Florida's Cuban Voters Harder to Woo
New America Media, Commentary, Louis E.V. Nevaer, Posted: Jan 30, 2008
Editor’s Note: McCain’s victory in Florida spelled the end of the Rudolph Giuliani campaign – and an end to the Republican notion that a trip through Little Havana is all it takes to get the Cuban-American vote, writes NAM contributor Louis E. V. Nevaer.
The resounding rout of Rudolph Giuliani in Tuesday’s Republican primary in Florida spells the end of his unconventional presidential campaign. It also demonstrates that Florida’s Cuban Americans can no longer be taken for granted by the GOP.
The decades-old Republican strategy of winning Florida by flying into Miami, touring Little Havana and promising Cuban exiles and their American-born adult children and grandchildren that they would get rid of Castro has come to an end.
After nearly four decades of an embargo that has proven to be a complete failure, Cubans have wised up to the hollow promises of American presidential campaigns.
It is a myth among Anglos that Cubans are “right wing” and “obsessed” with Castro. There are right wing and left wing nuts in every community, and Castro looms large in their lives simply because what drove them to these shores was an “exile” that in fact was banishment: Disagree with Castro, and there is no room for you in Cuba.
Like many others before them, Cubans were enamored with the naïve belief in American decency: Americans saved the world; Americans were honorable; Americans kept their word.
But living in the United States for almost half a century has taught them much about the American way. Americans saved Europe from Hitler’s grasp, only to dominate it militarily through NATO and corporate America. Americans have been less than honorable in how they ended slavery, first through the bloodiest civil war in the history of the Western hemisphere, then through a century of segregation-cum-apartheid. Americans are quick to break agreements when it is politically or economically expedient: From the Treaty of Guadalupe to the International Declaration of Human Rights, this country fails to comply fully with its word.
It is this grand disillusionment with the United States – and the empty promises of Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr. – that has transformed Miami Cubans’ perception of the United States.
Miami Cubans’ move away from the Republicans coincides with other demographic changes taking place among Florida’s Hispanics. While Hispanics from South America lean towards the Republican Party, Hispanics from Central America and Mexico do not. And the American-born children of Cubans tend to identify with – and vote for – the liberal social views of Democrats.
For Hispanics of Mexican ancestry – who constitute nearly 80 percent of all Hispanics nationwide – the appeal of a military hero like John McCain is undeniable. Take a closer look at the names of the American troops fallen in Iraq, and a disproportionate number are Mexican-born non-citizens, or U.S. citizens born to illegal Mexican immigrants, who want a fast-track to citizenship through the “hyper-patriotism” of military service. (Hispanics of Mexican ancestry who were born in the United States are the most passionate about “law and order” when it comes to enforcing immigration laws.)
But in Florida, the mosaic of the Hispanic vote sealed the end of the Giuliani campaign. Acting as if all it takes is a 15-minute drive through Little Havana, Giuliani repeated the mantra that only a Republican president could get rid of Castro. Cuban exiles have heard it all before.
What non-Cubans have not heard before is what is said in hushed tones among Miami Cubans. This is what Miami Cubans say about their homeland in whispers: Cuba has no oil, or weapons, and as a consequence, it is a country of no importance to Washington. This is what Miami Cubans, who are white, say about their homeland in whispers: Cuba has become an island nation of 12 million people of color who have no money. Cuba, in other words, is Spanish for Haiti.
This reflects the emergence of “Mosaic Miami” – comprised of two Hispanic constituencies: non-Cubans and Cubans. The non-Cubans are the Mexicans, most of whom are in Homestead, working the agricultural fields of south Florida, and Venezuelans and Colombians, each escaping turmoil in their homelands. These non-Cuban Miami Hispanics tend to vote Democratic, and as their numbers have grown, so has the diversity of the Hispanic vote.
The Miami Cuban vote, comprising more than 80 percent of all Hispanics in Miami-Dade County, is itself not monolithic: There are three “Miami Cubans” – the exiles who arrived in the 60s and 70s, now senior citizens, who are staunch Republicans; the exiles who arrived since the 1980 Mariel Boatlift, which is split between Democratic and Republican; and the U.S.-born Miami Cubans who tend to vote Democratic.
This pattern is evident throughout all of Florida – Guatemalan Hispanics figure prominently in Tampa, Puerto Ricans in Orlando and Mexicans in the Panhandle.
But the Giuliani strategy of making the same empty promises fell on deaf ears. Indeed, the four leading Hispanic officials – Sen. Mel Martinez and Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Mario Diaz-Balart and Lincoln Diaz-Balart – all endorsed McCain.
And within the Miami Cuban community, there are fissures. Before 1980, Cuban exiles were white, middle-class professionals. Since 1980, Cuban exiles have been people of color, poor, and without the skills necessary to succeed in a market economy.
The greatest disillusionment remains this one fact of which Americans remain happily ignorant: While it’s breaking news on CNN when a ship of Cuban exiles manages to land on South Beach, and the desperate men, women and children rush ashore and kiss the ground, it’s seldom reported when, a year or so later, quietly, some of these exiles make their way back to Cuba. Spending one year in Castro's jail is worth the price of leaving in the United States, where everyone is expected to work every day, find their own housing, pay their own bills, put clothing on their back, and see about getting health care.
Miami Cubans look on in horror, and realize that what they long for is nostalgia for a Cuba, a time, a world that no longer exists. So when Giuliani or Romney come by and promise to “free” Cuba, this may have meant something in the 60s or 70s, when the exiles were young or middle-aged. But the Republican die-hard Cubans in Little Havana are in their 70s and 80s, more concerned about Medicaid and Medicare than they are about anything they lost on that tropical island in a different life.
Republicans who think the Cuban-American vote is a given are also dreaming of a time and a place that exists only in nostalgia.
Related Articles:
As Castro Fades, Cubans Find a New Icon: José Martí
Remembering a Ride With Fidel -- And Assessing Cuba's Future
Latinos Prefer Hillary
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User Comments
Louis Nevaer on Jan 30, 2008 at 13:25:24 said:
FROM THE AUTHOR FOR CASSANDRA:
Despite the hostility between Washington and Havana, both countries cooperate on many levels: air traffic controllers in Cuba provide information to airliners from the U.S. that enter their airspace; the U.S. Coast Guard and Cuban Navy communicate with each other in a very professional manner on all relevant matters; public health officials in both countries maintain close contact on issues of public health and tropical diseases, and so on. Regarding immigration, Cuba and the U.S. both agree that a “disorderly” movement of people is ill-advised. This is as much for humanitarian reasons – vessels that are not seaworthy endanger people’s lives, Elian Gonzalez’s mother being one of the most stark examples in recent memory, where the drowning of that young boy’s mother resulted in an international custody dispute – as for practical purposes: neither the U.S. nor Mexico want a situation similar to what occurred in Italy when Yugoslavia collapsed as a nation, and tens of thousands of refugees braved the Adriatic Sea seeking refuge in Italy. What is now occurring is the phenomenon of Cubans who successfully entered the U.S. and were granted asylum who subsequently decide to return to Cuba. Most of these are young men, since young men, as a general rule, are more willing to take risks than other demographic groups. (And most do it the old fashion way: a motor boat from Key West right back to Havana harbor, or by flying to Cancun for a connecting flight on Cubana Airlines or Mexicana’s Click discount airline.) The disenchantment with the U.S. and its market system arises from the facts listed in the article. In the U.S., one is expected to work 9 to 5, Monday through Friday, pay for one’s own housing, clothing, food and health care. For those who have never lived under such a system, it can prove too much: Life in Cuba where the state provides food and shelter and healthcare, regardless of who much work one actually performs does have its own appeal. For the Cuban government, although the official policy is not to retaliate against “unauthorized” emigration, it simply cannot turn a blind eye. To allow returnees to reenter society with complete impunity would only encourage others to embark on similar attempts, which may endanger their own lives or the lives of others. What happens, as a result, is indirect retaliation: If you return, you are not necessarily charged with unlawful emigration, but with theft of state property and/or reckless endangerment. Did you steal an inner tube from a state-owned trailer? Did you commandeer a state-owned boat? Did you endanger the lives of the Cuban Navy which pursued you? Did you use state-property to forge travel documents? And so on. Conviction on any of that lands you in jail. There is also the question of medical care: Cuba’s position is that anyone who attempts to leave the egalitarian society that exists on the island nation is not right in the head – so returnees are subjected to psychiatric evaluations, which can take place in military hospitals. (Cuba instituted a similar, controversial policy of internment camps for AIDS patients.) So, yes, technically everyone who returns is subjected to prosecution for theft of state-owned property, reckless endangerment, or detained for psychiatric evaluation at military hospitals. But in practice, most end up sentenced for one year in jail, then released after a couple of months if they behave themselves – with a stern warning to stop being such a “comemiarda” by risking their lives and throwing themselves into the Straits of Florida.
Cassandra on Jan 30, 2008 at 12:25:14 said:
I would greatly appreciate some enlightening follow-up on this article's statement on emigres returning to Cuba.
It has been my understanding that they are barred from applying for repatriation for five years.
It is also my understanding, somewhat firmer, that it is part of the Cuba-U.S. immigration accord that no one is punished for emigrating or attempting to, and I have never seen this seriously disputed. (Casually disputed, like most slanders of Cuba, I have seen often.) I have put this question to returnees I've met in Cuba, and none has been punished or heard of anyone being punished, let alone jailed for a year. Not, I concede, a scientific poll.
If the author has a source of information on the numbers who return, I would love to see him share it. The U.S. ceased decades ago to keep statistics on emigrees and their destinations.
This is a sincere request for information.
Cassandra
Ramon Granda on Jan 30, 2008 at 09:09:38 said:
President Bush and the groups he has supported in Miami (sometimes called right wing Cubans) are both products of U.S. propaganda based on the cumulative detritus of failed policies to Cuba. They have been the primary support of Fidel Castro's waning years and have done so for domestic political advantage irrespective of what they may say or think. If they are truly over..then good riddance. It is a good day for liberty in Miami but the opportunity cost has been terrible.
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