Cubans in america and government. Why are most republicans? News with a Mojito drink involved, i would guess.
Mostly thought of 'insane' after the elian gonzalez trauma, maybe some big-hair memory of gloria estafan's 80's video, maybe a favorite scene from the movie Scarface.
In political circles, people are wondering about the homogenity of the only hispanic subgroup in the US with such devoted loyalty to the republican party.
My comments are along the lines of this:
-during the late seventies/early eighties; democrats in power locally forced the rising group of aspiring politicians in the cuban population to see a glass ceiling in position. Their claim was about 'room'. The republican party in miami is a group of family feuds carried over from cuba by the same families that held powers during Babtista(dictator of Cuba) regime.
-Resentment over Kennedy's choice to not support the action in the bay of pigs angered the families involved with that and crushed the hopes of older cuban hoping to return to isle within time to re-establish control. This led a tipped-off Reagan before his bid in the 1980 election to begin establishing ties.
-Cubans have a long and unspoken racist view, traditionally. Cuba never had a civil rights movement, it had a communist revolution that enveloped the racial tensions and many of the most ardent supporters were oppressed african-cubans. This fitted the republican political sweep of the south in tone and manner perfectly. The cuban population here apparently doesnt realize that we(cuban-american background)are the same to the majority of americans view's, especially in their prized political party.
I attempted in 2004-2005 to create a youth-focused political activist group called 'Next-Generation.US'. I worked for a half year, and got little interest from actual cubans that were already democrats!
It depressed me.
But honestly, I had little resources. So maybe its worth another shot in the future. But what i discovered is that everyone saw the value in creating a organized counter locally and specifically towards the aging political body that caters to the fears and misconceptions among cuban-americans. No one was willing to help with it though...
'haha' on me, i guess.
In my state government, the capital is filled with young cuban american assistants from the elected candidates and more from the lobbying firms. I always wondered how lonely my position would be if i was ever elected to the Florida house?
See; i have found that it is as troubling being a cuban-american democrat because when you put a few dozen activists from South Florida. They range racially around the bend...african-american, other hispanic nationalities, jewish, general white persons. It is is only a matter of time before someone says "F*ck the cubans...they are ruining everything!" and they realize i am still in the room. Besides sheepish looks and half-hearted(because they do look at the group as homogeneric) apologies, i get the "oh not you, (my name)...your 'different'..."
After a few years of that, you get used to it. But it never sits well with me. I begin to see why the local democrats are losing out on young people locally.
And the foolish obsession with El Che as a fashion item...boy, nothing is funnier then when foreign activitists come here for some event(like the Free Trade meetings) and see the angry looks of people whose families were actually harmed by that 'cool rebel'.
Good Lord. Help me.
thank you for reading my rambling to the end...
-still 'D' after meeting other 'D's'