I stood in line for 1.5 hours today to vote. It was a typical South Florida scene; typical in many ways. Hot, humid and a little surreal. Most people in line were Hispanic and about 50% were actually conversing in Spanish. The woman in line behind me was a first time voter and my wife and I spent the better part of an hour trying to get her to read through and understand the sample ballot and all of the random amendments that we had to vote on.
As I stood at the entrance to the polling station, a middle-age Cuban man came out of the door and immediately recognized an older compatriot who had been meandering through t the line with me. They exchanged a typical Cuban greeting “Como tu estas chico” (how are you guy) and then the younger fellow leaned into the older man’s ear and said with a grin in a loud whisper “No votes por ese negro” (Don’t vote for that black guy). This was immediately followed by a chortle, some back slapping and a quick goodbye.
My wife and I were a little startled, but not surprised. The Nicaraguan man in front of us in line looked at us in disbelief as well and began lamenting the state of things in Miami.
So what’s going on? What explains why over 70% of Hispanics are voting for Obama, but just around 40% of Cubans? It would be oversimplification to write off these types of folks as ignorant racists, especially since Cubans don’t have the same history of brutal post slavery segregation and Jim Crowism as the U.S. In fact, Batista, the Cuban president that Castro overthrew was a mulatto. No, it’s a little deeper than that.
Here’s my take. Its got to be tough when you see everything you hold immutable and sacred crumble around you. Imagine a generation of Cubans watching their kids vote Democrat, listen to hip hop and, God forbid, even associate openly with “esos negros”(i.e. lesser folks). Their single focus issue of Cuba is becoming more irrelevant daily as their friends fill up the obituary pages and the U.S. anti-Cuba policy that has been pursued for 50 years is increasingly seen as a failure. They are clinging to the last vestiges of what they see as the “the good ole days,” which for them (at least in this country) means the Grand Old Party, and that is about to buckle as well. And the kicker! The face of all this doom and gloom (i.e. Change) es un Negro. Well, kinda – a mulatto. Que ironia!
THE GOP should spend its remaining funds on Xanax for their disaffected brethren in Miami.
Comments