Que ustedes opinan de los Hispanos que son Republicanos?

[Lost-in-FL]

Pregunto por curiosidad.

I just can't come to turns with the fact that there are Latinos that vote Republican. Why do you think they do that? Do you think it is mostly religious reasons? Because of the GOP calling themselves the party of "moral values" (HAHAHA!! Sorry, can't help it.)? I know latinos have conservative views such as anti abortion views, religious animosity, sexuality, views on homosexuality, etc. But I also think it has to do with the fact that powerful $$$ and influencial figures $$$ in the hispanic community happen to be Republican (at least in FL).

IMO, I think (think) I understand why many Cubans vote Republican. I believe that they do so because of their hatred towards Communism and the state of Cuba. Republicans hate Castro and communism just the same way many Cuban-Americans do. Me thinks that is why they identify with Republicans. I am trying hard not to generalize so PLEASE excuse my ignorance. What's your take on it? Do you have hispanic friends who are Republicans, Libertarians or Independent/Conservative?

[Cleita]

1. Some also say that a lot of them buy the family values lies.

They get this in church and then are told that the Republicans are the party that uphold this. Someone also put up a website a couple of months ago in Spanish from the Republican Party. I wish now I had bookmarked it. Honestly to read it you'd think you accidentally tripped into a Green Party website. The mentirosos talked about all the liberal and social concerns we have and how their candidates were going to fix it. It was all lies.

[Lost-in-FL]

2. I guess they got caught on their lies or

the inmigration debate happened. I looked at their site and there was a HISPANIC TEAM. Notice how it was not called LATINO but HISPANIC. I guess it is a taboo to even write the name of a culture by their mother language. I had to go through various pages to find it. Reminded me the tales about the "servidumbre". Their place was always in the kitchen.

[Cybergata]

3. Hispanics who Vote Republican

I've notice that one of the real distinct lines between Rep and Dem Hispanics is the between haves and don haves. Poor Hispanics in my area vote Democrat, and the rich ones vote Republican. I have known some who voted Republican because their priest or pastor told them Kerry was bad for their faith. I've seen some of those folks change their minds recently because of the Immigration controversy and because they are far worse off now than they were 5 years ago.

[demosincebirth]

4. I basically agree.

But the republican Cubans in Fla have this hatred of Fidel, that has been preached by their elders for years. Some, now, are starting to realize that their hatred of Castro is not putting food on their table nor more money in their pay envelope.

[ugarte]

5. La gente latina adinerada tiene los mismos intereses que los demás ricos

Well-to-do Latinos usually go Republican out of self-interest (don't want to pay taxes), and many middle-class "burgueses" identify with the rich and look down on others. The more puzzling thing is why lower-middle-class and poor Latinos would vote Republican, and the only answer I can give you is the Catholic Church y sus "pro-life" teorias.

[RagingInMiami]

6. I grew up in a Cuban neighborhood in Miami

And I still don't understand why most Cubans vote republican. I know all the reasons they claim, but they don't make sense to me. The truth is, most of the Cubans, like most Americans, are very politically unaware. And they've been manipulated into believing that a vote for a republican is a vote against Castro.

Most Cubans who fled Cuba in the early 1960s were working class or middle class Cubans who had supported Castro in the beginning. When people refer to the Miami Cubans as Batista Fascistas, they are very misinformed. The Batista followers were the ones who fled Cuba in 1959. They were the rich Cubans. The ones who owned companies and vast amounts of land. But they were a small minority among the exiles by the early 1960s.

When Kennedy failed to provide air support the Cuban exiles during the Bay of Pigs, it resulted in more than a hundred Cubans either getting killed or imprisoned. And that was all the Batista Fascistas needed to manipulate the rest of the Cubans against democrats.

And since then, the republicans have done a better job than the democrats into making people believe they are "stronger against communism". Now that the Cold War is over and most Americans are not threatened by communism, the republicans were able to convince more Americans that they are "stronger on terrorism".

But in Miami, the cold war still exists because of Castro. And even though the republicans have done nothing to topple Castro except offer empty promises, the Cubans still believe that a vote for a republican is a vote against Castro. And it really pisses me off because the three major Cuban immigration waves throughout the last three decades took place under democratic administrations; JFK/Johnson in the early 1960s; Carter in 1979; and Clinton in 1993.

Fortunately, it's getting better, but there are still far too many Cubans who vote republican and are unable to provide a logical reason for doing so.

[calico1]

7. For the same reason Blacks vote Republican...

Once they are doing well econimically they can forget they ever struggled and forget that others struggle. I think also that for Latinos as well as other minorities, they don't like to be associated with those that are poor or struggling economically. So voting Republican is a sign of success for them, like buying a Mercedes or a house in an upper class neighborhood. I also think some of the very religious ones... as with Blacks...are fooled into thinking that the Republican party is the party of morality and decency.