Hileah, FL

Sometihng interesting. My friend is registering voters.

And he is doing it at a community college. Of the people he has registered in Hileah, almost all have chosen Democrats. And they were Hispanic Cubans.

What gives here? Is the younger Cuban generation less Republican than their parents?

I lived there many, many years ago before it became all Cuban.

In Miami we said -- the last American to leave, please take the flag with you!

I almost felt as if I was the last American to leave because not too many people there spoke my language anymore.

I lived on SE 3rd street ....I remember Rustic Roller Rink with the skating chicken (omg i am sooo old)and the Essex Theater...swimming in the miami canal with the manatees....O'Quinn Park...Babcock Park...Twin Lakes (north hialeah) Opalocka Army Reserve ...oh how i miss those days...i lived there in the 50s and 60s

damn i remeber when miami internation airport was a dairy farm...it had one airstrip and a shack with an awning for a terminal sigh

hialeah was democratic back then...i remember my whole family campaigned for JFK...

here's a great tool ...satallite images ...enjoy you can zoom in and almost see who's in your driveway, just keep click on area in the pic and it qwill zoom you in..travel anywhere just type where in the search window
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I remember Rustic Roller Rink. Would go there every Sat. night when I was in
jr. high school. I went to Hialeah Jr. High, then Miami Tech High. I lived in Miami SpSprings at that time. Yes, also the EssexTheater -- went there every Sat. afternoon. Yep, Babcock Park, remember that well, too. Moved to Georgia in 1989. Got sick of South Florida, the heat, the crime and I'm sorry to say, the Cubans. No one spoke English anymore in Miami.
Was living in Virginia Gardens at the time I moved.

What year did you go to Miami Springs Sr. My sister went there also. I don't remember the exact year, but it was in the late '60s.

instead of popcorn i would get the giant dill pickle...only the circle sold theater them......lol...and swam in the okeechobee canal not the miami canal

Went there every Sat. until I reached my teens,then started going to the Essex. Seems all the high school kids went there at that time.

Still is pretty nice...racetrack off-track betting hurt.

they have been raised in the US, are citizens, and don't have the same feelings about Ole Castro that their parents did.

I think its a great sign!

So I wonder what the reality is and if FL-21 can ever be flipped in our direction.

Because I can assure you we don't. We just aren't consumed with endless hate for him. Living in Miami, I can say that the younger Cubasn are more mainstream. Hialeah is sort of a pit of a town. Nearby Sweetwater (Cuban) has a sign that says "Sweetwater Supports our Troops and PRESIDENT BUSH" (!!!!) It's all I can do to not X it out with spray paint.

Miami is kinda rightwing, but I don't hear the enthusiasm for Bush or his policies like I did 6 months ago.

Go by the Cuban Exile hangout "The Versailles" and you'll hear them yell "Viva Bush!" They used to go there to bitch about Reno & Elian. Nutty town - they couldn't give adamn about anything going on locally. It's "the Island" 24/7. That's my biggest gripe RE the Cubans, Not that they're right-wing fanatics, but that they are focused on Castro & Cuba to the detriment of this community. Miami is the poorest large city in the US for the 2nd year in a row this year (While nearby Miami Beach & Coral Gables, Palm Beach glimmer with wealth)

And they are definitely Repukes!!!

They usually are.

So does that mean that FL-21, FL-25, and FL-18, all of which are held by Cuban American Republicans, could one day flip in our direction?

Many of my generation and younger Cuban-Americans would roll their eyes (I saw them) when their parents and older relatives would start a Castro rant.

The Cuban-American community is not monolithically Republican anymore.

It really is. Maybe my preconceptions of Cuban issues in Florida might be slightly off base.

any of these things, Jiacinto.

It's about class structure.

Why should poor Cubans cary the load for a small group of rich pro-Castro Cubans who only want to get their grandparents lands back after Fidel dies?

Thank your friend on my part for registering voters. This is the greatest single thing that any of us can do if we are ever to win in the electoral process.

Expand the base of the Party by reaching out to the 50% who do not even vote and who are disenfranchised rather than trying to hopelessly appeal to some 19% of the more conservative and so-called "swing voters" which only drags our Party further from our principals.

Thank your friend for me, Carlos.

I hope you are enjoying Florida living. The upcoming months are so nice in Florida that it almost tempts me to leave my blessed Southern California...almost. :hi:

... Yes, younger Cubans are leaning Democratic. Why? Well, they didn't go through the weird historical experience of having been ruined by Castro (don't ever underestimate the evil of Castro), and associating that with the Democratic Party. They are very often well educated. They are growing up in a fairly tolerant and open part of the country; and as non-Cuban Hispanics come in, they pick some of that stuff up.

The GOP lock on Cubans is going away as demographics shift our way.

At least that's this Cuban American's opinion.

Oh, yeah: GO CLARK!

There has been a strong democratic movement amoung younger Cuban voters for years.

and it was pretty much all Cuban then. All those little ones that were around back then have grown up in relatively depressed circumstances and are more driven by their quest for a better life since they don't have the Castro-laden baggage their parents do/did.

Nothing quite like growing up poor in the "land of opportunity" to send a wake up call.

Julie

I grew up there in the 60's went to Milam Elementary, Palm Springs Junior High and the Miami Lakes in the 70's... I went to ML the first year it was open and my class was responsible for naming it after a rubber..(Trojans)...LOL

I was there during the first wave of Cubans and remember meeting many new friends who didn't no a lick of English...

I love the Cuban People... The old timers politics are a little radical expecially towards Fidel but all in all they are hard working folks who are big on Family... Plus..the Cuban Women... Ya hoo for CoCo puffs...

I was there in the 80's and had a lot of the same feelings as you. Many folks I interacted with spoke little English and I tried to figure out Spanish (with little success). I too found them to be warm and loving folks, very hospitable. I had only good experiences with them and many were quite poor. Generous and loving in spite of it.

Those people know how to enjoy life. The old "live more with less" was a great lesson for me then. It's good to see the political shift happening down there. I'm not really surprised.

To all the great additions to our "melting pot"! :toast:

Julie

A lot's changed ... The area I lived in had more color..;-)

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They are working class Americans just like everybody else, and like everybody else they are being hurt badly by W and Co.

She told me that her one wish was to be able to go to Cuba. She receives correspondence from cousins there and longs to visit them. She also says that here parents are blinded by their hatred of Castor because her father had to leave Cuba (some kind of gambling business) when Castro came into office. They lost a lot of family land but were able to get to America with most of their fortune in tact. She said the she and her sisiter and brother dare not even mention their true desire to visit Cuba and they dare not speak anything favorable about Cuba or Castro. But one thing she knows is that a number of her father's business partners and acquaintences in this country are still bitter and will not allow their children to think or act otherwise. She also told me that her synagogue was every bit as hateful as an Islamic mosgue is said to be. She and her siblings are very careful not to rile their parents lest they be disinherited. I have no reason to believe that she is lying. I befriended her when she was about to lose her government job and actually kept her from losing it. I think she was telling the truth.