When Cuban and American leaders announced they would restore diplomatic relations after a standoff lasting more than a half-century, all eyes in the US immediately turned to Miami.
Many expected the country's largest population of Cuban exiles to pour angrily into the streets of the city.
Outrage was decidedly muted, however, with only a handful of demonstrations, while some of the expatriates known for their support of isolationist tactics actually expressed support for the changes.
The response to Wednesday's surprise announcement by US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro was a reflection of just how much the Cuban-American community has changed since the Cold War days when the US began trying to freeze out the island's communist government.
Daniel Lafuente, the 27-year-old founder of tech hub LAB Miami, grew up hearing his mother and grandfather talk of their exile.
He watched the Arab Spring uprisings with dismay, thinking the US and Cuba were frozen stuck.
He remains opposed to Raul Castro and his older brother, Fidel, but like other Cuban-Americans, he is willing after years of heartbreak and strained expectations to see new diplomacy and to let go of demands that the US isolate Cuba.
"This is like a new age," Lafuente said after hearing Wednesday's news.
Most of the two million Cubans living in the US call Florida home, and Little Havana has long been the go-to place for demonstrations aimed at isolating the Castros. Cuban artists who tried to perform in Miami were threatened; those who dared perform in Cuba were shunned. But such efforts have faded, and the latest protests tend to draw the same small group of activists.
Younger generations and more-recent arrivals from Cuba tend to be more open to exchange and dialogue. Older exiles whose relatives were killed or imprisoned following the 1959 revolution are less likely to approve of a thaw.
Although the protesters' numbers were few, the relentless sound of passing car horns suggested a strong core of opposition remained to resist the changes.
Local leaders and activists said they expected more protests in the coming days.
Still, the muted initial reaction to Obama's vows to encourage bilateral flows of people, information and business while working with Congress to end the 54-year-old trade embargo was strikingly at odds with outdated ideas about what most Cuban-Americans want.
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