There is a significant Cuban presence in Micanopy due to the fact that many Cubans fled to the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to escape political unrest and economic turmoil in their homeland. Many of these Cuban exiles settled in Florida, and some eventually made their way to Micanopy.

Prior to this migration, a deal made on Cuban soil actually led to the establishment of Alachua County. On November 11, 1828, Don Fernando De La Maza Arredondo and supporters petitioned the United States to claim title to an undivided parcel of land, containing 289,645 acres now situated in the county of Alachua, a city now known as Gainesville, Florida, roughly 10 miles outside of Micanopy, Florida.

The claim, now known as the The Arredondo Land grant, was a massive land grant given by Ferdinand the King of Spain to Don Fernando de la Maza Arredondo.  In the petition against the US, Don Fernando de la Maza Arredondo claims that the  tract of land was granted by the Spanish government, to the petitioners, on the December 22, 1817, having been executed at Havana, in the island of Cuba, by Don Alexander Ramirez, intendant of the army, superintendent general, and sub delegate of the royal exchequer of the island of Cuba, and the two Floridas with the approval of the surveyor general of the two Floridas and the king of Spain’s attorney general.  After the petition was upheld, Don Fernando de la Maza Arredondo and his family, who were already established in the area, named it Alachua County.

Sources

*Legal Information Institute

*Alachua Clerk’s Office