Miami’s Osvaldo Soto, pioneering Cuban-American lawyer who fought discrimination, dies at 91

Amid the anti-Hispanic backlashes in the early 1980s, Miami’s clerk of courts made a decision that seems unthinkable today — the banning of marriages from being conducted in anything but English.

Osvaldo Soto’s response: He set up an open-air wedding chapel in a Little Havana parking lot and offered free Spanish-language marriages.

“Ahora los declaro marido y mujer. Felicidades,” Soto told the first couple there. I now declare you husband and wife. Congratulations.

The episode in 1984 was but one small fight in his lifelong crusade against discrimination in Miami, where over decades he became a revered figure fighting on behalf of Miami’s Hispanic and minority communities. Soto, who suffered from Parkinson’s disease, died Saturday of natural causes at age 91.

A lawyer and Cuban exile who survived the Bay of Pigs invasion, Soto was perhaps best known as the longtime head of the pioneering Spanish-American League Against Discrimination (SALAD), which fought for years to repeal Dade County’s controversial “English-only” ordinance.

“It is an insult to the Hispanic community. We are going to tell the county commission that it is time to repeal this ordinance, which has caused so much harm to this community,” Soto told reporters in 1993, just before elected leaders repealed the law.

His legacy includes causes big and small: pushing for minority officers to be promoted in police departments, ending discrimination in Miami Beach and diversifying the ranks of the Cuban American Bar Association (CABA), for which he served as the president and was a longtime member.

“He was a Renaissance man and an amazing human being,” said his daughter, Bertila Soto, who is the chief judge in Miami-Dade County circuit court. “People have heroes. I got to live with mine.”

Eduardo Padrón, a co-founder of SALAD and president emeritus of Miami Dade College, said Soto had a deep passion for social justice: “He believed the beauty of Miami was its diversity.”

Osvaldo Soto was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1929. One of five children, he attended law school alongside Fidel Castro, and was part of the revolution to oust Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

But when Castro became a murderous dictator, Soto became disillusioned and left Cuba for exile. In Miami, he joined the Assault Brigade 2506, which took part in the failed 1961 invasion at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs. His boat never landed and Soto returned unharmed, and undeterred in efforts to advocate for a free Cuba.

Soto later became a teacher in Wyoming, then Virginia, before ending up as a tenured professor at Iowa State. He returned to Florida in the mid-1970s, where he later earned his law license.

Miami was a much different place back then. In 1976, the Dade County Commission declared the county bilingual and it was common for government documents to be published in Spanish and English.

But in 1980, the Mariel refugee crisis brought tens of thousands of Cubans to South Florida, with many white residents blaming them for rising crime and societal ills. Voters that year passed an ordinance declaring English the official language, prohibiting county funds for translating documents and offering non-emergency services in Spanish or any other language.

The ordinance led to the decision in 1984 by then-Dade Clerk of Courts Richard Brinker to ban marriages conducted in languages other than English.

“That ordinance had nothing to do with language. It was basically a rejection of immigrants who came from different places,” Padrón said. “It was a very divisive issue, and we all felt it was important to make sure we did not allow such issues to divide our community.”

Soto, as president of SALAD and a member of various other citizen coalitions, was outspoken against the ordinance. By the time the County Commission repealed the law in 1993, the body was a majority Hispanic.

“Miami is now in reality the capital of the Americas. It doesn’t make sense to have an anti-bilingual ordinance,” Soto said at the time.

SALAD, founded in 1974, was one of the first groups to focus on bettering immigrants’ lives in South Florida. Members lobbied for refugees, fought for money for English lessons and created voter registration drives.

In the mid-1980s, Soto and the organization also spearheaded a campaign called English Plus, aimed at preserving the Spanish language in Dade County and the United States.

“In the past 30 years I would be hard-pressed to find anyone with more passion for justice than Osvaldo Soto,” said David Lawrence Jr., the retired Herald publisher and now chair of The Children’s Movement of Florida. “He was as good a mentor on matters of decency and fairness and listening as anyone I can remember — indeed, in so many ways a treasure for the future of this community.”

Soto was also active in legal circles, advocating for more Hispanics in the ranks of lawyers and judges.

A former member of the Cuban American Bar Association, Soto in 1991 was among those who pushed the group to open its membership to non-Cubans.

“That took a lot of courage and commitment. He was right there by my side, supporting me,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, who was CABA’s president at the time.

Soto was also not shy about his supporting candidates he believed were up to the task.

In 1998, Soto threw his support behind Scott Bernstein, an openly gay judicial candidate. During the campaign, a man walked up to Soto and expressed dismay about his support.

“I said, ‘To me, he is a well-qualified attorney who is running for judge. I don’t care if he’s black or white or Methodist or Catholic. I’m supporting him,’ “ Soto told the Miami Herald.

Bernstein won the election overwhelmingly. He is still a judge.

“Osvaldo Soto was a pioneer in the legal community,” Bernstein said on Tuesday. “It meant the world to me to have his support and his encouragement.”

Soto is survived by his wife, Bertila Soto, 82, his sister, Esther Leyes, 79, and his children: Bertila Soto, 57, Osvaldo Nestor Soto Jr., 65, Eduardo Soto, 63, and Rick Soto, 62.

A service will held Wednesday, from 6 to 10 p.m., at Caballero Rivero Westchester, 8200 Bird Road. A Mass will be held Thursday at 9:30 a.m. at St. Augustine Church, 1400 Miller Road. The burial will follow at Caballero Rivero Woodlawn North, 3260 SW Eighth St.

El Nuevo Herald Staff Writer Sarah Moreno contributed to this story.