From The Sydney Morning Herald, 9/30/04:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/29/1096401655848.html?oneclick=true
US Republicans facing a revolution in Little Havana
By Marian Wilkinson, Herald Correspondent in Miami
September 30, 2004
Little Havana, the Cuban corner of Miami, is the last place in Florida
where George Bush would expect to find himself in trouble.
In the offices of the Cuban American National Foundation, a bleak
poster of Fidel Castro's political prisoners welcomes visitors.
But when the veteran anti-Castro rebel Pepe Hernandez, who once risked
his life at Cuba's Bay of Pigs in a CIA-backed coup attempt, starts
adding up the votes of Cuban Americans in Florida, his conclusion is
unexpected.
"If [the Democratic Party candidate] John Kerry can just get 30 per
cent of the Cuban vote, then he would most likely win Florida," he
says.
"The community has been changing substantially, especially over the
last 10 years. Los Historicos [older people who arrived when Dr Castro
defeated the rebellion] ... they are living in history, out of the
passions, experiences and tragedies of 20 and 30 and 40 years ago."
Los Historicos still form a substantial element of Miami's Cuban
population and they turn out to vote in large numbers.
"They are older and very much Republican," Mr Hernandez says.
But the new immigrants, many of whom left Cuba for economic reasons,
along with the children of the exiles, are changing the voting
patterns of the population of nearly 1 million, which includes more
than 450,000 registered voters.
"Cuba is still an issue, but it is less important to them," Mr
Hernandez believes.
"Their sympathies are more with the Democrats than the Republicans."
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Yup. Another nail in Georgie's coffin.
Harry
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