Just the other day I was walking to from campus when I spotted these decals on the back window of someone's Chevy pickup. At first glance I thought it was just another show of school pride, in line with a thousand other marked cars whose owners are proud to be a Cane. But then I realized a point that it made, something that it unwittingly reveals about Miami.
The idea is brought up of whether anyone really calls Miami "home" of course the locals do, but they make up for only a third of Miami's population. I thought this truck's window really proved this point. Anyone born and raised in Miami has no reason to ever use the phrase "cowboy up." This person represents the University of Miami, and shows just how diverse the school really is, illustrating the point that many can't call Miami home, but merely a vacation spot. In fact I can't count the number of times I've heard fellow students claim that attending UM is like always being on vacation. This person may be from a Southwest or Midwest region of the US, and although they go to the U, they're home really lies somewhere else.
Seeing the truck made me think of the students who actually decide to stay in Miami, or at least South Florida, to build their career and eventually start a family. At that point would they become locals, or would they be filed under a blended category? Say it was an international student, which could attract business from out-of-state, but is still a local seeing as he would be living there year-round, and would have to take care of his family. I think the three categories of locals, mobiles, and exiles are very general and come with major assumptions to be considered. But for the sake of argument the tensions between these groups, even if not every single person falls strictly under one category, seem to contribute to what makes Miami, Miami.
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