Miami-Dade’s new civil courthouse will be named after Osvaldo Soto, a Cuban American lawyer who led the fight in the 1980s to repeal the county’s English-only ordinance that, among other things, stopped clerks from conducting courthouse weddings in Spanish.
County commissioners unanimously approved naming the downtown building after Soto, who died in 2021 at the age of 91. A crusader for Hispanic rights amid a backlash against Cuban migrants fleeing to Miami during the 1980 Mariel boat lift, Soto pushed county leaders to accept the booming immigrant population as a vital part of the community.
“For the Hispanics who sit on this dais, we would not be here but for the work of Osvaldo Soto,” County Commissioner Raquel Regalado said ahead of the vote making Miami-Dade’s new Flagler Street facility what supporters said would be the first courthouse in Florida named after a Hispanic person…