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Diversity Among Hispanics Presents Challenge for Presidential Campaigns
Alexia Campbell--Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
As Ana Perez knocks on door after door in Sunrise, she finds proof of Florida's
increasingly diverse Hispanic landscape.
The Dominican-born woman switches to Spanish as she talks to people from
Colombia, Puerto Rico and Uruguay, asking them all the same question: Are you
voting for Barack Obama or John McCain? Perez, 39, a Democrat who voted for
George W. Bush and now canvasses for Obama, sees a lesson in the diversity she
encounters. "[Hispanics] are really just like any other Americans."
The changing Latino electorate in Florida is a tricky issue for both
presidential campaigns. These days it takes more than a stop in Miami's Little
Havana and a quick anti-Castro speech for candidates to win the Hispanic vote.
Immigration from Central and South America has made the Hispanic voting
population much more varied and diluted the power of conservative Cuban exiles
at the polls.
Twenty years ago, Election Day exit polls showed that 72 percent of the Hispanic
electorate in Florida voted Republican in the presidential elections. That was
thanks to former president Ronald Reagan, whose tough anti-communist stance won
the hearts of the Cuban exile community.
Today, 38 percent of Latino voters in Florida are Democrats, voter records show.
Republicans make up 33 percent, followed closely by those who registered with no
party affiliation, 27.5 percent. Candidates struggle to find a message that
appeals to all: right-wing Venezuelans in Weston; Democratic Puerto Ricans in
Pembroke Pines; conservative Colombians in Plantation.
McCain seemed to recognize that changing Hispanic demographic at a campaign
appearance Oct. 17 at Florida International University. Addressing a largely
Hispanic crowd, he gave the expected anti-Castro talk. He also took a jab at
socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. But he didn't forget that while
Hispanics still connect with issues involving their country of origin, the
burning issues here are what really matter.
"I'm going to make sure we take care of the people who are devastated by the
excess in greed on Wall Street and Washington," he told them. "I'm going to
spend a lot of that money to bring relief to you."
Both Obama and McCain have put out Spanish-language ads targeting working-class
families worried about the economy. Both also count on a diverse group of local
supporters to reach out to their own people.
It's not easy getting Latino voters in South Florida to unite, says Peter
Camacho, of the group Colombians for Obama. Last Sunday, salsa, merengue and
Colombian pop blared from a mini-bus that led a caravan of Obama supporters
through Lake Worth. The red, white and blue bus covered with Obama signs makes
stops at Hispanic supermarkets and a popular taco joint.
"Necesitamos cambio!" boomed over the loud speakers on the bus. "We need
change!"
Camacho, of Boca Raton, volunteers with the Obama campaign almost every day. As
he talks with Spanish-speaking voters, he's frustrated by how divided they are
by their individual concerns about the countries they came from.
"We don't work together to see the big picture," said Camacho, 47. "We're not
meshed together. We're not overlapping."
The political shift in Florida can be traced to two things, says Dario Moreno,
director of the Metropolitan Center at Florida International University. One is
the rise of non-Cuban Hispanics. The other is the political gap between Cuban
immigrants and their American-born children.
"These two factors have made the Hispanic community much more complex than it
used to be and made campaigning here much more difficult," Moreno said.
Telemundo soap opera star Katie Barberi joined Sen. Joe Lieberman on stage at
Viva Broward last Sunday following salsa and cumbia shows. The two praised
McCain's experience to the Latino crowd at the Pompano Beach festival.
Ana Gomez-Mallada, a Fort Lauderdale-based lawyer born in Havana, was also there
to get votes for McCain. She says candidates need to realize Cuba is not every
Latino's number one concern in Florida.
"Whether you're from Puerto Rico ... whether you're Cuban or an illegal alien,"
she said, "it's always going to be about education, learning English and having
access to the American Dream."
Source: Copyright (c) 2008, Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Distributed by
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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