MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A vegan and a Cuban restaurant helped Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to continue Miami-Dade County’s amusing pig pardoning tradition.
A few children watched from their Miami Brickell apartment windows on Monday, as Levine Cava proclaimed that Chans the little pig was receiving a special pardon outside of the Latin Café 2000.
The pardon guarantees Chans will not end up in a roasting box, or “Caja China,” or on anyone’s dinner plate this Christmas Eve.
“This is a very special Miami occasion,” Levine Cava said.
The “lechón,” a roasted pork dish, is at the center of Cuban-Americans’ “Noche Buena” feast, so the new mayor decided to continue with a new tradition that takes after the many generations of U.S. presidents who have been issuing pardons to turkeys before Thanksgiving.
Levine Cava said Chans the pig had been living in a slab of concrete and was going to move to the Aguacate Sanctuary of Love, a vegan eatery at 12100 SW 43 St., near Tamiami.
Chans’ first meal in freedom: About a dozen fresh-cut apples.
Miami’s Latin Café 2000 started the amusing tradition two years ago. Congressman-elect Carlos Gimenez, the former Miami-Dade mayor, pardoned Peppa and Petra in 2019 and Lula and Layla in 2018.
Gimenez’s proclamation at the time: “No Caja China for Them!”
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