Cuban-American Hats

Cuban-American life in Miami, Hialeah and Tampa runs on a few sacred things, and the first is coffee. In 2013 Miami proclaimed 3:05 the official cafecito time, a campaign led by JennyLee Molina, who said the city runs on Miami's sweet nectar. A cafecito is the shot with its crema; a colada is the larger cup of sweet espresso served with small empty cups so it can be shared. The second is Nochebuena. Families roast a whole pig on Christmas Eve, often in a caja china, a plywood box lined with aluminum with charcoal on a metal tray in the lid. The company that makes them was founded in Medley in 1985 and still sells about 3,500 boxes a year. As one family put it to NBC News, if there is no pork, there is no December 24th. The designs here cover the proud basics, CUBANO and CUBANA, the slang every Cuban kid knows, asere and the greeting qué bola, and the table: cafecito at 3:05, the coffee that behaves like a controlled substance, a colada for one, Nochebuena bigger than Christmas, the caja china pitmaster, and the croqueta as currency. Every design is custom embroidered on an unstructured dad hat. Wear one to the ventanita line, or give it to the abuelo who watches the pig.