June 28, 2004
Florida's Pan-Latino Melting Pot
This morning's Column One section of the Los Angeles Times has a special report on the radical transformation of Florida's Hispanic demography -- long a central outpost for the U.S. Cuban population. Thanks to the diverse Latin American immigration in the 90's, the Sunshine State is now ground zero for a new pan-American Latinoism instead:
- In a major demographic shift with implications for politics as well as the humdrum minutiae of life — including the use of parks and the kinds of foods sold in supermarkets — Florida's Latinos, more than 2.6 million strong and growing each day, are undergoing a metamorphosis. Cubans and Cuban Americans, long the majority in the state, have been reduced in the last decade to a distinct if still dominant minority.
What's more, in large part due to the newcomers, people of Spanish language and heritage are no longer concentrated in a few locations like Miami's Little Havana, settled by refugees fleeing Fidel Castro's Cuba, or the older cigar-rolling Cuban district of Ybor City in Tampa.
There is now a Little Caracas of Venezuelans in the Miami suburb of Doral, a Colombian enclave in the Broward County city of Weston, and pockets of Guatemalans in Lake Worth near Palm Beach.
In rural inland towns like Immokalee and Sebring, food markets with names like Azteca cater to Mexican farmworkers and sell votive candles with the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexico's patron saint. In formerly Anglo suburbs of Fort Lauderdale, gas stations offer hot Argentine beef turnovers.
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Slowly, though, a trans-Latino identity is taking root. Nowadays, even a venerable temple of Cuban gastronomy like Miami's Versailles restaurant offers non-Cuban specialties on its menu, including churrasco, a thick Argentine cut of steak. Strolling Mexican-style mariachi bands are common, but the musicians are often Colombians. More and more, there are households where the spouses hail from different Spanish-speaking countries or backgrounds.
Marco Rubio, a Cuban American, knows firsthand about the blending of Latin cultures. The 33-year-old Coral Gables attorney and Republican majority leader in the state House is married to a Colombian American who used to be a cheerleader for the Miami Dolphins. They have two children.
"I describe my two daughters, Amanda, 4, and Daniella, 2, as Colombanas — half Cuban, half Colombian, and 100% American," Rubio said. "I myself never ate an arepa (a Colombian specialty made of cornmeal) until I married Jeanette." On the other hand, Rubio said, "any Hispanic who lives any length of time in Miami ends up at a Cuban bakery and picks up some Cuban words.
"What you get is all those different Hispanic cultures melding into one 'Miami' culture," Rubio said. "America has always been about taking the best of other parts of the world, the best of other cultures."'Just because you speak Spanish, no one assumes you're Cuban anymore.'
One real interesting thing to keep an eye out for is how this more diverse Latino base will vote (to the extent they are citizens) in the upcoming Presidential elections. It's no secret that Cuban American emigres have a hardcore bent favoring the Republican party. But what about these new Floridians? The article suggests many of them still hold conflicting notions of dual citizenship ("We leave the country, but we do not close the door.") Remember the insanity of 2000? Florida, as a swing state, will be as pivotal as ever, and these "New Latins" could well make the difference in 2004 should they become active.
Read the whole article.
UPDATE: In fact, John-Thor Dahlburg, the author of the aforementioned article has a second article on this very issue I've raised above (it's also in the L.A. Times). The non-Cuban Latino vote in Florida is very much up for grabs:
- "It will all hinge on getting the votes out," Martinez said. In general, he said, Cuban Americans vote roughly 80% to 85% Republican, while Florida's other Latinos, including Mexicans and South and Central Americans, vote about 60% to 65% in favor of Democrats.
"In a sense," Martinez said, "they are more up for grabs than the Cubans."
More.