The reader follows the bulls from their breeding to their "sorting" to the pageantry and spectacle of the bullring, where picadors and banderilleros prepare the bull for the entrance of the matador with his red cape. The author creates one of his most memorable characters in the bullfighting "critic" Leon Ledesma, a flamboyant sportswriter who elevates bullfighting into an art form through his grandiloquent essays.