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Noticias/News

‘Gracias, Fidel’: Cuban columnist ridicules DeSantis' positive spin on 'historic evils'  7/31/2023 Raw Story: "A Cuban American columnist skewered Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Sunshine State’s Department of Education over its controversial new academic standards that suggests some slaves benefited from the skills they acquired in captivity. Fabiola Santiago wrote sarcastically for The Miami Herald that the new standards should include positive spins on additional “historic evils,” suggesting that Cuban Americans including Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. “may also have to recast their own chapter.”"

The GOP’s Nazi Problem Has Deep Roots  7/31/2023 The Nation: "But the GOP’s white nationalist problem extends beyond the Trump/DeSantis race. On Wednesday, Media Matters reported that Matteo Cina, a Fox News staffer and former writer for Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, repeatedly posted antisemitic messages on TikTok. One Cina post argued that, “it is hard to talk about the Holocaust and rising anti semitism [sic] without discussing Jewish presence in banking.” Arizona congressman Paul Gosar has extensive ties to the racist far right. In 2021 he spoke at a white nationalist rally hosted by Nick Fuentes."

Memo to Diaz & DeSantis: Is it ‘gracias, Fidel’ for skills Cubans learned in exile, too?  7/25/2023 Miami Herald: "And how shameful it is for us Cuban Americans who have one of us leading the bigotry in Tallahassee. Diaz, the son of Cuban exiles who settled in Hialeah, should know better than to participate in the mockery DeSantis calls “education.” “He looks like a sinister figure to me. He’s Cuban. He should know better,” Crespo said. “A pathetic figure,” Herald reader Freddy Lopez called him in a letter to the editor on Monday denouncing his stance on Black history “as if there had never been Black Cubans anywhere.”"

The Florida history standards are right about slavery  7/24/2023 Washington Examiner: "The standards do not say that some slaves benefited from slavery. The standards say that some slaves were taught skills and that those slaves benefited from having those skills. Which is true!"

Mask Off: DeSantis Staffer Reportedly Shares Video of DeSantis and Giant Nazi Symbol  7/24/2023 The New Republic: "But one scene caught a lot of people’s attention: an image of DeSantis, a Nazi symbol interposed over the Florida flag, and soldiers marching toward it."

Fan of Ron DeSantis accused of posting video containing Nazi imagery  7/23/2023 Raw Story: ""In Nazi Germany, the Nazi Party, the SA and the SS all used sonnenrad symbology at times, which has led neo-Nazis and other modern white supremacists to adopt such images," the group explained. In the fan account's version, the outer part of the circle says "Make America Florida," which has been DeSantis' campaign slogan."

Las escuelas de Florida enseñan que algunas personas negras se beneficiaron de la esclavitud porque aprendieron habilidades  7/21/2023 NBC: "El sindicato dijo que es preocupante que en el nivel de secundaria, los estándares confundan la Masacre de Ocoee de 1920, cuando al menos 30 afroamericanos fueron asesinados por intentar votar, con “actos de violencia perpetrados por afroamericanos”. Y en la escuela media, las normas exigen que se enseñe a los estudiantes que la esclavitud fue beneficiosa para los afroamericanos porque les ayudó a desarrollar habilidades, según denuncia el sindicato."

Las nuevas normas sobre la enseñanza de la esclavitud en Florida crean la polémica  7/21/2023 Radio France Internacional: "Pero donde el Departamento de Educación de Florida está causando controversia es con sus instrucciones que recomiendan a los profesores enseñar a los alumnos que los esclavos "desarrollaron habilidades" que podían "aplicar en su beneficio personal". Otro pasaje muy cuestionado se refiere a la enseñanza de los crímenes raciales que, según las nuevas normas educativas de Florida, fueron "perpetrados contra negros pero también por afroamericanos"."

Florida Schools Will Teach How Slavery Brought ‘Personal Benefit’ to Black People  7/20/2023 Daily Beast: DeSantis is pictured with Cuban Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz. "Middle school students in Florida will soon be taught that slavery gave Black people a “personal benefit” because they “developed skills.” After the Florida Board of Education approved new standards for African American history on Wednesday, high school students will be taught an equally distorted message: that a deadly white mob attack against Black residents of Ocoee, Florida, in 1920 included “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”"

Trump's long game with Latino voters is apparent after his historic arraignment  6/14/2023 NBC: "In the 2016 GOP presidential primaries, Sen. Marco Rubio heavily beat Trump in Miami-Dade, the only Florida county that Trump didn't win. In the 2016 presidential elections, Trump lost in Miami-Dade County to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by about 30 points. But once he became president, Trump spent time in Miami-Dade County and focused heavily on the Cuban American and Venezuelan community and growing groups such as Nicaraguans and Colombians. “What started out as a constituency that wasn’t behind him and viewed him with suspicion has become, I think, among his most loyal base,” Moreno said."

Trump's pit stop after his arrest was a key play. Here's why  6/14/2023 CNN: "Former President Trump stopped at a famous Cuban restaurant in Miami shortly after pleading not guilty to 37 charges related to alleged mishandling of classified documents."

Who is Aileen Cannon, the Colombian-born judge raised in Miami that will oversee Trump's documents case?  6/12/2023 NBC: "Born in Cali, Colombia but raised in Miami to a Cuban mother and an American father from Indiana, Aileen Cannon has been assigned to oversee the classified documents’ case against former President Donald Trump… In 2020, Trump nominated her as a federal judge with the backing of Sen. Marco Rubio, where she pledged to uphold the rule of law during her confirmation hearing."

1 complaint led a Florida school to restrict access to Amanda Gorman's famous poem  5/25/2023 NPR: "In an interview with member station WLRN, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said the school was following policy. "The process worked," he said. "A parent has the right to make a complaint. But the process was put into effect and it worked where they deemed the proper placement of the books. And the students still have access to it at the right level. And no books were banned.""

Florida mother behind ban on Amanda Gorman poem has Proud Boys links  5/25/2023 Guardian: [Baffling: does not even mention that she is Cuban American.]

Mom who complained about Amanda Gorman poem shared antisemitic conspiracy and praised Proud Boys  5/25/2023 Salon: "ABC News reviewed the posts of a profile appearing to belong to the parent, identified by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as Daily Salinas, in a Thursday report."

Miami Lakes school moves Biden inaugural poem out of elementary section of library after complaint  5/24/2023 WSVN-TV: "“The Hill We Climb,” the poem written by Amanda Gorman for President Joe Biden’s inauguration, was moved out of the elementary section of one Miami-Dade County public school after a parent objected to the poem saying it would “cause confusion and indoctrinate students.”"

Esta madre latina desató una polémica por un famoso poema  5/24/2023 Telemundo: "Los hijos de Daily Salinas estudian en una escuela de Miami Lakes donde tenían acceso al poema que Amanda Gorman recitó en la toma de posesión de Joe Biden. Se quejó por su contenido ante el distrito escolar y hasta la alcaldesa se involucró."

Florida Mom Behind Amanda Gorman Book Ban Has Proud Boy Links  5/24/2023 Daily Beast: "“My biggest fear is, they talk about the Democratic Party. They talk about socialism, socialism and communism going in the same way,” Salinas said. She told PBS she had fled Cuba for the United States when she was 21 years old. “The reason why we came here, I remember, I was little, and I say I need to live. It’s too much oppression and the dictator. So I don’t want this for my kids. I want my kids [to] keep their freedom,” she told the program. In August 2021, Salinas attended a protest against masks in Miami-Dade schools, where she was photographed standing next to Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys. Tarrio had already been implicated in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, for which he was later convicted of seditious conspiracy. (Salinas has shared posts indicating she believes Jan. 6 defendants are political prisoners.) Just over a year later, Salinas attended another rally organized by the Proud Boys in support of Christoper Morzon, a far-right extremist nicknamed the “Cuban Confederate.” At the protest in November, 2022, Salinas can be seen wearing a Ron DeSantis t-shirt and hat."

Florida approves social studies textbook list after changes to racial, social justice references  5/9/2023 The Hill: "In another instance, a mention of the Black Lives Matter movement and the 2020 murder of George Floyd was entirely removed in a book for grades six to eight for being considered “unsolicited topics.” The state announced last year that numerous math textbooks would be banned for references to “prohibited topics” like critical race theory and “Social Emotional Learning.”"

‘Anti-Black’ Claim Raised About Cuba As Solidarity Activists Stopped at U.S. Border & Black Socialists Arraigned in United States for Collaborating with Russia  5/5/2023 Towards Freedom: "A 2-year-old argument about “anti-Blackness” in Cuba, which Black solidarity activists in the United States say has no basis in reality, has reared its head. It appeared in a video posted on Twitter on May 1 that has since gone viral, generating more than 2 million views in four days. The video features Afro-Cuban Grecia Ordoñez, who claims Cuban Revolution leaders Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara were racists who engaged in “white saviorism.” She also claimed genocide was committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the time Cuba’s revolutionary government intervened to support rebels fighting the DRC government put in place after revolutionary leader and first Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was assassinated in 1961. Further, she pointed to Afro-Cubans being detained in Cuba as an example of racism."

WBC CUBAN BEER-THROWING BACKLASH SHOWS HOW AMERICANS ARE EMBRACING COMMUNISTS | ARMANDO SALGUERO  3/22/2023 OutKick: "Wow they're still upset that their slave plantations were taken away huh?"

New Head of Florida Dems supported white supremacist Manny Diaz Jr in his 2016 campaign  2/26/2023 FL Extreme Watch: "Fascist apologists are so cringe."

Nikki Fried, new Dem Chair, in 2016 supported Manny Diaz Jr who banned AP course  2/26/2023 FL Extreme Watch: "Former Senator, now Department of Education head Manny Diaz is responsible for the privatization and right-wing radicalization of public education, erasing LGBTQ+ people, Black history, and banning books. Enriching his donors in the process. Nikki Fried supported his campaign."

American Medical Association’s Racism Course Is Unscientific Propaganda  2/20/2023 The Federalist: Dr. Julio Gonzalez is a former Florida state representative. He is president of the United States Medical Association. - "And if pure propaganda were insufficient, she then engages in a series of unfathomable scientific misrepresentations. First, she describes what she calls “the nested subset” approach to defining race as being “a more modern and scientifically accurate understanding of genetic diversity.” According to the doctor, the nested subset approach “reflects that there’s no genetic or biological basis for race and that this is a truly political and social construction” (emphasis added). Dr. Cleveland Manchanda buttresses her claim by observing that “there’s more genetic variation within what we call racial groups … than between any,” and by the lack of complete agreement when assigning a race to a particular individual. Yet claiming the absence of any genetic or biological basis for race is patently absurd. One can scarcely imagine how a physician could deny associations between certain genetically caused diseases and racial or ethnic groups such as Tay-Sachs disease and Ashkenazi Jews, sickle cell disease and people of African descent, and cystic fibrosis and people of European descent, to name a few."

Miami police chief accused of racism and corruption  2/8/2023 Miami Times: "Two Black officers with the Miami Police Department are in the midst of accusing Chief Manuel Morales of racism and corruption. Police Lt. Brandon Lanier and detective Wanda Jean-Baptiste have claimed that Morales did not allow them to do their work independently when they were each internal affairs investigators – positions from which they have since been reassigned."

Call the "woke busters": Ron DeSantis sends volunteer army to snatch books from students' hands  2/3/2023 Salon: "DeSantis' lieutenant and Florida Commissioner of Education, Manny Diaz Jr., called the story "fake news" and accused the teachers of overreacting. But, as Judd Legum of Popular Info confirmed in a follow-up report, "Diaz's recommendations to teachers directly contradicts the training produced by his own agency," which requires all books to be prescreened and warns that the censors must "err on the side of caution" when deciding if a book fits the very right-wing definition of "harmful to minors." As Legum points out, one author that has been frequently targeted by Republican censors is Pulitzer Prize winner Toni Morrison, making it clear that it's not "pornography" that is in dispute here — which no one actually thinks teachers were providing — but internationally renowned literature. That explains why books about the Holocaust and Martin Luther King Jr. have also been frequently targeted by Republicans for bans."

Rubio Releases Anti-woke Agenda for the 118th Congress  2/2/2023 Marco Rubio: "Restoring Military Focus Act. First introduced in November 2022, this legislation would eliminate the position of Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) within the DOD and prohibit federal funds from being used to establish any similar office. Senators Jim Risch (R-ID), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and James Lankford (R-OK) are cosponsors. Representative Chip Roy (R-TX) introduced companion legislation in the House. Protecting Students From Racial Hostility Act. First introduced in July 2021, this legislation would protect students from racially-hostile school environments created by the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) by directing the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to enforce Title VI protections of the Civil Rights Act when a parent or student impacted by CRT submits a complaint. Senator Mike Braun (R-IN) is a cosponsor."

Americans Demand Freedom from Woke Ideology  2/2/2023 Marco Rubio: "That’s why I am reintroducing eight bills to protect the American people from radical woke activism in all its forms. If we become a country where left-wing protestors are exempt from the law, Wall Street wields investors’ dollars as a weapon against conservatives, and the U.S. government undermines the national interest, we won’t last long. Common-sense policymakers have a duty to hold elites accountable and prevent wokeness from turning the land of the free into another Cuba, Venezuela, or Nicaragua."

putting to rest the false narratives surrounding classroom libraries  2/1/2023 Manny Diaz Jr, Twitter: [Over 95% of the responses to this tweet are very negative towards Manny Diaz. In the Spanish version, there are far fewer comments and they are more positive.] "Florida Freedom to Read Project @FLFreedomRead Replying to @SenMannyDiazJr It has been a wk since this awful tweet attempting to gaslight FL parents. Did you think you could order this level of censorship & have it disappear with the next news cycle?"

Florida Commissioner of Education attacks Popular Information  2/1/2023 Popular Information: "On January 23, Popular Information reported that teachers in Manatee County, Florida are being told to make their classroom libraries inaccessible to students, or risk felony prosecution. A memo created by the Manatee County School District, and distributed to principals, instructed teachers to "remove or cover all classroom libraries until all materials can be reviewed."

FL Lt. Gov. Nuñez says New College ‘lost its way’ and needs to be ‘reined’ back  1/24/2023 Florida Phoenix: "“But what I’ve seen, these new threats that are creeping and are taking hold are things that we need to face. And I believe that one of the biggest threats that’s infiltrating our universities is a permeating culture — in which one might call it ‘woke culture’ one might call it ‘woke ideology’ one might call it ‘identity politics,'” Nuñez told the Board of Governors. “And this can take many forms, many names — and we don’t need to get into all the names, certainly we can talk about it ad nauseam, but I do believe that some of these issues that are taking hold are — the policies that they advocate — are policies based on hate and based on indoctrination."

DeSantis: la clase de estudios afroamericanos prohibida incluye una lección de “teoría queer”  1/23/2023 Local 10, Miami: "El Comisionado de Educación de Florida, Manny Diaz Jr, se refirió al curso como “adoctrinamiento woke disfrazado de educación”. DeSantis también dijo que el plan de estudios fue diseñado para impulsar una agenda política."

Florida cites CRT, ‘Black Struggle,’ and communism in rejected African American course  1/21/2023 Orlando Sentinel: "The administration does not want to ban the teaching of African American history, which for years has been a required subject in Florida public schools, but it cannot allow a course to be taught if it violates Florida law and amounts to “woke indoctrination masquerading as education,” tweeted Education Commissioner Manny Diaz, a former GOP state senator tapped by DeSantis for the top school job last year."

Florida Explains Why It Blocked Black History Class—and It’s a Doozy  1/20/2023 Daily Beast: "The Florida Department of Education says it banned AP African American History because it teaches students about activism, intersectionality and encourages “ending the war on Black trans, queer, gender non-conforming, and intersex people,” according to a document the department sent to The Daily Beast."

Trump-DeSantis Showdown Could Supercharge Latino Evangelicals’ Influence  1/3/2023 NYT: "In Miami and elsewhere, Hispanic evangelical churches range from tiny storefronts to megachurches with six-piece bands and full-service cafes. Second- and third-generation American citizens pray alongside recent immigrants from Venezuela, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Services are often in Spanish, though many congregants are bilingual, eager for their children to speak both English and Spanish. Many did not vote at all until the last decade and cast their first ballots for Mr. Trump in 2016 or 2020. His political style has served as a model for some Latino evangelical pastors who have stoked anger over coronavirus restrictions. Attendance at churches, pastors said, has increased during the pandemic."

U.S. judge orders Norwegian Cruise Line to pay $110 mln for use of Cuba port  12/30/2022 Reuters: "Norwegian Cruise Line NCLH.N must pay $110 million in damages for use of a port that Cuba's government confiscated in 1960, according to a ruling by a U.S. judge released on Friday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami follows her March ruling that the use of the Havana Cruise Port Terminal constituted trafficking in confiscated property owned by the plaintiff, Delaware-registered Havana Docks Corp."

Why Democrats Should Forget About Winning Florida  11/21/2022 Foreign Policy: "There is a silver lining to this dark electoral cloud for Democrats: A deep-red Florida gives them the freedom to reconstruct their Cuba policy based on U.S. foreign-policy interests rather than prognostications about Cuban American voters in Miami-Dade. But the habit of letting domestic politics drive Cuba policy will be hard to break. It has shaped how Democrats approach the issue for 40 years—ever since the 1980s, when Cuban Americans became a significant voting bloc."

Governor Ron DeSantis Counteracts Malign Influence by China and Other Hostile Nations in Florida through New Action  9/22/2022 State of Florida: "“Thanks to Governor DeSantis, Florida will not allow foreign adversaries and Communist dictatorships to have insights into some of the most sensitive data and cutting-edge research taking place in U.S. academia,” said Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. “As a Cuban-American, I know how Communist countries attempt to infiltrate schools and universities to steal intellectual property and indoctrinate young people with their dangerous and radical ideology. By removing this influence and focusing on the importance of American ideals and citizenship through civics education, Florida is again leading the way for the nation to follow.”" [The actions against Russia are in name only, as like many Republicans, DeSantis has a taste for Russian oligarch money.]

You thought Fidel Castro was dead? Nope, he’s rocking the race for Florida governor!  8/31/2022 Miami Herald: "This is where Karla Hernández-Mats has taught for a decade and where Crist has come to announce the charismatic leader of the Miami-Dade County teachers union as his running mate, affirming that the dismal state of education in Florida will be on the ballot. The GOP responds with the only trick this elephant knows: insinuating that Crist’s pick is a Castro sympathizer — and so is he. Hernández-Mats’ face is displayed on the billboard next to Castro’s, making an incendiary connection in a city packed with communism’s victims."

Commissioner stands by deceitful flyer attacking Miami-Dade’s 1st Haitian-American judge  7/26/2022 Local 10: "A recent political flyer distributed in Miami-Dade County epitomized the meaning of a published “hit piece.” Even more embarrassingly, it included a typo. Instead of “public,” the author wrote “pubic.” The flyer’s content is peppered with lies. The author falsely accuses Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Fred Seraphin of refusing to “release his arrest record” and of having a “criminal past.” To support the misleading “criminal past” allegation, the author of the flyer twisted the context of an old news report and likely banked on no one actually looking it up and reading it. What the journalist actually wrote in that report is that as a college student Seraphin was the victim of racial profiling when he was arrested and falsely accused."

Rubio test-drives a new attack on Demings: She's on TikTok  7/20/2022 NBC: "Rubio’s TikTok broadside tries to hit multiple notes: Republican hostility against China and Big Tech, first popularized by former President Donald Trump. It's also part of the GOP's Florida playbook of branding Democrats as socialists or weak on communism — an attack that historically has had traction in the sizable portions of Florida’s rightward-leaning Hispanic communities, anchored by Miami's Cuban Americans like Rubio."

Florida fraud suspect caught fleeing to Cuba on Jet Ski  6/14/2022 AP: "A Cuban man charged in a $4.2 million Medicare fraud scheme is being held as a flight risk after officials said he tried to flee the U.S. on a Jet Ski. A federal judge in Miami ordered Ernesto Cruz Graveran, 54, of Hialeah, to be detained pending trial Monday, according to court records. He has been charged with health care fraud."

“Increasingly radical”: Members of the Proud Boys are taking over Miami-Dade GOP leadership roles  6/2/2022 Salon: ""Gilbert Fonticoba has been charged with obstructing Congress," Mazzei and Feuer observe. "Gabriel Garcia, a former Army captain who says he has left the group, has been charged with interfering with law enforcement officers during the civil disorder on January 6, 2021.""

How the Proud Boys Gripped the Miami-Dade Republican Party  6/2/2022 NYT: "“Yes, we have fringe elements,” said René García, the chairman of the approximately 125-member Republican committee in Miami-Dade County, who is also a county commissioner and former state senator. “Yes, we have different points of view in our party. That’s how we are. And my job as Republican chairman is to protect everyone’s First Amendment right, however wrong they may be.”"

DeSantis endorsement of Bryan Avila  5/16/2022 Bianca Padró Ocasio, Twitter: "Not surprisingly, Miami Rep. Bryan Avila, who sponsored Florida's HB 7 (so-called "anti-woke" law), gets DeSantis endorsement in FL Senate race for Sen. Manny Diaz Jr.'s current seat."

Ñooo! Que Barato! Ad Depicts TV Show Host In Blackface  5/3/2022 Miami New Times: "Blackface became popularized as a form of theater in Cuba in the 19th Century as a form of racial mockery after formerly enslaved people and Afro-Cubans demanded inclusion and emancipation. But when Cuban exiles came to the U.S. and particularly Miami in the latter half of the 20th Century, blackface comedy and minstrelsy — known in Cuba as teatro bufo — found new life, according to anthropology professor Ariana Hernandez-Reguant. "Cuban blackface minstrels...found a welcome in exile," Hernandez-Reguant and coauthor Jossianna Arroyo-Martínez write in "The Brownface of Latinidad in Cuban Miami," an essay published on the website CubaCounterpoints.com. "In 2000s Miami, Cubans have used blackface to comment on a new society structured by class and race. The more they themselves have been represented in the U.S. media as brown (recall Scarface, and more recently, Paula Deen's son as Ricky Ricardo), the more they have claimed a whiteness that should grant them inclusion and a path for upward mobility."

Another racist blackface controversy erupts in the Cuban community, this time in Hialeah  5/3/2022 WLRN: "The comedian — José Pérez, known as Carlucho — also wears exaggerated red make-up around his mouth and a white Santería turban on his head. Ñooo Qué Barato!’s owner, Serafín Blanco, told WLRN the commercial reflects "Cuban tradition" and he didn't originally consider it offensive — even though blackface is now generally viewed as racist. "I don't consider myself racist," Blanco said. "I voted for [Barack] Obama. I thought he was a good president.""

Senador Manny Díaz es el primer hispano a cargo de la educación en Florida  4/29/2022 SwissInfo: "Recibió su licenciatura de la Universidad de St. Thomas, obtuvo una maestría en Educación en Nova Southeastern University, y completó un programa para directores de la Escuela de Graduados en Educación de Harvard."

Gov. DeSantis anti-WOKE rally with his education commissioner choice, Sen. Manny Diaz.  4/22/2022 CBS News: [Featuring Congressman Diaz Balart, State Sen Ileana Garcia, former State Sen Manny Diaz, Cuban American activists,and the creator of the anti-crt movement, Christopher Rufo.]

DeSantis recommends Sen. Manny Diaz for education commissioner  4/21/2022 Palm Beach Post: "Diaz co-sponsored a measure that passed the Legislature this past session, but has yet to be signed into law by DeSantis, to set guidelines around discussions teachers and businesses can have about race. The bill was pushed by DeSantis as a means to fight critical race theory and passed the Florida Senate on a party-line vote last month. The legislation bars instruction to make members of a race feel guilty for past actions committed by people of that same race, and bars teaching that meritocracy is racist. It also expands language in state law on requiring teaching on the history of slavery and racial oppression."

How Florida’s ‘anti-woke’ bill could impact public universities  4/16/2022 Tampa Bay Times: "That virtues such as merit, excellence, hard work, fairness, neutrality, objectivity and racial colorblindness are racist or sexist, or were created by members of a particular race, color, sex or national origin to oppress members of another race, color, sex or national origin."

Did Marco Rubio's Former Intern Storm the Capitol on January 6?  3/24/2022 Miami New Times: "A former Vice City Proud Boy who was at the Capitol on January 6 and spoke on condition that he not be named for fear of retaliation, confirms to New Times that Balmaseda was there with Garcia. "Barby was there," he says."

Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio serves as a brown face of white supremacy White supremacy will always attract no  3/15/2022 MS NBC: "Such a belief in multiracial whiteness has roots not only in U.S. Latino communities but also in Latin American countries of origin. The most obvious example will always be Cuba. More than 60 years after the Cuban revolution, reactionary forces against big government, communism and oppression have become a media industry in places such as Tarrio's hometown, Miami. Of course, broadly painting Miami as some reactionary Latino white nationalist monolith is a mistake, but it would also be a mistake to say that such a reactionary sentiment does not have influence or impact. In addition, anti-Blackness has deep roots in Latin American culture, and when such views get amplified through U.S. media, they’re rarely if ever challenged."

FL Legislature stuck last-minute policy changes to HB 7; critics call it a ‘huge problem’  3/14/2022 Florida Phoenix: "“So basically it took a bill, turned it on its head and basically said ‘oh if you have a complaint, if you believe that a higher education institution, for example, taught history or taught racism in a way that made you feel uncomfortable, in violation of the Stop WOKE Act, you can bring that complaint to a political committee of the Florida Legislature.’ I say political because it is made up of politicians with Republicans in the majority. That committee will be the judge, jury, and executioner on all violations of House Bill 7.”"

Florida GOP lawmakers pass bill to limit discussion of race  3/10/2022 LA Times: "Republican Sen. Manny Diaz, a Cuban American who sponsored the bill, said people in Cuba are told what to think and that shouldn’t happen in the United States."

Misinformation and Racism on Latino Social Media Continue Unabated  3/1/2022 Latino Rebels: "White Cubans supporting this rhetoric without calling it out are as complicit as those who drive these bigoted conversations. It’s no different than decrying socialism while benefitting from housing programs such as Section 8, or immigrants or the children of demonizing asylum seekers, or screaming about police oppression in Cuba while remaining silent in the face of the state-sponsored police violence against Black people in the United States. It’s blatant hypocrisy."

Florida House passes measure limiting race-related instruction  2/24/2022 WLRN Miami: "Under the measure, school instruction or workplace training would constitute discrimination if it “compels” people to believe certain concepts. For example, the measure targets training sessions that would lead people to believe that they bear “responsibility for, or should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment because of, actions committed in the past by other members of the same race” or sex."

State Senator Manny Diaz Jr. On Critical Race Theory Afro Latino scholars and activists slam Gov. DeSantis' dissection of AP African American studies  2/14/2022 CBS: "CBS4's Facing South Florida host Jim DeFede inteviews State Senator Manny Diaz Jr. He spoke about critical race theory."

After fiery debate, ‘Individual Freedom’ bill banning ‘woke’ lessons in schools, businesses heads to House floor  2/9/2022 Florida Politics: "Its sponsor, Rep. Bryan Ávila of Miami Springs, acknowledged the bill “brings out a lot of passion” but insisted its aim was not to discriminate."

Freedom from discomfort or a knowledge ban? ‘Individual freedom’ bill covering schools, businesses moves in House  1/26/2022 Florida Politics: "Ávila and Republican Rep. Mike Beltran of Lithia repeatedly insisted the bill would not stop the instruction of difficult historical subjects including slavery, the Holocaust or internment camps. The bill only requires they be taught objectively, and that teachers not wander from the approved curriculum."

Hating Cubans - Mexican American Resentment at Cuban American Success  1/23/2022 Medium: "Consider how Guerrero, not unlike most racists, distorted the truth. In “Biden Shouldn’t Let Right-Wing Cuban Americans Drown Out Cuban Voices,” published on August 5, 2021 in the Los Angeles Times, she wrote: “About 86% of Cuban Americans identify as white, but two-thirds of Cubans in Cuba are Afro or mixed — a consequence of the fact that the first Cuban émigrés to the U.S. were mostly affluent whites.” There are two lies in that one sentence. First, the majority of Cubans in Cuba are white. This is according to the Cuban government. Cuban census figures indicate that Cuba is a white-majority country where only 35% or the population is Black or mixed race. Cuban government figures provide this breakdown: 7.2 million Whites, 1.03 million Blacks, and 2.97 million Mulatto/Mestizo inhabitants.[1] Guerrero asserted the reverse by referencing a news report from Al Jazeera, the Middle Eastern news agency based in Doha, Qatar. That story, to its credit, disclosed that the reporter, Julia Cooke, didn’t believe government census figures, so she made up her own.[2] The second lie is that the majority of Cuban refugees were affluent whites. All the “émigrés,” with few exceptions, arrived in Miami as destitute political refugees. They were frightened people from all walks of life seeking temporary refuge once Castro, in a televised speech on December 2, 1961, declared the Revolution to be Marxist-Leninist.[3] Any Cuban leaving after that date could not take money, jewelry or negotiable instruments out of the country."

Black lawmakers hammer Ileana Garcia over ‘deeply hurtful’ race comments  1/20/2022 Politico: "Some Black members of the Florida Senate have soured on Miami Republican Sen. Ileana Garcia after she said during a TV interview that people should “move on” from experiences with racism — comments that came days after she quietly clashed with a veteran Black senator after an otherwise mundane committee meeting."

Black lawmakers hammer Ileana Garcia over ‘deeply hurtful’ race comments  1/20/2022 Politico: "Jones said he sees specific examples of racism in policies being pushed by DeSantis and Republican leadership, including those aimed at critical race theory and “anti-riot” legislation lawmakers passed last year. DeSantis said that anti-riot measure was designed to crack down on violent demonstrations, but he faced loud criticism from groups who said it would criminalize the type of mostly peaceful protests that broke out nationally after an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, was killed by police. “If racism was dead in America, the governor wouldn’t be pushing the banning of teaching of American (Black) history,” Jones said. “Or they wouldn’t be pushing how Blacks can protest.”"

Fla. State Sen. Ileana Garcia On Critical Race Theory: 'I Have Been Discriminated On All Fronts. Should We Take It Personally?'  1/18/2022 CBS: "DeFede asked her, "You don't think that the African American experience today is different than the experience by either yourself or someone like me.?" Garcia said, "No, not at all. As a matter of fact... That's why we had Obama as a president. That's the best example in the world. Obama was president now for four years for eight." Senate sponsor Manny Diaz Jr., R-Hialeah, told reporters after the committee meeting: "The intention of the bill … is to make sure that these trainings that occur are objective, and that we're not finding a person guilty of something just because of their ethnic background or the color of their skin. I think that we have to go back to the premise that all of us are created equal, and we should be judged on our individual merits, or deeds, not a blanket statement."

‘People should move on’: Ileana Garcia says racism isn’t an issue because Barack Obama was President  1/17/2022 Florida Politics: "“Garcia was elected by 34 votes thanks to an illegal ghost candidate scheme by an indicted Republican operative and, on #MLK weekend, she says there’s no discrimination against Black People in America, then tweets about dog discrimination,” documentarian Billy Corben wrote."

Democrats riled by Spanish-language radio attacks on Kamala Harris  12/21/2021 Politico: "Florida Democrats are sounding alarms over what they believe is a sustained and coordinated campaign rapidly unfolding across Spanish-language media to tarnish the image of Vice President Kamala Harris. Democratic veterans in the state are unnerved by the ferocity and speed of the attacks, which have come from callers and guests on local radio programs in recent weeks. They suspect the participants are part of a larger, astroturf effort to diminish Harris’ standing among key Latino constituencies in a region where Republicans have notched sharp gains. Even more worrying for these Democrats has been the lack of pushback from their party. The fears spilled out into the open when a Miami-based Democratic pollster took to social media to warn that he’s been hearing arguments against the vice president from talk-show callers that he felt appeared scripted."

More proof Democrats may write off Florida  12/17/2021 Politico: "From a political calculus, a large group of Democrats calling on the White House to reinstate policies from the Obama administration is a tacit acknowledgment that Florida doesn’t matter anymore. Trump defeated Biden in Florida in 2020 in no small part due to the inroads Trump made in Miami-Dade County among Hispanic voters. Florida Democrats were already upset about the Biden administration's decision to remove a largely defunct Colombian rebel group from a list of terrorist organizations. Some groups backing the move to normalize relations with Cuba contend that such actions would be popular with Cuban Americans. Recent electoral history — where accusations of Democrats being socialists — would suggest otherwise."

Dems find their anti-Rubio warrior in Val Demings  10/17/2021 Politico: "She was campaigning almost exclusively on Facebook, growing an army of small-dollar donors across the nation on her way to raising a staggering $8.5 million in the most recent fundraising quarter —$2.4 million more than Rubio reported and more than any Senate challenger in the country between July and October. Her fundraising haul provided a sudden burst of hope to Florida’s beleaguered Democrats, who reveled at the idea of a cash-flush Senate nominee whose star power sparked the imagination of Democrats across the country."

Florida’s Republican Governor Awards Medal of Freedom to Che Guevara’s Assassin  10/6/2021 Covert Action Magazine: "On September 16, 2021, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis awarded the Governor’s Medal of Freedom to Félix Rodríguez, the Cuban anti-communist counter-revolutionary who lives in Florida. As a contract agent for the CIA Rodríguez helped locate and assassinate Che Guevara in Bolivia in 1967. Assassination is a political murder. The Governor’s medal allowed DeSantis to recognize Rodríguez as a “person who has made an especially meritorious contribution to the interests and citizens of the state, (and) its culture.”"

Biden shouldn’t let right-wing Cuban Americans drown out Cuban voices  8/5/2021 LA Times: "Republican lawmakers such as Sen. Marco Rubio, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart and others have criticized the Biden administration’s continuing review of Trump’s restrictions on remittances to Cuba. Those leaders are well-fed, well-off and white, compared with the average Cuban. About 86% of Cuban Americans identify as white, but two-thirds of Cubans in Cuba are Afro or mixed — a consequence of the fact that the first Cuban émigrés to the U.S. were mostly affluent whites."

Black Lives Matter Support for Socialism Creates Sharp Divide with Cuban Americans  8/4/2021 Newsweek: "Cubans, Mohl wrote, injected "new life" into the city, but "also brought in the wake of their invasion a host of grave social and economic problems." Those problems included competition for jobs, housing, schools, and government services. "The Cubans are slowly taking over the business of Dade County," complained the Miami Times, the city's Black weekly newspaper, in 1966."

Anti-Blackness in the Cuban Diaspora  7/30/2021 Latino Rebels: "Another key issue Americanized Cubans refuse to address is that for Cubans on the island, equality and social equity represent just a taste of the many things they are proud of and are afraid to lose with outside intervention. As Cuba initiates more systems to address racism, we must remember that those same issues exist on a much greater scale in the U.S. What Cuba needs now is dialogue. If Cuban Americans are serious about addressing Cuba’s inequality, they must begin with addressing the bigotry in the diaspora first. After all, it’s no secret that racism is the main reason the majority of Black and Mestizo Cubans settle in New York and New Jersey instead of Miami."

Black Lives Matter nuevamente criticado por los invitados que eligió para foro virtual sobre Cuba  7/27/2021 Cubanos por el Mundo: "Cabe destacar que, el movimiento BLM en días anteriores fue duramente criticado por su postura de elogiar al régimen castrista y pedir el fin del embargo a Cuba por parte del gobierno de Estados Unidos, esto mientras los ciudadanos cubanos eran cruelmente reprimidos mientras expresaban su derecho de manifestar libremente." [Claro que la solucion es mas bloqueo!!!]

Critican a Black Lives Matter por los invitados que elige para foro virtual sobre Cuba  7/27/2021 Cibercuba: "En un escrito de abril de este año, titulado ‘Contra la rabia política: una vacuna y una propuesta’, Zurbano analizó el impacto del Movimiento San Isidro (MSI) en la dinámica actual de conflictos y propuestas dentro de la cultura y la política de la Cuba actual desde una visión que, si bien incidió en el racismo latente dentro del proceso “revolucionario”, redujo el potencial verdaderamente revolucionario del MSI y llamó a estar preparados para la “racialización” interesada de conflictos por parte del “el escenario mediático de Miami”."

Why Domestic Support For Cuban Protests Looks Funny In The Light  7/27/2021 Momentum: "As an anti-racism writer, it’s striking to purview how often people push back against the cold, hard facts of how Black people are treated in this country. It’s becoming even harder to ignore as Cubans, both foreign and domestic, fight against mistreatment from Cuba’s government. Politicians like Sen. Marco Rubio and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis openly supported those protestors in a way they don’t and generally aren’t expected to do for Black people."

Activistas antirracistas emplazan a Black Lives Matter desde Cuba  7/26/2021 Diario de Cuba: "En las redes del grupo Alianza Afro-Cubana se puede leer un comunicado que emplaza directamente a los representantes afroamericanos: "Black Lives Matter, tengamos una conversación. Escucha las voces de los negros cubanos", comienza la misiva en inglés y luego evalúa aquel tweet del grupo como "decepcionante, vergonzoso y parcial". "Ustedes se centraron solamente en el embargo e ignoraron los reclamos del pueblo, su dolor (…) Han decido alinearse al poder que dio la orden de violentar brutalmente a todas las personas que salieron a la calle el pasado domingo 11 de julio. Personas que en su mayoría son negras (…) Según el Gobierno, en la protesta todos eran 'vándalos', 'delincuentes', 'marginados' ¿les suena el escenario?", preguntan recordando a BLM que esas son las mismas acusaciones que reciben ellos en Estados Unidos por parte de la derecha."

RESPONSE TO BLACK LIVES MATTER Written by Pablo Betancourt Guilian and Enrique Patterson  7/17/2021 Pablo Betancourt Guilian: "Since 1959, the Cuban government has taken away all fundamental rights and freedoms from the Cuban people, and it is no coincidence that Cuba is the only country in the western hemisphere, where the black population did not benefit from the achievements and advances of the Civil Rights Movement in the decade of 1960s."

“RESPUESTA A BLACK LIVES MATTER” Escrito por Pablo Betancourt Guilian y Enrique Patterson  7/17/2021 Pablo Betancourt Guilian: "Desde 1959, el gobierno cubano le ha quitado todos los derechos y libertades fundamentales al pueblo cubano, y no es casualidad que Cuba sea el único país donde la población negra, no se benefició de los logros y avances del Movimiento de Derechos Civiles en la década de los 60s."

Miami Police Chief Clashes With Proud Boys Member at Cuba Protest  7/14/2021 Miami New Times: "Why are you with Black Lives Matter?" the man asks Acevedo, referring to the former Houston police chief's words of support in the media for social-justice protests last year. Asked again about why he supports the Black Lives Matter movement, Acevedo becomes incensed."

Miami’s Republican Cuban Americans need to soul search and confront their racism  4/7/2021 Miami Herald 

‘An Attack on Democracy’: Democrats Call For New Election Amid Florida Republicans’ Sham Senate Candidate Scandal  3/20/2021 Law & Crime: "As previously reported by Law&Crime, former Florida State Sen. Frank Artiles this week was charged with several felonies for allegedly recruiting a former lobbyist and longtime friend, Alex Rodriguez, to run as a third-party candidate in last year’s District 37 Senate race. Rodriguez was one of at least three third-party Florida Senate candidates who were all funded by the same unknown dark money donor(s) as part of an alleged scheme to siphon votes away from Democratic candidates."

Reveses y oportunidades para afrolatinos en medio de una reacción violenta contra el BLM  3/3/2021 Chicago Tribune: "Para Yvonne Rodríguez, nativa del sur de Florida, ser afrolatina en el oeste de Miami significa entrar en contacto frecuente con el racismo casual de sus vecinos hispanos blancos, ya sea en forma de “bromas desagradables” o de apelativos incómodos (“¿Qué pasa, mulata? ¿Qué pasa, mi negra?”). Incluso como cubano-estadounidense de segunda generación, Rodríguez se encuentra con que su identidad latina y sus lazos con la patria de sus padres son constantemente cuestionados. “Es psicológicamente agotador intentar convencer a alguien de que eres tan latino como ellos”, dijo."

Amid backlash against Black Lives Matter, Afro-Latinos find setbacks and opportunities  2/26/2021 Miami Herald: "For South Florida native Yvonne Rodriguez, being Black in West Miami means coming in frequent contact with her white Hispanic neighbors’ casual racism, be it in the form of “off-putting jokes” or uncomfortable appellations (“What’s up, mulata? What’s up, mi negra?”). Even as a second-generation Cuban American, Rodriguez finds her Latin identity, and her ties to her parents’ homeland, put under constant questioning. “It is psychologically exhausting to try to convince someone that you are just as much of a Latino as them,” she said."

“White Supremacy Is Not Just for White People”: Trumpism, the Proud Boys, and the Extremist Allure for People of Color  2/2/2021 Vanity Fair: "Cassie Miller, a researcher with the Southern Poverty Law Center, told me that, while there are no clear statistics on the number of people of color in the Proud Boys, “in 2019 we found 44 different chapters, and the [ethnic] makeup varies by location. Different chapters take on a different character.” She added, “I think joining a group like this shows the contradictory places people exist in society and how they look for different ways of achieving power. With this group it’s not just about white supremacy, but also perpetuating a patriarchal society.” Women are not allowed to join the Proud Boys, Miller noted, and neither are transgender men or gender-nonconforming people."

Understanding Multiracial Whiteness And Trump Supporters  1/24/2021 NPR: 'The chairman of the hate group The Proud Boys identifies as Afro-Cuban. One of the organizers of the pro-Trump extremist group Stop the Steal is Black and Arab. Christina Beltran is a professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University. And she uses the term multiracial whiteness to explain why some groups who are disdained by white supremacists embrace white power movements. And she joins us now to explain."

State Sen. Manny Díaz accused of inappropriate behavior as Hialeah-Miami Lakes teacher  1/14/2021 Miami Herald: "JennyLee Molina, a 2000 graduate of Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High when Díaz was a teacher there, accused Díaz of making inappropriate comments about drugs and clubbing to students, as well as on girls’ appearances, allegations that two other former students largely corroborated to the Miami Herald."

Medios dependientes del cibernegocio contra Cuba  12/28/2020 Granma: "El Departamento de Estado, la Agencia de EE.UU. para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID) y el Fondo Nacional para la Democracia (NED) de esa nación, financian esta maquinaria mediática que se ha beneficiado de los más de 500 millones de dólares que la Casa Blanca destinó en los últimos 20 años para la subversión en Cuba. Con el fin de recibir de modo expedito los financiamientos, varias de estas publicaciones digitales contrarrevolucionarios se han registrado en otros países como organizaciones no gubernamentales (ONG)."

Hola Otaola! Can A Racist Demagogue Be A Serious Defender Of Cuban Rights?  12/3/2020 WLRN: "Otaola preaches to his legions of fans that those protests are not about racial justice but are instead a showcase for the “Marxist agenda” of the Black Lives Matter movement. They’re proof, he screams, “of the level of communist infiltration in our schools, universities, barrios and low-income families.” They’re “dressed up by the left as humane” but are “actually led by delinquents, savages and unscrupulous anti-Americans” using Floyd’s killing (which he's admittedly criticized) to “launch an all-out attack on U.S. democracy.”"

Brevard County: Deputy Jafet Santiago-Miranda Executes Black Teen for Driving Past Him  11/22/2020 Cop Blaster: "Brevard County Deputy Sheriff's Office (BCSO) Deputy Jafet Santiago-Miranda executed two black teenagers for trying to drive past him. The shooting was caught on his dash camera where you can clearly see that the vehicle he shot at was turning right in an effort to drive past him (see video below). The vehicle was obviously going to great lengths to evade the officers without actually hitting them."

Miami-Dade's 'Republican Cuban establishment' regains power in Florida, Washington  11/16/2020 Miami Herald: "The results also may indicate complications for Democratic President-elect Joe Biden, who has said he plans to restore former President Barack Obama’s Cuba policies “in large part” after Trump restricted travel to the island and ended remittances. Though Republicans are in the minority in the U.S. House, the new Cuban American Republican coalition in Miami-Dade County is sure to put up more resistance than one that would have included Mucarsel-Powell and Shalala."

What is the future for Latino voters in the US? Five experts weigh in  11/10/2020 The Guardian: "A large portion of Latino voters in Florida are conservatives for whom the legacy of the Cuban Revolution – and, more recently, Venezuela’s move to the left – are central to their voting decisions. To that end, Republicans worked overtime this election to paint Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as socialists, despite the candidates’ moderate positions within the Democratic party. But that’s not the entire story. The narrative about socialism was bolstered by conservatives’ labeling of Black Lives Matter supporters as Marxists and communists. Support for Trump among certain Latino populations in south Florida must be seen within the context of anti-Blackness, heightened by the Black Lives Matter protests and a Black woman as the vice-presidential candidate. Mislabeling Black Lives Matter as “communist” was a way to repackage racism among white Cubans and other white-identifying Latinos and make that racism politically palatable."

Salsa in the streets of Florida's Little Havana: How American-Cubans' fear of 'socialists' Biden and Kamala and backlash against Defund the Police and BLM helped seal crucial Sunshine State win for the Republicans  11/4/2020 Daily Mail: "American-Cubans were seen celebrating in the streets of Miami after Donald Trump secured the state of Florida in the election - with exit polls suggesting 55% of the demographic voted for the president. Miami Democrats blamed their Florida defeat on backlash from Hispanic and Latino voters over the Black Lives Matter movement and their 'extreme' efforts to defund the police, as well as Republican claims that Biden is a 'socialist'."

Chocolate demandará a Alex Otaola por racista  11/2/2020 Cuba Trendings: "“Ayer salió Alex Otaola nuevamente difamándome, disfrazado y hablando cosas, pintado de negro. Un acto muy doloroso que me ha puesto muy triste”, dijo el autor del Palón Divino. El reguetonero, objeto de polémicas, intentos de deportación, juicios y chanchullos de todo tipo, amenazó a Otaola: “Yo ando con negros malos y te voy a demandar”."

Black Migration in a White City: Power, Privilege, and Exclusion in Cuban America  11/1/2020 Russell Sage Foundatrion: "Historian Devyn Benson and political scientist Danielle Clealand will analyze oral histories, census, and archival data from Afro-Cubans to examine their socioeconomic status, educational trajectories, political attitudes, and voting behaviors. They hypothesize that the exclusion and othering Afro-Cubans encountered from white Cubans contributed to differential socioeconomic and educational trajectories for black Cubans, but has also fostered a consciousness about blackness that has contributed to political attitudes and voting behavior that differ from those of white Cubans."

Proud Boys try to assimilate into Florida GOP as Trump denies knowing extremist group  10/2/2020 Miami Herald 

Review shows objectionable content routinely appeared in columns in el Nuevo Herald insert  9/20/2020 Miami Herald: "The columnist wrote that Michelle Obama reminds him of a “black monster” in Dante’s Inferno. Other times, he wrote that Islam is “filth,” Native Americans “primitive” and Africa the “ass of the world.” On another occasion still, he called George Floyd “ugly,” a “common criminal” and the protests over his death at the hands of police “racial whoremongering.” And then there’s the time that he wrote, in all apparent seriousness, that Black Lives Matter protesters should summarily be put to death."

It is a testimony to how broken @Facebook is  9/5/2020 Michael Deibert: "It is a testimony to how broken @Facebook is that the group created to support the Movimiento San Isidro - an important artistic & civil society movement within #Cuba itself - has become a sewer for extreme right Cuban exiles in the U.S., full of racism, misogyny & homophobia."

Latinos can be racist, too. My community shows how.  7/28/2020 WaPo: "There is indifference, or outright hostility, to the Black Lives Matter movement online, in conversations and on the streets among many Latinos. I’ve attended a few large, overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations in Miami and was initially pleased to see so many multi-ethnic Latinos. But, later, when I remembered that we make up nearly three-quarters of the county, the numbers seemed underwhelming. Daniella Capote, a 27-year-old law student who was born and raised in Miami, told me at a protest that she was infuriated by the lackluster support. Latinos, she said, “forget where they came from, Cuban Americans, in particular. … They need to do more than recognize racism; they have to act against it.”"

Africastro-Americans: Los cubanos y George Floyd  7/2/2020 Cibercuba: "Estados Unidos es el país que más ha hecho por erradicar el racismo de raíz, pero, a su vez, los enemigos de la sociedad abierta también han hecho de todo para radicalizar la guerra racial en los Estados Unidos. Los totalitarios no toleran la armonía social en una economía de mercado. Y trabajan a la sombra y a la luz pública para desmoralizar y, eventualmente, desmoronar al capitalismo."

South Florida Grapples With Its Own Contested Monuments Of Spanish Conquistadors  6/30/2020 WLRN, Miami: "QUEELEY: I've thought about this question and what is the kind of society that I would envision that I would want to live in? What would they do? One of the obvious answers to that question is, of course, having them in museums, so they can actually be used as tools for education. I'm hoping that we're on the brink of some kind of process of truth and reconciliation nationally. And I wonder whether or not an actual burial of these statues would be appropriate in having some kind of ritual that would kind of signal that we are embarking upon a new chapter in this country."

Monumentos cubanos en peligro  6/30/2020 Cubanet: "Respetuosamente discrepo con el autor de la petición y con el consejo de dirección de la revista digital Comunistas que lo apoya. No creo que José Miguel Gómez sea autor de ninguna limpieza étnica, ni creo oportuno comenzar en Cuba una cacería de supuestos racistas para retirar sus estatuas. El Partido Liberal no discriminaba a los negros, de hecho José Miguel Gómez era amigo de Evaristo Estenoz, líder de los Independientes y las filas de los Independientes se nutrieron mayormente de los negros y mestizos del Partido Liberal. Como anécdota recuerdo que en la guerrita liberal de 1917 había muchos negros, incluso el padre del poeta Nicolás Guillén, el periodista negro Nicolás Guillén Urra murió peleando por el Partido Liberal y por José Miguel Gómez. La historia no es en blanco y negro, tiene muchos matices y sobre la base del análisis histórico puedo afirmar que José Miguel Gómez no tuvo ningún plan de limpieza étnica o exterminio de negros y mestizos."

Cubans For Trump Faced Off With Black Lives Matters Protesters In Miami Lakes  6/29/2020 CBS 

Against Experts' Advice, Police Once Again Deploy Tear Gas at Miami Protest  6/29/2020 Miami New Times: "The widespread use of chemical agents on protesters in more than 100 US cities during the global coronavirus pandemic has drawn criticism from experts who say the substances could worsen the effects of COVID-19. Although chemical irritants are considered non-lethal, they can cause permanent disabilities if used incorrectly. Rubber bullets are far more damaging. A 2017 British Medical Journal analysis of projectiles used in crowd control found that 15 percent of people injured were permanently disabled and 3 percent died. Earlier this month, a Fort Lauderdale woman suffered a fractured skull after being hit by a rubber bullet at a protest."

Black Lives Matter Protesters Come Face-To-Face With Cubans For Trump Supporters In Miami Lakes  6/28/2020 CBS: "About an hour after it started, a caravan organized by the group “Cubans for Trump” arrived to support the president and had signs that said “Blue Lives Matter.”"

Miami Cop Arrested And Charged After Tasing A Pregnant Woman On Her Stomach And Lying On The Police Report  6/26/2020 Blavity: "The Miami gardens cop dragged Safiya Satchell out of her car, knelt on her neck and began using a taser on her. She was pregnant and lost the child. "

As the country debates racism, support for Trump and views on race divide Cuban Americans  6/24/2020 Miami Herald: "Many conservative Cuban Americans believe that the #BlackLivesMatter movement and mainstream media exaggerate police excesses and racial discrimination issues to push a “leftist” agenda. Others, especially Afro-Cubans and those born or raised in the U.S., have expressed dismay at some responses that they believe are tone-deaf, especially when coming from Cuban activists concerned about human rights on the island. Ávila told the Herald he is “in favor of demonstrations” but does not support “that many extreme leftist groups have hijacked the outrage and channeled it to legitimize their agenda.”"

El violento de José Daniel Ferrer García  6/24/2020 Rosi Hernandez Contreras: "Todos sabemos que el violento de José Daniel Ferrer García hace lo que sea con tal de llamar la atención en las redes sociales pero esta vez se pasó tres pueblos. Resulta ser que este egocéntrico señor ordeno a los delincuentes que dirige raparse la cabeza como parte de un show mediático que intentan protagonizar asemejándose al grupo cabezas rapadas o Los skinheads. Amigos este grupo es conocido en todo el mundo como neo-nazis ya que pretenden limpiar la sociedad actual de lo que llaman “escoria”, aunque para ello deban recurrir a métodos de violencia que se conocen como “brigadas de limpieza”."

We are black and we matter. Stop racism!  6/23/2020 Durdu El loco: "Watch til the end - the last comment made by Alex Otaola will shock you - he is encouraging his listeners with his racist remarks and this is the stuff they respond with. This is a disgusting display of the every day racism that seems to be socially acceptable within the Cuban community both in Miami and Cuba. This has to stop!"

Cubans In Miami Hold An Anti-Black Lives Matter Protest For Trump!!  6/17/2020 MTO News: BLM is accused of being communist.

Respetando todas las opiniones esta mas o menos es la mi´a.  6/13/2020 Alexis Valdes: "Unas palabras sobre el debate acerca del racismo."

Miami citizens’ group to counter-protest Sunday  6/12/2020 Local 10: "Evelio Mendina wants to spread a message of peace. On Friday, he stood at the base of a statue of Christopher Columbus, one of two in downtown Miami that were defaced by protesters on Wednesday. “We’re defending what’s important and that is freedom. Basically, there’s room for everybody, as long as it’s peaceful.” Medina founded his own group called the Law Abiding Citizens’ Coalition. He was outraged to see the statues become the target of what were otherwise peaceful protests."

In 2018 Text, Miami Mayor Called Police Department Problems "Made Up"  6/11/2020 Miami New Times: "Danny Suarez served on the CIP from 2011 to 2016. He says that during that time, he saw the Internal Affairs department botch numerous investigations and watched as cops with histories of misconduct were permitted to remain on the force. Current CIP member Steve Navarrete, who has been on the panel for three years now, corroborates Danny Suarez's claims, saying the CIP's recommendations to MPD often go ignored. "There are some officers with a number of allegations against them. We make our recommendations, and most of the time the city will not follow our recommendations," Navarrete says."

Hay muchas personas que no tienen conciencia de la historia de los negros en EE.UU., dice profesor  6/11/2020 CNN: "La muerte de George Floyd puso nuevamente en debate el tema del racismo en Estados Unidos. ¿Es el racismo solamente patrimonio de los blancos o también está presente dentro de los hispanos? En Miami, José Manuel Rodríguez intenta dilucidar esta interrogante."

Analisis: El racismo en Miami ante acusaciones de periodista Mario Vallejo  6/10/2020 Noticias Generacion News 

Marco Rubio called them ‘extremists.’ They’re really Miami rappers. They want a retraction.  6/10/2020 Miami Herald: "When cops arrested Marco Antonio Lopez on allegations that he vandalized patrol cars during a protest in downtown Miami, the arrest report noted he was part of a group known as the “Southern Slaves,” which “actively recruits people to violently protest the government.” That drew the attention of U.S. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who tweeted the arrest was evidence of “extremist groups” organizing to cause mayhem at protests over the death of George Floyd and police brutality. But the Southern Slaves aren’t an extremist group. And they are not monitored by the FBI or listed by hate-group trackers like the Anti-Defamation League or the Southern Poverty Law Center. They’re a group of aspiring hip-hop musicians from Miami’s Flagami neighborhood, buddies uploading their music online, doing shows at open-mic nights and spreading a message of what they consider government overreach. “We’re not terrorists. We love America. What we don’t love is systematic oppression and police brutality,” said Alonzo Martinez, 23, whose stage name is “Zo The Atlantean.”"

(Tercer Round) DESDE MI BALCON: DIEZ PARRAFOS DE MEMORIA CONTRA LA PANDEMIA DEL OLVIDO  6/9/2020 Afrocuba lgbtiq+: "Otra memoria selecta oculta la historia negra de Miami en los sesenta, cuando la emigración cubana desplaza de sus barrios afroamericanos y bahameses, primero y haitianos después, diseñando la actual capital cultural de la Hispanoamérica blanca. Leyes del estado otorgaron privilegios suficientes para construir su estratégico enclave. Operación tan perfecta que en el famoso filme Moonlight, ganador de un Oscar, cuya historia negra sucede en Miami, hay una escena brechtiana en la playa, donde el protagonista explica al niño: “Hay mucha gente negra en Cuba, pero no lo sabes porque estás en Miami”. Esa puya descubre la presencia fantasmal afroamericana, empujada hacia el norte, incluyendo el black campus del Miami Dade College. Mas, esa memoria regresa, verificada por Alan Aja, Corina J. Moebius y Monika Gosin, sus libros cuestionan el silenciamiento de políticas raciales en un Miami olvidado y multicultural, visibilizan conflictos etno-raciales, marcan el éxodo de Mariel dislocando la demografía de la ciudad, muestra la presión cubana para ubicar los llamados marielitos en otros estados y ciertas tácticas de invisibilidad racial en esa urbe."

"Cuban Lives Matter": Raudel Collazo pone la mira en la realidad de Cuba  6/9/2020 Radio Marti: "A Raudel Collazo no hay quien lo silencie, ni las propias autoridades castristas. Desde que comenzó su carrera en 2003, este artista contestatario ha producido numerosos temas que cuestionan la falta de derechos en Cuba y las represalias que existen contra aquellos ciudadanos que tienen la valentía de pronunciarse contra el régimen. Este martes el cantautor cubano lanza un nuevo tema titulado "Cuban Lives Matter", que parodia el slogan de las protestas contra el racismo y la violencia policial en EEUU “Black Lives Matter”, con el que busca -según dijo a Radio Televisión Martí- dirigir la atención a lo que sucede dentro de la isla."

Andrés Albuquerque del Afro Cuban Forum sobre Ferguson  6/6/2020 Un Nuevo Dia: Esta muestra del periodo de Ferguson unos años atras muestra una reaccion que probablemente sigue hoy en dia en contra a los activistas afro. Andrés Alburquerque es presidente del Afro Cuban Forum en Miami.

Me llegó el fragmento de la directa de Eliecer Avila Cicilia con Sandor Valdes.  6/5/2020 Tania Bruguera: "Escuchar a Eliecer decir que el problema de la raza en EEUU es que los negros son vagos, cito “que es su culpa que no encuentran trabajo” es de una ignorancia política sin precedentes y es el argumento de los blancos racistas. Le recuerdo a Eliecer que en EEUU él no es considerado como blanco porque es latino."

Estados Unidos: personal médico protesta en Miami contra el racismo  6/4/2020 El Comercio, Peru: "Cientos de trabajadores sanitarios participaron este jueves en una protesta pacífica bajo el lema “batas blancas por vidas negras”, como respuesta al asesinato del afroamericano George Floyd a manos de la policía y para mostrar su repulsa al racismo sistémico, en solidaridad con la oleada de protestas que se ha extendido por todo Estados Unidos."

La hipocresía de #blacklivesmatter  6/4/2020 Red Afrocubanas: "La hipocresía de #blacklivesmatter con esto lo único que están logrando es apoyar y darle rienda a los malandros/ladrones/criminales Andan reidos de ver tanto apoyo del mundo como el apoyo de las celebridades (cantantes y actores) y muchos más.... lo único que están logrando con ese apoyo es perjudicar la seguridad de todos."

Debate con Sandor Valdes  6/3/2020 Eliécer Avila: "Firma la Petición: FIN DEL BLOQUEO INTERNO EN CUBA"

Otaola denuncia la penetración del castrochavismo en las “protestas” por la muerte de George Floyd  6/3/2020 Cubanos por el Mundo: "El presentador cubano Alexander Otola, denunció la penetración del castrochavismo en las protestas por George Floyd, rechazando además la satanización a la administración de Donald Trump con respecto a este caso." [El "castrochavismo" es un movimiento republicano donde lo que cuenta es la ciudadania, no la raza.]

Call out claims of colorblindness.  6/3/2020 Corinna Moebius: "The racism in Miami's Cuban/Latinx community is stomach-turning. Reprehensible. Blatant. It's not just dog-whistles, it's overt."

Ota Ola y George Floyd  5/29/2020 Nicolas Rastafari: "…dice Ota Ola que lo sucedido a George Floyd no fue racismo y que está más enfurecido por las protestas que por la muerte del señor. A las 5pm hora de Miami voy a hacer una directa si facebook me deja."

Videos show Miami Beach arrests of black spring breakers slammed as racist by NAACP  3/17/2020 NBC: "The Miami-Dade chapter of the NAACP is calling for the removal of the Miami Beach police chief and city manager in response to videos showing police interactions with black spring breakers last week. In one of the viral videos, a Miami Beach police officer appears to grab a young woman by the throat after she falls onto the street following a collision with an officer. That video was uploaded to social media and has been viewed more than 390,000 times."

White Nationalists, Alt-Right Personalities Plan Rally on Miami Yacht  9/16/2019 Miami New Times: "But tickets are being sold on the website 1776.shop, which is run by Enrique Tarrio, a Miami native who leads the neofascist Proud Boys group." [Tarrio self identifies as AfroCuban.]

A Cuban-American Is Behind The Hate Group “The Proud Boys” And POC Have Questions  8/17/2019 We Are Mitu: "The Proud Boys is nationally led by Afro-Cubano Enrique Tarrio of Miami, and Latinos have something to say to him."

A South Florida charter school network now runs a small district 500 miles away. Legislators with close financial ties to charters helped make that happen.  8/1/2019 WLRN: "In particular, Senate education committee chair Manny Diaz, Jr., a Hialeah Republican, helped secure legislation and funding in 2017 that aided Somerset’s efforts in Jefferson County. Then a committee chairman in the state House of Representatives, Diaz was instrumental in making the district’s transition to charter schools possible."

Haitian, Jamaican or American ... If you’re black in Miami, odds are you’re struggling  2/25/2019 Miami Herald: "A new study sheds light on the yawning gap in wealth in the Miami area between white households and households of color. Among non-white groups, it is Miami-area households identifying as black that continue to suffer most, according to the authors of the study, “The Color of Wealth in Miami.”"

Roger Stone Admits Extensive Ties to Extremist Group Florida Proud Boys in Court  2/21/2019 Miami New Times: "In court today, Stone apologized profusely for his actions. Then he admitted something that most observers had expected for quite a while: He's working closely with various members of the Florida chapter of the Proud Boys, the hard-right, pro-Trump, semifascist group with numerous ties to harder-core white-supremacist organizations. According to multiple reporters in the courtroom today, Stone has admitted he's coordinating extensively with the group. Stone even said that Jacob Engels — a notorious alt-right InfoWars reporter and all but admitted member of the Proud Boys — has access to Stone's cell phone and social media accounts."

11-year-old arrested after refusing to stand for Pledge of Allegiance  2/17/2019 NY Post: "The classroom kerfuffle happened when a substitute teacher, Ana Alvarez, ordered the boy to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. When he told her he believed the flag was racist and the anthem was offensive, Alvarez asked him “why if it was so bad here he did not go to another place to live,” the teacher said in a statement to the school district. The teacher said he replied, “they brought me here.” Alvarez then told him, “Well you can always go back, because I came here from Cuba and the day I feel I’m not welcome here anymore I would find another place to live.”"

How was Miami’s Overtown neighborhood chosen as the place to expand I-95?  1/15/2019 The New tropic: "“By 1961, Overtown families began receiving surprise letters telling them they were expected to uproot and relocate from their homes within six to eight weeks,” Fields said in an email. “No mention was made of any appeal process, and ‘the rest is history.’” "

Hate Goes Mainstream With the Miami Proud Boys  12/10/2018 Miami New Times: "This past November 24, Tarrio, a Miami-born first-generation Cuban immigrant and business owner who has spent almost a year in federal prison, replaced McInnes as the group's chairman. In his "stepping-down gesture," as McInnes called it, he downplayed the group's involvement in far-right politics, saying, "We're not an extremist group, and we don't have ties with white nationalists." But screenshots of posts shared by Proud Boys in private groups show there's a good reason that white-nationalist label has been so hard to shake. And Tarrio has big plans for refocusing their message and using humor to mainstream the Proud Boys — even running some for office."

Miami GOP Chairman just caught leading Proud Boys in attack on Democratic campaign office  10/19/2018 The Stern Fact: "Chairman Diaz even told me that he never heard of the Proud Boys, even though the Miami New Times caught local GOP Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart posting a photo of himself with one candidate of the group’s members just two months ago. But the video doesn’t lie, and it depicts Diaz only a few feet away from Miami Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio when he yelled: “Open up! It’s some Proud Boys in here.”"

Miami GOP Chairman Nelson Diaz leading Proud Boys hate group in attack on Democratic campaign office  10/19/2018 YouTube: "The Republican Party Miami-Dade's County Chairman led an angry mob of partisans with the local leader of national hate group the Proud Boys in an attack on a Democratic campaign office the week."

Third police officer sentenced to prison for framing black males  10/19/2018 Nation of Change: "After pleading guilty to framing innocent black men and punching a handcuffed suspect in the face, a third Florida police officer was sentenced Thursday to 27 months in prison for conspiracy to deprive a person of his civil rights and deprivation of civil rights under color of law. Two other officers have been sentenced to one year in federal prison, while their former police chief awaits sentencing next month."

DeSantis to name Nuñez as Florida’s first Cuban-American female running mate  9/5/2018 Politico: "Nuñez initially did not want the hassle of running statewide, nor of being vetted for the post of lieutenant governor, but she decided to give it a second look at the urging of one of her closest political allies, Sen. Marco Rubio, in the wake of Democrat Andrew Gillum’s surprising win in his gubernatorial race Aug. 28, according to one knowledgeable source."

Why Young Men of Color Are Joining White-Supremacist Groups  9/4/2018 Daily Beast: "Tarrio, who identifies as Afro-Cuban, is president of the Miami chapter of the Proud Boys, who call themselves “Western chauvinists,” and “regularly spout white-nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center."

Black lawmaker says Miami Democrats have ‘lynched’ him in primary  8/16/2018 Miami Herald: "Hardemon, in interviews with the Miami Herald, said his party doesn’t like black people — “especially black men” — and claimed the chairman of the Miami-Dade Democrats recruited a Haitian-American candidate to boot him from office. This week, Hardemon went one step further, lobbing a racial accusation during a meeting of Democratic leaders in Doral. “It’s surprising to be lynched from the Democratic Party,” Hardemon said from a stage, standing next to Chairman Juan Cuba."

Miami Congressman Diaz-Balart Posts Photo With Alt-Right "Proud Boy"  8/10/2018 Miami New Times: "The Proud Boy who met with Diaz-Balart describes himself online as a military veteran and National Rifle Association "certified pistol instructor." He's repeatedly taken photographs with Miami-Dade County Republican Party members and appears to be involved with Carla Spalding's campaign for Florida's 23rd Congressional District, a seat currently occupied by Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Spalding has been endorsed by Roger Stone and has appeared on InfoWars, so it's perhaps not surprising that her campaign seems to include a Proud Boy, as well."

Cops, courts in Miami-Dade harsher on blacks. New study details stark racial disparities.  7/19/2018 Miami Herald: "No group in Miami-Dade County gets treated more harshly in the criminal justice system than blacks, according to a joint study released Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union and University of Miami. Researchers, who analyzed five years of data between 2010 and 2015, found stark differences across the board."

Police chief, officers in Florida town accused of pinning crimes on blacks to help stats  7/12/2018 Miami Herald: ""If they have burglaries that are open cases that are not solved yet, if you see anybody black walking through our streets and they have somewhat of a record, arrest them so we can pin them for all the burglaries," one cop, Anthony De La Torre, said in an internal probe ordered in 2014."

A conversation about racism in Miami should include all groups – not just Cubans  6/2/2018 Miami Herald: "In my life — and in 38 years as a journalist covering every topic in the book in South Florida — I've witnessed racist and prejudiced words and acts from members of every group in our community. Yet the flurry of outrage and calls for conversation seem to happen only when the offender is Cuban or Cuban-American." [Cuban privilege!]

Latin Americans still think blackface is funny. It isn’t. It’s dehumanizing.  6/1/2018 Miami Herald: "The recent controversy surrounding the play Tres Viudas en un Crucero — “Three Widows on a Cruise” — featuring a Cuban-American actress in blackface, reveals Miami’s long-standing history of bigotry and is a consequence of the silence surrounding the issue."

Miami's 'Cuban Cubicle' Creates Isolation That Fosters Racism – And Blackface  5/30/2018 WLRN: "In 2018 some if not much of Miami’s Cuban community still seems to think blackface is benign, good-natured humor. “Tres Viudas” has played to sold-out crowds since opening in January, and a glowing review in El Nuevo Herald called the blackface performance “masterful.” Few in the audiences, young or old, were bothered by it. And that raises concerns not just about Latinos’ denial of racism in their midst. It raises red flags – much as Barr’s tweet did – about the sort of cultural isolation that often fosters that denial."

Afro-Latinos Say Miami Blackface Play Is Part Of Bigger Problem With Racism In Latino Communities  5/29/2018 WLRN: "And supporters of the play kept telling her this was tradition, but Afro-Latinos say this is bigger than a play. For them, it's part of larger problem in Latino communities, where blackness is demonized and deemed inferior through art, entertainment and everyday conversations."

This Miami parody features an actress in blackface and the audience 'loves it'  5/19/2018 Miami Herald: "A popular Spanish-language theater near Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood has been entertaining its audiences for months with a parody that would spur outrage in many other cities. One of the leading actors in the play performs in blackface. The response from most of this audience: applause and laughter. “It has been a hit and no one has complained ... on the contrary, she is one of the favorites," said Marisol Correa, who oversees the venue where the play is showing. “The character is typical of the Cuban theater, the negrito cubano, but the person is never discriminated.”"

Manolín: "Vivimos en EE.UU. y le estamos muy agradecidos pero no hay por qué callar"  2/16/2018 Cibercuba: "Manolín, El médico de la salsa, ha publicado un texto en su perfil de Facebook a propósito del tiroteo en una escuela secundaria de Broward, el pasado 14 de febrero, en el que murieron 17 personas y otras 15 resultaron heridas. Más que aludir directamente a la tragedia, el músico cubano ha ido a la que considera la causa principal, el gran problema de origen: la venta de armas."

Miami Latinos Have Avoided Electing African American County Mayors, But That Could Finally Change  1/29/2018 Remezcla: "In 1983, Puerto Rican Miami Mayor Maurice Ferrer won his sixth consecutive two-year term against Cuban-born Xavier Suarez after a campaign that began to uncover the growing tensions between Miami’s Cuban majority and the Black minority. Many Black voters campaigned for Ferrer, resentful of the “Cuban takeover” of the city. Suarez’s supporters, in turn, were found holding signs that simply urged, “Cubans, vote Cuban.” As Luke wrote, only one Black county mayoral candidate has gotten a close chance at the seat: Arthur Teele, Jr. in 1995. Teele won a majority of the Black vote, but barely gained any Latino neighborhoods, while his opponent, Cuban born Alex Penelas, garnered 90 percent of the Latino vote come election day."

Hispanic Voters Will Never Elect a Black Miami-Dade County Mayor  1/22/2018 Miami New Times: "When he was seeking reelection in 2012, Gimenez showed up at every rally and black church to drum up endorsements. Though the black vote can push a candidate over the top in a countywide election, we somehow always select the best Cuban candidate. And once the Cuban candidate wins, he tosses the African-American community into the garbage. All we get in return is a giant F-you."

Hola! Ota-Ola con Alexander Otaola (Programa 31 oct 2017)  10/31/2017 Alex Otaola: sobre Chocolate, Otaola se pone negrito.

How a Crew of Hardliners Hijacked Donald Trump’s Cuba Policy  6/16/2017 Mother Jones: "Rubio had at least one ally inside the bureaucracy: Mauricio Claver-Carone, who is arguably the most vocal pro-embargo activist and lobbyist in Washington, was working on the inside. A onetime Rubio adviser, Claver-Carone has spent most of his adult life blasting the Castro regime for its human rights abuses and fighting any effort to open diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba. As the head of the US-Cuba Democracy Political Action Committee, he lobbied to help defeat several measures in 2005 to permit more humanitarian travel to Cuba and allow toothpaste and soap to be included in gift packages sent to the country."

Indecencia  12/18/2016 Granma: "Digámoslo de una vez por to­das: «la gente molesta» no re­pre­senta la comunidad cubana re­si­dente en Estados Unidos. Se tra­ta de un sector minoritario pero in­fluyente económica y mediáticamente, que ha hecho del odio, el revanchismo y la intolerancia un modo de vida."

MIAMI CUBANS 4 TRUMP AND THE BATTLE FOR THE NATION.  11/7/2016 Cuba Counterpoint: "The exilio histórico’ support for Trump was a given. From Spanish talk radio, to public manifestos (like that of the 92-year old soap opera writer Delia Fiallo making the case that Clinton wants to impose a Soviet-type regime, Obamacare being exhibit #1), to demonstrations in front of the iconic Versailles Restaurant in Calle Ocho, the aging Cuban exiles have made the case for Trump on the basis of U.S. Cuba policy and historic resentment against the Democratic Party."

LIBERTY SQUARE: Power, History, & Race in Miami  10/25/2016 Liberty Square Rising, YouTube: "On January 29, 2015, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced that Liberty Square, one of the country’s oldest public housing developments would be “razed and redeveloped.” Built in 1937 during the New Deal and under Jim Crow, the development was the first segregated public housing in the United States, built to house black residents of Miami moving out of the crowded black community in downtown Miami know as Colored Town (now called Overtown)."

In 'Moonlight,' Growing Up Black, Gay And Poor In 1980s Miami  10/18/2016 NPR: "And he was struck by the ways in which the men in the story interact, "the gentleness and the kindness of the character Juan. And knowing that he was based on something in reality," says Jenkins. "When I jogged my memory, I thought back on growing up in the village, there were these men who would every now and then just go out of their way to be like, naw, naw, naw, don't do that. Leave that guy alone, or this or that. The men give each other dap, you know?"

El racismo que no se ve  10/6/2016 Cubanet: "El pasado domingo 2 de octubre, cuando asistí a la presentación en el Art Emporium de Miami del libro La huella africana en Cuba, de Juan Antonio Alvarado, y los números 6, 7 y 8 de la revista Identidades, pude apreciar que todavía para los cubanos, especialmente los cubanos blancos o que dicen serlo, sigue siendo un tema incómodo el de la discriminación racial."

Miami-Set ‘Moonlight’ is a Heartwrenching Exploration of Gay Black Masculinity With Echoes of Cuba  9/30/2016 Remezcla: "As he teaches Little about life, we learn that Juan is of Cuban descent – an Afro-Cuban character at the heart of a film concerned with what it means to a black man.'

Casi 60 arrestos en el primer día del festival urbano de Miami Beach  5/29/2016 Cibercuba: "No obstante, la Policía de Miami Beach percibe que hasta el momento esta fiesta espontánea que se inició el viernes y atrae a miles de personas a las calles de Miami Beach, en su mayoría afroamericanos, transcurre con normalidad y sin mayores incidentes."

The McDuffie Riots  5/11/2016 Miami Times: "“If the jury was half Black and half white would there have been a riot?” Dunn asked the room at HistoryMiami museum last week. “It was the most difficult thing I have seen in 75 years. It was worse than the 1926 hurricane. The hurricane damaged property. This damaged souls.”"

Florida politicians protect special status for Cubans  10/1/2015 Sun Sentinel: "Their amendment to the 1980 Refugee Education Assistance Act also included a key change: Cubans and Haitians were deemed a special category of “entrants.” They would be entitled to the same federal assistance as immigrants granted refuge and asylum as victims of political persecution. Haitians had difficulty tapping that assistance because they, like most other immigrants, were routinely turned away at sea or deported if they made it to the U.S. without permission. Cubans, on the other hand, had an open door as presumed refugees from communism."

THE BROWNFACE OF LATINIDAD IN CUBAN MIAMI  7/13/2015 Cuba Counterpoints: "More often, they prefer to identify themselves according to their nationality, particularly given the national basis of social networks and social capital –a phenomenon recently identified by the Pew Research Center. In this double context: —a multicultural mosaic of nationalities, and a claim to whiteness, —South Florida Cubans and South Americans reject the renditions of Latinidad, often generated by Puerto Ricans and Chicanos, that assign “color” to Latinos. The 20th century struggles of more established groups are alien to these so-called Latinos in South Florida. Dominicans in Miami, by and large, are no exception, identifying mostly as white and middle class. Those in the Northeast, however, have not hesitated to partake of the Latinidad defined by Puerto Ricans and Mexicans. And here is where Yeyo Vargas comes in. Cubans “brown” or “darken” Dominicans only to situate them in high office, close to President Obama, like many Dominicans himself a black man of mixed heritage. In this context, blackface and brownface mark not only a distance from blackness, but, most importantly, a distance from Latinidad and its avenues for upward mobility and access to power that remain alien to working class Cubans."

The Structure of Racism in Color-Blind, "Post-Racial" America  5/1/2015 American Behavioral Scientist: "In this article, I describe the racial order of America in the post-Civil Rights era. First, I discuss what racism is all about and emphasize the centrality of conceiving the phenomenon in a structural way. Second, I argue that the “new racism,” or the set of mostly subtle, institutional, and seemingly nonracial mechanisms and practices that comprise the racial regime of “post-racial” America, has all but replaced the old Jim Crow order. Third, I describe the racial ideology of color-blind racism and its component parts (i.e., frames, style, and racial stories) and contend that, like the racial order, this new ideology is slippery and has a “beyond race” character. Fourth, I explain that the Obama moment is part of the new racism, color-blind period and justify my claim empirically. I conclude this essay pondering if people of color will wake up and realize that the new, more “civil” way of maintaining and justifying racial things is a more formidable way of maintaining racial domination."

Nelson Mandela y el odio que le demostraron los extremistas cubanos de Miami en 1990  12/10/2013 Cubadebate: "Las muestras de apoyo y respeto que recibió en las primeras cuatro urbes estadounidenses, contrastó con el recibimiento que le aguardaba, por parte de los grupos extremistas cubanos asentados en Miami, quienes no escondieron su odio al líder sudafricano después que este reconociera públicamente su amistad con el líder histórico de la Revolución Cubana, Fidel Castro. Las muestras de antipatía fueron aberrantes. Desde las solicitudes hechas por la recién estrenada congresista cubanoamericana Ileana Ros-Lethinen, de que fuera prohibida la entrada de Mandela a la ciudad de Miami, hasta la actitud bochornosa del alcalde Xavier Suárez, también de origen cubano, y con una triste historia de corrupción administrativa, quien junto al Consejo de la ciudad –integrado en ese entonces por una mayoría de cubanoamericanos- de no reconocer ni agasajar al visitante africano."

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen slams Jay-Z, Beyonce  4/9/2013 Politico: "On Monday, Ros-Lehtinen and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department, asking for more information about the trip. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) also wants the White House to provide more answers."

Owning the Revolution: Race, Revolution, and Politics from Havana to Miami, 1959–1963  12/1/2012 Journal of Transnational American Studies: "Using the label “racist” to attack an opponent was not altogether new in the 1960s, but by linking the term to counterrevolution, national discussions occurring in newspapers, magazines, and on television defined public racism as existing outside of the norms of a new Cuba. Exiles disagreed with this identification and accused the revolution of betraying the nineteenth-century colorblind goals of Jose Martí. Exile leaders in Miami argued that Castro invented racial tensions and claimed that their fight was not with blacks or mulatos but with “red” or communist Cubans. The politics expressed by white exile newspapers, however, did not always fit with the concerns of Afro-Cubans in the United States. Miami Cubans failed to acknowledge the persistence of racism in new exile communities in the same way that the revolutionary government dismissed racism on the island."

THE COLORS OF THE CUBAN DIASPORA: PORTRAYAL OF RACIAL DYNAMICS AMONG CUBAN-AMERICANS  6/7/2012 Forum for inter-american research, Bielfeld, Germany: "The Cuban Diaspora in the United States has been repeatedly charged with political opacity and racial discrimination towards its members. A highly inflexible community as far as racial acceptance and internal economic mobility are concerned, this Diaspora gives rise to controversies in both media and literature, especially since it plays a major role in the socio-political relations between the two countries. Bearing in mind that the issue of racial discrimination in the last century ran different paths in Cuba and in the United States, and relying on a various set of articles and documentaries, this paper examines the processes and causes underlying the racial tensions within the Cuban community."

Parsing the Memorial Day shooting in South Beach  6/5/2011 Beached Miami: "They do not report where they found the gun — on the “floorboard behind driver’s seat,” according to David Smiley, the Herald reporter covering the story — until Saturday afternoon. The delay here is odd since a lot of people immediately speculated that the police had fired more than 100 rounds at an unarmed black man, and this speculation reportedly worried the Head Honcho. In one of his articles, Smiley said Miami Beach Police Chief Carlos Noriega was “concerned about the publicity surrounding the shooting” and that he “called the gun’s discovery ‘great news.’”

Miami's Continuing Color Problem  12/14/2010 The Root: "There were too many police shootings of unarmed black men in Miami for my taste, and in the prior decade, one of the most notorious police shootings had led to violent riots. There was not a visible black middle-class community, although middle-class blacks were scattered about, but there were plenty of visibly poor and badly deteriorated black neighborhoods. African Americans were mostly politically marginalized and had even less economic power. Cuban Americans -- many of them fair-skinned "white" conservative Republicans, uninterested in power sharing -- were politically ascendant. (Afro-Cubans and other Afro-Latinos, for the most part, blended into the African-American community.) Non-Hispanic white residents were fleeing Dade County and heading to whiter suburbs in northern counties."

Only in Miami: Omara Portuondo Compared to the Ku Klux Klan  2/13/2010 Cuba Now: 'It seems that Mr. Prieres’ “school of thinking” does not admit that a Cuban figure as Omara Portuondo can freely sing in the United States. I guess that Mr. Prieres’ “environment” excludes the over 11 million Cubans living on the island. It seems to be an institution of poor education and thinking. According to Miami New Times magazine, the organization Vigilia Mambisa declared that Omara “is accomplice of the regime,” and anti-Cuban activist Emilio Izquierdo Jr. made this incredible comparison: “Brinign Omara Portuondo to Miami is like taking the Ku Klux Klan to Liberty City”. Perhaps Izquierdo does not know, or means nothing for him, but the Ku Klux Klan is a racist, terrorist organization founded in the US to kill, torture, or intimidate black, Jewish or other groups, including Catholics, peace activists, and unionists. Omara Portuondo is a Cuban woman of mixed race with unique voice and international prestige resulting from her huge talent. Comparing her to the Ku Klux Klan is like comparing Luis Posada Carriles to Bola de Nieve."

Una Batalla Mundial de Vida o Muerte. Primera Parte  12/25/2009 AfroCubaWeb: "Prevalecia en Miami un racismo furibundo donde acunaron el termino despectivo Marielitos, lo cual era sinonimo con analfabeto, negro, ladron, asesino, drogadicto, prostituta y/o criminal. En infinidad de articulos periodisticos y en programas radiales AM de microfonos abiertos de Miami decian sin inmutarse, “Esta gente no parecen ser siquiera Cubanos”, lo que significaba que la percepcion generalizada que fue creado a partir del ano 1959, en el cual los Cubanos se describrieron como un pais exclusivamente blanco, rico. de casatenientes residiendo en mansiones con cadillacs, viviendas en la playa, catolicos temerosos de Dios, sin una gota de sangre negra en sus venas y asociando la religion Afro-Cubana con el Voodoo de Haiti."

A Worldwide Battle of Life and Death. Part I  12/25/2009 AfroCubaWeb: "Let me help readers of this very complex issue identify all parties involved, by pointing an accusing finger at everyone whose voluntary or involuntary actions may have contributed to bringing us to this extremely dangerous juncture. (a) The Cuban Solidarity Movement in the US, (b) the United States Government, (c) anti-Cuba Blacks groups around the world and (d) the Cuban Government, who stands violently accused of blatant racism in Cuba as denounced in Acting On Our Conscience. (a) The Cuban Solidarity Movement in the United States is primarily White and they have strongly supported the Cuban Government based mostly on events which have taken place since 1959, its impressive social programs, international solidarity, health and education development, but to a great extent, with a limited awareness of the 500 years' legacy of slavery, racism, segregation and inequalities in Cuba."

Apartheid protesters got it right  9/20/2009 Miami Herald: [Another fine example of the Miami Mafia debasing imagery from the Black struggle.]

Black Vs. White - Miami Remains The Same  5/27/2009 Miami New Times: "As much as I hate it when politicians play the race card when they are facing possible criminal charges, I can't just dismiss it either in the case of Spence-Jones. After all, Sarnoff is the city's only Anglo commissioner and Arriola is one of the most prominent Anglo Cuban Americans in Miami. Together they initiated a criminal probe into the city's only black, and only female, commissioner."

Miami Mayor to Apologize for 'Mandela Moment'  7/12/2003 Fox News: "Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas (search) said Monday he would make an official apology to former South African president Nelson Mandela (search) next week. "If Mandela were in Miami today, I think he would receive an official welcome." Penelas said. Thirteen years ago, that was not the case. In June 1990, Miami's politically powerful Cuban exile community protested a visit by Mandela, newly released from a South African prison, for his praise of Fidel Castro (search), arch-enemy of Cuban exiles but friend of the anti-apartheid movement. Despite pleas by local African-American leaders, the cities of Miami and Miami Beach, along with Miami-Dade Country, refused to recognize Mandela when he visited the area for a labor conference. The Miami City Commission rescinded a proclamation honoring Mandela. Tourists angry at the Mandela snub launched a boycott that cost the city $25 million in lost revenue. Business leaders helped end the boycott in 1993, but tensions continued in the 1990s between blacks and Cubans after several incidents where Miami police roughed up Haitians."

Trial to begin for 11 Miami officers  1/6/2003 Boston Globe: "Based on information from two retired officers who pleaded guilty to conspiracy in September 2001, 11 other officers were indicted on federal corruption charges alleging coverups in four police shootings in which three men were killed… ''The history of Miami has been characterized by ugly police-community relations,'' said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. ''There is a loss of confidence, if not outright hostility, by the minority community because of the great number of shootings of typically unarmed black young men.'' …The four Miami shootings involved the killings of three black men. A fourth man was wounded, and another man involved in the shooting was not harmed."

We are all Americans!: the Latin Americanization of racial stratification in the USA  12/1/2002 University of Maryland: "Therein lies the weaknesses of the emerging tri-racial order and the possibilities for challenging it. Members of the “collective Black” must be the backbone of the movement challenging the new order as they are the ones who will remain literally “at the bottom of the well.” However, if they want to be successful, they must wage, in coalition with progressive Asian and Latino organizations, a concerted effort to politicize the segments I label “honorary Whites” and make them aware of the honorary character of their status. This is the way out of the impending new racial quandary. We need to short-circuit the belief in near-whiteness as the solution to status differences and create a coalition of all “people of color” and their White allies."

The attempt to divide Cuba along racial lines, II  8/9/2001 AfroCubaWeb: "Since the early '90s, cubanologists from different universities, social workers and even some misguided or ill informed Afro Americans coming out of the civil rights movement unleashed a flood of newspapers articles, seminars, conferences, web sites, books, radio talk shows all of which became part of a well concerted and heavily funded project to divide Cubans along race lines. These initial concerns with the wellbeing of the Afro Cuba community was welcome by most, until it became clear that these entities were all advocating similar divisive and confrontational policies towards the Cuban Government. Most of these groups used similar terminology, format and even words that are not part of the Cuban lexicon, which clearly indicates the existence of a command and control center outside of the Cuban community."

The attempt to divide Cuba on racial lines  7/9/2001 AfroCubaWeb: "These initial concerns with the wellbeing of the Afro Cuba community was welcome by most, until it became clear that these entities were all advocating similar divisive and confrontational policies towards the Cuban Government. Most of these groups used similar terminology, format and even words that are not part of the Cuban lexicon, which clearly indicates the existence of a command and control center outside of the Cuban community. A great effort was placed on the creation of Independent Libraries, Independent Journalists, Independent Women, Children and Elderly Association, Independent Farmers and even Independent Unions in Cuba, all of this being advocated by people with the lowest union membership in the world. Outside of Cuba, a series of Afro-Cuban "Think-Tank" charged with creating and disseminating news, rumors, distortions, or elevating to "Sainthood" a few salaried Afro-Cuban "Dissidents" that they have created in Cuba, is in fact their most cherished portion of the puzzle, because it creates for them an aura of credibility."

Black, Brown ‘Proud Boys’ Provide Cover For Group’s True Nature  1/25/2001 An Injustice: " We can’t be racist because we have People of Color in our group. Look at them over there. Just ignore all of our racist and anti-Semitic comments and the fact we associate with neo-Nazis. The Black and brown Proud Boys work like POC in the Republican Party. They serve as window dressing that allows the organization to say it’s addressing diversity, without really dealing with the issue. The Republican Party does the same thing. They say, how can we be pro-white nationalist? We have a Black senator, Tim Scott? Just ignore all our white nationalist policies or the fact the Trump White House had neo-Nazis writing government regulation."

Stealing my identity on AfroCubaWeb: the ultra right in blackface  10/1/2000 AfroCubaWeb: "And this is the same media in which they constantly complain how Cuba have "Darkened" and how they will have to "Bleach" the country as soon as it is "Free""

listen to a panel discussion about race in Miami and Cuba  6/1/2000 NYT Archive: "lick the link below to listen to a panel discussion about race in Miami and Cuba as related to Mirta Ojito's article, "Best of Friends, Worlds Apart." The conversation ranges from anecdotes about discrimination in Miami to proposals on improving the strength of the Cuban community in an effort to combat racism in the city."

"Why don't African Americans speak out against Castro's abuses": Upper Class, get real!  3/25/2000 AfroCubaWeb: "The insatiable hatred that Myrian Marquez and hundreds of other ultra-right-wing Cubans profess for their country of birth is expressed through their daily bilious exudate geared to demonize, denigrate, and disparage every thing originating in Cuba. Her recent article (1) , "Why don't African Americans speak out against Castro's abuses" typifies her impotence towards people of African descent. Having failed in their 40 year old attempt to overthrow the Cuban Government through assasination attempts, conspiracies, invasions, economical and bacteriological warfare, bombings, sabotage, and the longest and most virulent embargo in human history, they are now resorting to their last hope, a carefully structured and well financed campaign, designed to promote and stir up racial hatred in Cuba, hoping to re-enact the Kosovo or West Bank experience."

Crooks, torturers, pseudo-politicians, opportunists, and hired killers line up against Los Van Van.  10/6/1999 AfroCubaWeb: "One of them, Agustin Tamargo from Radio Mambi, went as far as openly requesting a THREE DAYS LICENSE - when the Castro Regime falls - to dole out retribution to all of those who stayed in Cuba and supported that hated regime. This very disturbing statement is especially frightening to the AfroCuban community, who, because of its non-migratory tendency and the intense emigration of Cubans of Hispanic ancestry to the United States have seen Cuba become a predominantly Black country. Are Mr Tamargo and his cohorts planning to re-enact the massacre of 1912 and the Ladder Conspiracy in Cuba or the Rosewood massacre in Gainesville, Florida?"

Un hito en la lucha contra el racismo  11/12/1998 AfroCubaWeb: "Un hecho sin precedentes en la historia de Miami ocurrió el pasado 31 de octubre con la celebración de la conferencia Miami-USA/Cuba, Una Nueva Visión, organizada por el Centro de Política Internacional… Hago por tanto un sincero y crucial llamado a todos mis hermanos de raza, todos víctimas de ese engendro, para que analicemos nuestra historia, establezcamos quiénes, cuándo y por qué se cometió aquel holocausto y luego dediquemos lo mejor de nuestros esfuerzos --tal cual realizan españoles, árabes, judíos, chinos, etc.--, a contribuir a mitigar el dolor de nuestros hermanos en Cuba, a crear mecanismos que coadyuven a su continuo desarrollo, a demostrarles que no han sido olvidados ni están solos y evitar sobre todo que el dolor personal debido a una injusticia real o imaginaria, nos lleve a ignorar el reto de millones de nuestros hermanos, asociándonos indirectamente con nuestros verdugos. Nadie tendrá que aleccionarnos en las actuales circunstancias. Maceo, Guillermón, Quintín, Mariana, etc., nos trazaron el camino a seguir. Los historiadores disponen del rasero por el cual seremos juzgados."

A Cuba in Diaz Balart's Image or that of Today's Miami  7/15/1998 Alborada/AfroCubaWeb: "For these and so many other reasons, none of us had to flock to South Africa to see what Apartheid was all about. We were born, lived and many died in our own Soweto! That's why it is so painful to us when we hear the likes of Diaz-Balart attempting to apply the content of the Human Rights Declaration to their narrow and selfish, self serving interest. Where were these demagogues, hypocrites and frequently active perpetrators of the terrible conditions previously described when young people were beaten, tortured, disappeared or murdered, and left by the side of the roads to rot by the military structure that they helped put in place to protect their illegal loot, stolen public funds, or immoral business practices? For us to have a clear picture about the real intentions and the interests that these individuals stand for, suffice to say that Diaz-Balart's father was one of the highest ranking government official in the Batista regime while all of the above was happening, and today, both his sons, one as a State and the other as a U.S. Representative, both represent Miami, which has become one of the most politically corrupt, segregated, bankrupt, drug ravaged community in the nation."

Miami Police Officer Is Acquitted In Racially Charged Slaying Case  5/29/1993 NYT: "In a decision met with anger and dismay among blacks in Miami, a Hispanic police officer who was convicted there in 1989 on two counts of manslaughter in the shooting deaths of two young black men was acquitted today in a second trial on the same charges. William Lozano, the 33-year-old, Colombian-born police officer who has been the focal point of the most racially charged case in Florida in the last decade, threw his arms up in joy and embraced his lawyers when the verdict was announced late this afternoon. But relatives of the men he killed broke into tears and left the courtroom of Judge W. Thomas Spencer, saying they were at a loss to explain the decision of the six-member jury."

Miami Journal; Boycott Over Visit Of Mandela Lives On  7/13/1991 NYT: "The City Commission rescinded a proclamation welcoming Mr. Mandela, and Mayor Xavier Suarez and four other mayors from the region openly criticized Mr. Mandela for not denouncing human rights violations in Cuba. Miami's blacks, who make up about 21 percent of the city's 359,000 residents, took that as a snub of royal proportions, an insult added to decades of economic, social and political injury. In response, on July 17, 1990, a small group of the city's black leaders began an economic boycott against the tourism industry, arguably the region's most important business. Now almost a year old, the boycott continues, and organizers recently declared their intention to turn up the heat a bit by sending out videotaped messages highly critical of Miami to organizations around the country likely to hold conventions or refer people to the area. The videos will urge them to keep their convention and vacation business away. Giant cruise ships still glide silently through Biscayne Bay and rental cars still seem to take up more than two-thirds of every parking lot, but the boycott has taken its toll. A spokesman for the boycott group, H. T. Smith, a lawyer, estimated that the campaign has cost the area $27 million in convention business. Officials from the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau estimate that of more than $200 million in convention business annually, about 19 conventions or meetings worth about $8 million have been canceled." [The real number was likely far higher.]

On the Edge: Blacks and Hispanics in Metropolitan Miami since 1959  7/15/1990 Florida Historical Quarterly: "On Monday, January 16, 1989, hundreds of blacks in Miami took to the streets in angry rage for the fourth time in the 1980s. Over several days, they burned cars and buildings, looted stores, pelted passers-by with rocks and bottles, and faced off with riot police in Overtown and Liberty City, Miami's two major black communities. The incident that touched off this new expression of black anger was sadly familiar. A Miami policeman had shot and killed a black man fleeing a traffic infraction on a motorcycle, while a second black man, a passenger on the motorcycle, was thrown from the vehicle and also killed."

Miami Racial Tensions Fester  12/31/1982 WaPo: ""Leave these Latins get out of here, right now," shouted a local black leader, the Rev. Jonathan Rolle, in a television interview Wednesday night. "The Latin police, they just ride around in their cars, and they never get out," he said today in a telephone conversation. ". . . . The Latins are the ones who are killing the blacks." Archie Hardwick of the James E. Scott Community Association charged that the federal government, in its eagerness to help emigrants from Fidel Castro's Cuba, funneled money and energy into resettlement efforts that shortchanged other, black-oriented programs then getting under way in the Great Society years."
 

Links/Enlaces

Miami’s Forgotten Cubans by Alan A. Aja

The Racial Politics of Division: Interethnic Struggles for Legitimacy in Multicultural Miami, Monika Goslina

Antiracism in Miami

See also Fighting Florida racism

Afro Latino scholars and activists slam Gov. DeSantis' dissection of AP African American studies  2/4/2023 NBC: "Educator and community activist Ted Victor was outraged when he learned Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had decided an Advanced Placement African American studies course his daughter planned to take “significantly lacks educational value.” “No educational value, like something you can discard, something you can just throw away, something that says you are not as important as other people,” said Victor, who is Afro Latino and has taught for 25 years at the middle and high school level, and college. The son of a Cuban father and an Haitian mother, Victor was born in the Dominican Republic and was raised there, in Brazil and Brooklyn."

Miami’s Republican Cuban Americans need to soul search and confront their racism  4/7/2021 Miami Herald 

Reveses y oportunidades para afrolatinos en medio de una reacción violenta contra el BLM  3/3/2021 Chicago Tribune: "Para Yvonne Rodríguez, nativa del sur de Florida, ser afrolatina en el oeste de Miami significa entrar en contacto frecuente con el racismo casual de sus vecinos hispanos blancos, ya sea en forma de “bromas desagradables” o de apelativos incómodos (“¿Qué pasa, mulata? ¿Qué pasa, mi negra?”). Incluso como cubano-estadounidense de segunda generación, Rodríguez se encuentra con que su identidad latina y sus lazos con la patria de sus padres son constantemente cuestionados. “Es psicológicamente agotador intentar convencer a alguien de que eres tan latino como ellos”, dijo."

Amid backlash against Black Lives Matter, Afro-Latinos find setbacks and opportunities  2/26/2021 Miami Herald: "For South Florida native Yvonne Rodriguez, being Black in West Miami means coming in frequent contact with her white Hispanic neighbors’ casual racism, be it in the form of “off-putting jokes” or uncomfortable appellations (“What’s up, mulata? What’s up, mi negra?”). Even as a second-generation Cuban American, Rodriguez finds her Latin identity, and her ties to her parents’ homeland, put under constant questioning. “It is psychologically exhausting to try to convince someone that you are just as much of a Latino as them,” she said."

Latinos can be racist, too. My community shows how.  7/28/2020 WaPo: "There is indifference, or outright hostility, to the Black Lives Matter movement online, in conversations and on the streets among many Latinos. I’ve attended a few large, overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations in Miami and was initially pleased to see so many multi-ethnic Latinos. But, later, when I remembered that we make up nearly three-quarters of the county, the numbers seemed underwhelming. Daniella Capote, a 27-year-old law student who was born and raised in Miami, told me at a protest that she was infuriated by the lackluster support. Latinos, she said, “forget where they came from, Cuban Americans, in particular. … They need to do more than recognize racism; they have to act against it.”"

We are black and we matter. Stop racism!  6/23/2020 Durdu El loco: "Watch til the end - the last comment made by Alex Otaola will shock you - he is encouraging his listeners with his racist remarks and this is the stuff they respond with. This is a disgusting display of the every day racism that seems to be socially acceptable within the Cuban community both in Miami and Cuba. This has to stop!"

Marco Rubio called them ‘extremists.’ They’re really Miami rappers. They want a retraction.  6/10/2020 Miami Herald: "When cops arrested Marco Antonio Lopez on allegations that he vandalized patrol cars during a protest in downtown Miami, the arrest report noted he was part of a group known as the “Southern Slaves,” which “actively recruits people to violently protest the government.” That drew the attention of U.S. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who tweeted the arrest was evidence of “extremist groups” organizing to cause mayhem at protests over the death of George Floyd and police brutality. But the Southern Slaves aren’t an extremist group. And they are not monitored by the FBI or listed by hate-group trackers like the Anti-Defamation League or the Southern Poverty Law Center. They’re a group of aspiring hip-hop musicians from Miami’s Flagami neighborhood, buddies uploading their music online, doing shows at open-mic nights and spreading a message of what they consider government overreach. “We’re not terrorists. We love America. What we don’t love is systematic oppression and police brutality,” said Alonzo Martinez, 23, whose stage name is “Zo The Atlantean.”"

Estados Unidos: personal médico protesta en Miami contra el racismo  6/4/2020 El Comercio, Peru: "Cientos de trabajadores sanitarios participaron este jueves en una protesta pacífica bajo el lema “batas blancas por vidas negras”, como respuesta al asesinato del afroamericano George Floyd a manos de la policía y para mostrar su repulsa al racismo sistémico, en solidaridad con la oleada de protestas que se ha extendido por todo Estados Unidos."

Call out claims of colorblindness.  6/3/2020 Corinna Moebius: "The racism in Miami's Cuban/Latinx community is stomach-turning. Reprehensible. Blatant. It's not just dog-whistles, it's overt."

Latin Americans still think blackface is funny. It isn’t. It’s dehumanizing.  6/1/2018 Miami Herald: "The recent controversy surrounding the play Tres Viudas en un Crucero — “Three Widows on a Cruise” — featuring a Cuban-American actress in blackface, reveals Miami’s long-standing history of bigotry and is a consequence of the silence surrounding the issue."
   

Republicanismo in Miami

Republicanismo is Latin Republicanism, of French origins, and not the US GOP.  It underpins racism on both the right and the left across Latin America, though in a nice paradox it is also viewed as a pilar of liberation. The basic idea is that we are all equal, our identity is as citizens. Therefore there is no ethnic identity, except of course for the dominant criollo identity related to Spain. This is not discussed much in Miami, though it is in Lstin America and Cuba, perhaps because after all Miami is in the US, sort of. However, you can spot republicanismo ideals in the Miami Cuban discourse:

Afro Latino scholars and activists slam Gov. DeSantis' dissection of AP African American studies  2/4/2023 NBC: "Educator and community activist Ted Victor was outraged when he learned Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had decided an Advanced Placement African American studies course his daughter planned to take “significantly lacks educational value.” “No educational value, like something you can discard, something you can just throw away, something that says you are not as important as other people,” said Victor, who is Afro Latino and has taught for 25 years at the middle and high school level, and college. The son of a Cuban father and an Haitian mother, Victor was born in the Dominican Republic and was raised there, in Brazil and Brooklyn."

How Florida’s ‘anti-woke’ bill could impact public universities  4/16/2022 Tampa Bay Times: "That virtues such as merit, excellence, hard work, fairness, neutrality, objectivity and racial colorblindness are racist or sexist, or were created by members of a particular race, color, sex or national origin to oppress members of another race, color, sex or national origin."

FL Legislature stuck last-minute policy changes to HB 7; critics call it a ‘huge problem’  3/14/2022 Florida Phoenix: "“So basically it took a bill, turned it on its head and basically said ‘oh if you have a complaint, if you believe that a higher education institution, for example, taught history or taught racism in a way that made you feel uncomfortable, in violation of the Stop WOKE Act, you can bring that complaint to a political committee of the Florida Legislature.’ I say political because it is made up of politicians with Republicans in the majority. That committee will be the judge, jury, and executioner on all violations of House Bill 7.”"

Florida GOP lawmakers pass bill to limit discussion of race  3/10/2022 LA Times: "Republican Sen. Manny Diaz, a Cuban American who sponsored the bill, said people in Cuba are told what to think and that shouldn’t happen in the United States."

After fiery debate, ‘Individual Freedom’ bill banning ‘woke’ lessons in schools, businesses heads to House floor  2/9/2022 Florida Politics: "Its sponsor, Rep. Bryan Ávila of Miami Springs, acknowledged the bill “brings out a lot of passion” but insisted its aim was not to discriminate."

Freedom from discomfort or a knowledge ban? ‘Individual freedom’ bill covering schools, businesses moves in House  1/26/2022 Florida Politics: "Ávila and Republican Rep. Mike Beltran of Lithia repeatedly insisted the bill would not stop the instruction of difficult historical subjects including slavery, the Holocaust or internment camps. The bill only requires they be taught objectively, and that teachers not wander from the approved curriculum."

Fla. State Sen. Ileana Garcia On Critical Race Theory: 'I Have Been Discriminated On All Fronts. Should We Take It Personally?'  1/18/2022 CBS: "DeFede asked her, "You don't think that the African American experience today is different than the experience by either yourself or someone like me.?" Garcia said, "No, not at all. As a matter of fact... That's why we had Obama as a president. That's the best example in the world. Obama was president now for four years for eight." Senate sponsor Manny Diaz Jr., R-Hialeah, told reporters after the committee meeting: "The intention of the bill … is to make sure that these trainings that occur are objective, and that we're not finding a person guilty of something just because of their ethnic background or the color of their skin. I think that we have to go back to the premise that all of us are created equal, and we should be judged on our individual merits, or deeds, not a blanket statement."

“White Supremacy Is Not Just for White People”: Trumpism, the Proud Boys, and the Extremist Allure for People of Color  2/2/2021 Vanity Fair: "Cassie Miller, a researcher with the Southern Poverty Law Center, told me that, while there are no clear statistics on the number of people of color in the Proud Boys, “in 2019 we found 44 different chapters, and the [ethnic] makeup varies by location. Different chapters take on a different character.” She added, “I think joining a group like this shows the contradictory places people exist in society and how they look for different ways of achieving power. With this group it’s not just about white supremacy, but also perpetuating a patriarchal society.” Women are not allowed to join the Proud Boys, Miller noted, and neither are transgender men or gender-nonconforming people."

Black, Brown ‘Proud Boys’ Provide Cover For Group’s True Nature  1/25/2001 An Injustice: " We can’t be racist because we have People of Color in our group. Look at them over there. Just ignore all of our racist and anti-Semitic comments and the fact we associate with neo-Nazis. The Black and brown Proud Boys work like POC in the Republican Party. They serve as window dressing that allows the organization to say it’s addressing diversity, without really dealing with the issue. The Republican Party does the same thing. They say, how can we be pro-white nationalist? We have a Black senator, Tim Scott? Just ignore all our white nationalist policies or the fact the Trump White House had neo-Nazis writing government regulation."
     

White Supremacist Miami Media

tunein.com/radio/Radio-Mambi-710-s41879/

www.iheart.com/live/radio-mambi-710-am-5175/

www.univision.com/radio/miami-waqi-am

www.lapoderosa.com

www.univision.com/radio/miami-wqba-am

lamega.lamusica.com/
 

White Supremacists Miami Groups

Law Abiding Citizens’ Coalition

Enrique Tarrio - Fomer President, Proud Boys. Snitch, Police & FBI
  

Black Groups aligned with the Cuban Plantocracy

Afro Cuban Forum

Albuquerque sobre Ferguson  6/6/2020 Un Nuevo Dia: Esta video del periodo de Ferguson unos años atras muestra una reaccion que probablemente sigue hoy en dia en contra a los activistas afro. Andrés Alburquerque es presidente del Afro Cuban Forum en Miami.

CIR

Patria y Vida

Movimiento San Isidro - San Isidro Movement

Anti-racist groups in Miami

cubaone.org

www.miamifreedomproject.org

 
Related pages/Paginas relacionadas

HB7 ('Anti-W.O.K.E') and Cuban American Republicanismo

The War on Critical Race Theory (CRT)

Intersectionality - Interseccionalidad
Banned by DeSantis/Diaz

Black Florida, Black Miami  

The US, the Exiled Plantocracy and Race

The Fanjuls, Sultans of Sugar, and Domino Sugar

Cuba and George Floyd: Reactions

Police in Florida

Miami’s Forgotten Cubans by Alan A. Aja

Republican Ideals in Cuba and Latin America

Los ideales republicanos en Cuba y América Latina

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