Young Cuban Americans have the power to reject Republicans and turn Florida blue | Opinion

Growing up in Miami as a Cuban American is a privilege. You can get a proper colada y tostada on every block or start a pick-up domino game at any time.

But it wasn’t always like this.

Not even 40 years ago, in response to the influx of Cuban exiles to South Florida, 44,000 Miamians signed a petition demanding a referendum to eliminate Spanish as the second official language of what then was Dade County. Cubans arriving in the United States were met with anger, hostility and signs reading “Dade County is not Cuba. Speak English.”

Fast forward to today. Substitute Cubans with any non-European immigrant. Change “Speak English” to “Build a wall.” The similarities between how Cubans were treated when they arrived in the United States and how many immigrants are treated today by the president of the United States and some of his supporters, become evident.

It’s clear that for too long, Cuban Americans have been denigrated and cast aside, especially by the Republican Party. A few months ago, the Trump administration deported 120 Cubans, in what the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency called, “the largest group of Cuban nationals to be removed on a single flight in recent years.” But this is hardly the first time Trump and Republicans have gone after Cubans. Remember in 2016 when a Trump-aligned white-supremacist group pushed out robocalls telling people not to vote for a Cuban?

A new generation of Cubans, under the age of 45, have the power to put Florida in play in 2020. According to a survey conducted by Equis Research, more than 50 percent of Cuban Americans between 18 and 44 in Florida disapprove of President Trump’s job performance. That’s a significant statistic, given the way the media portray Cuban-American voters as Republicans.

After the past three years, during which attacks on Cuban Americans and other Hispanics have been turbocharged, the time for complicity and respectability politics is over — it can no longer be business as usual. These attacks are a watershed moment for our collective political power heading into the most consequential election of our lifetime.

When they try to strip healthcare away from 20 million Americans, when they pass a tax law that gives companies that ship jobs overseas a tax break while leaving American families behind and when they try to cut $7.1 billion in funding for public education, it’s clear that the modern-day Republican Party is out of touch on the issues discussed en la ventanita over our morning colada that directly impact our families and community.

Although Trump ran as a populist, he governs as a plutocrat who only cares about enriching himself and his children. Our community, our families and future generations deserve better. And just like the outsized impact the next generation of Cuban voters will have on the 2020 elections, the ramifications of not standing up and making our collective voice heard at the ballot box will be even more consequential for our generation.

According to the FIU Cuba Poll published after the 2018 mid-term elections, 75 percent of Cuban Americans between the ages of 18 and 39 identified as being either Democrats or Independents. This is just more proof that the path to turning Florida blue runs directly through engaging and organizing this critical voting bloc. It also reinforces the notion that the next generation of Cuban Americans will be the difference-makers between four more years of Trump’s chaos and corruption and a president who will fight for our families.

Understanding that the Cuban-American community is not a monolith, the next generation has the power to fundamentally reshape the political landscape. Together, we can and must send a loud, clear message at the ballot box that the Republican Party does not have a carte blanche to attack our community and then count on our votes — at least not anymore.

Daniela Fernández is the national finance director at the Latino Victory Project.