MIAMI (AP) — When Félix Llerena arrived in Miami in 2017, he rapidly received concerned within the metropolis’s politically lively neighborhood of Cuban exiles. He was quickly drawn to President Donald Trump for his aggressive method towards Cuba’s communist authorities and his acknowledged affinity for Cuban American tradition.
In the present day, Llerena is able to apply for citizenship and vote for the primary time. He’s extra skeptical of the previous Republican president. And his mom was capable of come to the USA earlier this 12 months below an immigration program created by Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration that’s admitted tens of 1000’s of Cubans and different individuals from nations with expatriate communities in South Florida.
Each events’ efforts have an effect on Llerena’s life and fulfill totally different priorities he has. Whereas he’s leaning towards a Republican candidate subsequent 12 months, he says he tries to keep away from sticking to 1 aspect.
“I don’t worship politicians,” he stated. “They’re merely doing their job. I don’t defend political or partisan pursuits.”
His story illustrates how each Republicans and Democrats are perceived by South Florida’s highly effective bloc of Cuban American voters, which has influenced presidential elections for many years. Even because the Republican Get together has made enormous inroads in Florida’s Latino communities, flipping Miami-Dade County within the governor’s race final 12 months, nationwide Democrats say they received’t quit on Florida and nonetheless suppose it may be a swing state subsequent 12 months.
The events use sharply totally different methods and arguments and sometimes paint the opposite aspect as extremist or socialist — an particularly grave insult amongst Cuban exiles.
Democrats have attacked Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one other GOP presidential candidate, on immigration and sometimes emphasize their remedy of current border crossers who usually embody Cubans, Venezuelans, Haitians and different nationalities broadly represented in Florida. Republicans typically concentrate on financial points and argue Democratic efforts to focus on inequality find yourself hurting middle-class households together with Latinos.
Each side should reply to a Trump legal trial subsequent 12 months in South Florida on costs that he mishandled categorized info.
The GOP has been successful in Florida since 2016, when Trump flipped a state that twice went for Democrat Barack Obama. That 12 months, Democrats had about 327,000 extra registered voters within the state. In the present day, the GOP has a voter-registration benefit of about half 1,000,000. And after barely successful the governor’s race in 2018, DeSantis was reelected final 12 months by 1.5 million votes.
Final month, the Florida Democratic Get together launched a voter registration effort known as “Take Again Florida” to attempt to regain some misplaced floor. The social gathering chair stated it could be “all fingers on deck” in Miami-Dade, the place 60% of the voters are Hispanic.
“What the Democrats have misplaced are the youthful Cuban American voters,” stated Dario Moreno, a political science professor at Florida Worldwide College.
Llerena, now 27, pays consideration to his picture, usually carrying a swimsuit and a tie at neighborhood occasions. He has appeared on Spanish-language native networks and as a visitor of Univision’s Jorge Ramos. He has met with elected officers from each events in Miami and Washington.
“I could also be a ‘muelero,’” he stated, an expression for somebody with the present of gab. “However I’m pragmatic and reasonable.”
Rising up in Cuba, he stated, youth are instructed to be loyal to the state and idolize its revolutionaries, foremost of all Fidel Castro, who dominated Cuba for half a century after overthrowing a U.S.-backed authorities in 1959. Castro suppressed dissent, jailed political prisoners, and antagonized Washington for half a century.
“In Cuba, the alphabet just isn’t F for flowers or R for roses,” Llerena stated. “F is for Fidel and R is for revolution.”
It wasn’t till he was in his teenagers and started utilizing Web cafes that Llerena says he shaped totally different opinions. He paid consideration to the U.S.-funded Radio and Tv Marti networks. Ultimately he started resisting the Castro-led authorities as a spiritual freedom and pro-democracy activist.
He remembers being 18 and listening to an announcement from then-President Barack Obama that Washington and Havana would transfer towards attempting to normalize diplomatic relations. He nonetheless feels admiration for Obama but in addition disappointment, saying Cuba finally took benefit of him.
“The U.S. gave, gave, gave and Cuba gave nothing in return,” he stated. “The fact for the Cuban individuals remained the identical. I by no means benefited from the thaw, by no means felt an actual change.”
Cuban authorities brokers detained him in 2017 after a go to to the USA that he documented on social media to fulfill with members of the U.S. Fee on Worldwide Spiritual Freedom. He was expelled from his college and compelled to signal a warning for public dysfunction, which human rights teams say Cuba makes use of to intimidate activists, political opponents and critics. Llerena left Cuba shortly after.
In 2020, Llerena was vocal about his assist of Trump, saying these rallies confirmed the Cuban authorities that it wasn’t solely the getting old exiles who arrived after the Cuban Revolution or within the ensuing many years, however those that have come extra not too long ago that additionally assist hard-line insurance policies in opposition to the Cuban authorities.
Trump usually mentions how Cubans have come to like him. After his arraignment earlier this 12 months within the categorized paperwork case Miami, he made a cease on the iconic Cuban restaurant Versailles Cafe and the gang serenaded him with “Comfortable Birthday.”
However Llerena stated he was offended by the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.
“I’ve fled a dictatorship the place there was a cult of persona for a lot of many years,” he stated. “Politicians are all human beings and so they make errors. There are various good issues to love about Donald Trump, however in others, it was a catastrophe.”
Llerena drastically benefited from adjustments carried out by Biden to curb the rising numbers of migrants arriving on the U.S.-Mexico border, together with many Cubans. A lawsuit from Republican-led states objects to the humanitarian parole program, which began in 2022 for Venezuelans and was expanded to migrants from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua. It permits as much as 30,000 individuals to enter the U.S. every month to remain for 2 years and get a piece allow.
Llerena stated he wished to use immediately for his mom, who he had not seen in additional than 5 years. Anticipating a courtroom problem, he filed her utility as quickly as this system opened.
He praises Biden for his immigration insurance policies and for his assist for Ukraine in opposition to the Russian invasion, however notes that he doesn’t suppose the Biden administration prioritized Cuba. As a substitute, he prefers two Republican overseas coverage hawks, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence, who each strike him as “presidenciables” — Spanish for presidential.
If Llerena will get his citizenship in time, he seemingly received’t vote within the state the place he entered American politics. He travels usually to Miami for occasions with the exile neighborhood however is now residing in Texas — one other state the place the Latino vote is crucial and the place Republicans have made inroads with Latino voters to win statewide elections.
“I’m clearly Cuban and I’m going to die Cuban,” he stated. “I’ve to advocate for my individuals.”