Dynasties
The families whose fortunes and names run through Miami business, politics, and culture across generations.
The Bacardi Family
The rum dynasty that fled Cuba and made Miami a headquarters — a family whose name is a global brand and whose exile is the template for Cuban Miami's business class.
The Fanjul Family
The sugar barons of the Cuban exile — a family that rebuilt a lost Cuban cane empire into a Florida and Dominican sugar dynasty, and into quiet political power across both U.S. parties.
The Mas Family
From exile politics to infrastructure to soccer — the family of Jorge Mas Canosa, which built political power, then a construction empire, and now co-owns Inter Miami and Lionel Messi's stage.
The Estefan Family
The first family of Latin pop — Gloria and Emilio Estefan, who carried Miami's Cuban sound to the world and built a music, restaurant, and real-estate empire on Miami Beach.
The Diaz-Balart Family
The political dynasty of Cuban Miami — a multi-generational family that ran from pre-revolutionary Cuban politics through Congress and network news, and was once, by marriage, connected to Fidel Castro himself.
The Suarez Family
Two generations in the mayor's office — Xavier Suarez, Miami's first Cuban-born mayor, and his son Francis, the salesman-mayor of the post-2020 boom, a father-and-son arc through the city's political life.
The Pérez Family
The condo dynasty — Jorge Pérez and the Related Group, who built more of vertical Miami than anyone and turned the skyline into the physical form of the Latam Capital Era.
The Soffer Family
The family that built a city — Don Soffer conjured Aventura from swamp, and his children Jeffrey and Jackie run the empire it became, from Aventura Mall to the Fontainebleau.
The Codina Family
The commercial real-estate dynasty that built working Miami — Armando Codina's office parks and corporate campuses that turned the Airport West flats into a Latin American business base, plus deep political ties.
The Robins Family
The design-world development dynasty — Craig Robins and Dacra, who built the Design District as a top-down luxury-and-art neighborhood and made taste itself a real-estate strategy.
The Huizenga Family
The serial billion-dollar entrepreneur and his heirs — Wayne Huizenga, who built three Fortune 500 companies and owned three pro sports teams, a one-man engine of South Florida business.
The Arison Family
The cruise dynasty that owns the Heat — Ted Arison built Carnival into the world's largest cruise company, and the family's name sits on the basketball team and across Miami philanthropy.
The Braman Family
The auto magnate as civic power and art patron — Norman Braman, whose car dealerships funded a world-class art collection, a hardball brand of civic politics, and a recurring role as Miami's check on power.
The Frost Family
Pharma fortune turned philanthropy — Phillip and Patricia Frost, whose biotech wealth funded the science museum, the music school, and a swath of the institutions that carry their name across Miami.
The Wolfson Family
Old Miami media money and the collector who spent it on design — the Wometco entertainment empire, and Micky Wolfson Jr., whose obsessive collecting became the Wolfsonian museum.
The Galbut Family
South Beach development power — Russell Galbut and Crescent Heights, a major force in Miami Beach real estate and a fixture of the city's Jewish civic and development establishment.
The Adler Family
A multi-decade Miami real-estate development family — the Adler Group, a quietly durable builder of the commercial and residential fabric of the metro across the booms.
The Cisneros Family
The Venezuelan media empire that made Miami a base — the Cisneros family, builders of Venevisión and a hemispheric media and consumer fortune, with Miami a center of gravity for the diaspora's wealth.
The Mendoza Family
The owners of Venezuela's largest private company — the Mendoza family of Empresas Polar, whose beer-and-food empire endured the country's collapse, and whose wealth and diaspora gravitate toward Miami.
The Vollmer Family
A Venezuelan business dynasty with a Miami footprint — a family associated with Venezuela's storied rum house Santa Teresa and with the diaspora wealth that, like so much of it, found a base in South Florida.
The Phelps Family
The broadcasting dynasty of the northern Andes — a family long associated with Venezuelan radio and television, part of the hemispheric media wealth that gravitated, with its diaspora, toward Miami.
The Santo Domingo Family
Colombia's great beer-and-media fortune — the Santo Domingo family, whose Bavaria brewery became part of a global beer empire, and whose hemispheric wealth includes a Miami presence.
The Ardila Lülle Family
Colombia's industrial and broadcasting dynasty — the Ardila Lülle family, builders of the Postobón beverage empire and the RCN media group, part of the hemispheric wealth woven into Miami.
The Brickell Family
William and Mary Brickell were pioneer traders who held the south bank of the Miami River, and their name became the city's financial district.
The Goldman Family
Tony Goldman and his heirs revived South Beach's Art Deco district and later created Wynwood Walls, twice betting on neighborhoods before the market did.