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My Cuban family fled a dictator. Now I’m scared they’ll elect Trump (www.independent.co.uk)

submitted 3 months ago by jeffw@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[-] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 79 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

You know what's great for getting Cuban votes in Miami? Supporting sanctions and starving out Cuba.

The gusano voting bloc is mutually exclusive with people who don't like starving foreign countries.

There may be hope for Cubans who fled in the 90s due to famine, but the social relations and economic and cultural history of the ones who fled either fearing the wrath of the people they'd exploited or seeking to restore the privilege they had pre-revolution are always going to vote for the fascists.

[-] Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The gusano

You know there's a way to make your point politically without using literal slurs right?

[-] Birbatron@slrpnk.net 29 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

This one confuses me, what's the basis for this being a slur? It's based in ideology, not race (given that it was invented by cubans for use on other cubans) or sexuality.

That would make Tankie a slur too, wouldn't it?

[-] goferking0@lemmy.sdf.org 10 points 3 months ago

Yes but they're okay with that one :/

[-] Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

what's the basis for this being a slur?

It's a slur just like "Uncle Tom" would be for conservative black Americans, it's not exclusively racial, but it has a nationalist and racialist element, that's added onto by ideology.

That would make Tankie a slur too, wouldn't it?

If Tankie was used like Gusano is, to justify violence and to persecute, then I would be against using it too.

The term was also prevalent in hate crimes against anti-revolutionary Cubans. In September or October 1961, over the course of a week, 12 deceased bodies were discovered over Havana with notes attached to them that said "gusanos with pro-revolutionary [ideologies], CIA agents

During the 1962 wildfires that destroyed sugarcane plantations, locals in Cubas were reported saying that "gusanos have infiltrated the canefields."[28] This led to quick military tribunals resulting in death by firing squad for "gusanos"

But no use of Tankie has ever neared how the Cuban government used Gusano to justify mass persecution of those unfriendly to the regime.

[-] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 16 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

During the 1962 wildfires that destroyed sugarcane plantations, locals in Cubas were reported saying that “gusanos have infiltrated the canefields.”[28] This led to quick military tribunals resulting in death by firing squad for “gusanos”

You mean when the CIA was bombing sugar plantations in Cuba?

https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MT19600310&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------

Calling someone a gusano is more like calling them a confederate traitor; it implies they want to return to a social order where most of the people were forced to work the fields and unable to leave.

It's not a hate crime to punch a nazi, same with someone advocating a return to slavery.

[-] YeetPics@mander.xyz 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Man, it's almost like their government gave land for a missile launch base or something at the end of a very long, cold war.

So weird someone would mistreat a neighbor innocently trying to provide a nuclear Holocaust.

Edit: here is the /s you weren't looking for. Be better lmao

[-] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 months ago

That has nothing at all to do with the US supporting terrorism against random civilians.

the end of a very long, cold war.

The cuban missile crisis was in 1962, near the start of the cold war.

But regarding the cuban missile crisis, the soviets stationed missiles in Cuba in response to the US stationing missiles in Turkey. The USSR agreed to remove their missiles from Cuba when the US agreed to remove their missiles from Turkey.

But sure the US had to bomb fields and machinery in Cuba, Cuba was coming right for them. Same reason they have to sanction them today, in case Cuba gets nuclear missiles again /s

[-] WanderingVentra@lemm.ee 3 points 3 months ago

They gave them a missile base after the US had already been sabotaging their fields, food, and electrical grids for years and sponsoring random terrorist attacks. Also, they had already attempted an invasion of Cuba by that point with the Bay of Pigs. Of course they freaking wanted help defending themselves. Or does that only apply to the US helping Israel but not the USSR helping other non-settler colonialist countries?

[-] eldavi@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 months ago

it blows my mind how much gusanos and evangelical chicanos & tejanos hold in common and i’m convinced that if they listened to the same music and spoke with the same accent; that they would be indistinguishable from each other.

[-] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 70 points 3 months ago

[-] Bernie_Sandals@lemmy.world 28 points 3 months ago

You understand that Castro went after than more than just slave owners right? It's super disingenuous to pretend that most of the 1.5 million people who have fled Cuba were slave owners.

[-] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

If they were fine with Batista being a military dictator, but drew the line at someone trying to upend his stint as one, I'm going to ask, why the military dictatorship didn't cause them to flee every time.

[-] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 21 points 3 months ago

You understand people fled Cuba not only because Castro was trying to take their plantation or Casino, but because the US has spent over have a century carrying out terrorist attacks and engineered a famine right?

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 69 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Cubans tend to vote conservative. They vote that way because the Republicans have done their usual job of non-stop messaging on Democrat = Commie Socialist.

Many fled Cuba because of castro’s communism, and they understandably don’t want that again. There’s the religious factor, as many of them are catholic and of course the republicans call the Dems “godless” or whatever too.

There’s also this perverse psychology where people from authoritarian and repressed countries move out to democratic countries and then suddenly miss “the good old days” where reductionist messaging and “strong man” leaders just told them they were strong and flexed at every opportunity, but blamed everyone else when that strength wasn’t effective. Beat those protesters and jail them, send the military to the borders, arrest anyone who doesn’t conform. They want the authoritarian back. And the republicans offer that populist messaging of the strong man who is going to kick everyone’s ass, including the ones in your own country who don’t fit “the norm”. I’ve worked with emigrées (?sp) from both Cuba and Russia and it never ceases to both anger and baffle me that they ran away from shitty, awful dictators and then turn around and want the same thing here in the US.

[-] No_Ones_Slick_Like_Gaston@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 5 points 3 months ago

I have no idea what you’re trying to say in context. Which part is communism?

[-] No_Ones_Slick_Like_Gaston@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

Sorry dude, my bad, that image is a "miami thing" where anything from libraries to taxes used to level the playing field are received with that phrase from Cuban/Nicaraguan/Venezuelan diaspora even clean initiatives and all in between with the exception of Parking and tolls.

[-] Decoy321@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Can confirm, it's fuckin obnoxious.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Yeah, gotcha. That certainly follows.

[-] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 3 months ago

I’ve worked with emigrées (?sp) from both Cuba and Russia and it never ceases to both anger and baffle me that they ran away from shitty, awful dictators and then turn around and want the same thing here in the US.

smells to me like it's probably related to the psychology behind prolonged abusive relationships, or people continually getting into abusive relationships.

[-] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

There’s the religious factor, as many of them are catholic and of course the republicans call the Dems “godless”

As if the Republican evangelicals actually had anything to do with christianism.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

It's not about what they actually do, it's about how they make you feel about what they say.

[-] Furbag@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

It just surprises me that this messaging is so effective when Trump would love nothing more than to send every brown person living in Florida straight to Cuba, American citizen or otherwise. It's a very strange sort of political climate where people who fear being deported back to Cuba are voting for the party promising mass deportations because... they don't like abortion? I can't quite wrap my head around it.

[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

When the axe came into the woods, many of the trees said, "At least the handle is one of us.”

[-] bdonvr@thelemmy.club 56 points 3 months ago

Anticommunists are right-wingers, more news at 11.

[-] kava@lemmy.world 23 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

That's a nice part of accepting refugees from a state like Cuba. You pretty much get to selectively import the right-wing elements of their population.

Similar effect happens with Venezuelans. The ones who can afford to uproot their lives are also more likely to align ideologically with US politics.

I used to work with a lot of Cubans. My favorites were the old ones. They would tell me stories about living in Cuba under Castro back in the day. One thing that I always found interesting is how they said they were happier. It might just be nostalgia but I've heard from older people from Soviet areas too.

Life was slower and as long as you did your job certain things were guaranteed to you. In a capitalist system you have infinitely more purchasing power but they would make the analogy of addiction. In the US you are addicted to money so you need to work a lot more to pay the bills.

Whereas in Cuba you spend a lot more time idle and just living life, even if you're not able to purchase common items we consider essential. (Some days you go to store and there's no shoes, next day there's no bread, etc)

My least favorite were the 2nd generation ones. Like Marco Rubio. They don't understand the struggle but feel intensely like they do. Very strong opinions with very little nuance. I've met my fair share.

[-] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 24 points 3 months ago

WatchMojo's Top 10 gusano moments

[-] jerkface@lemmy.ca 16 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The Democratic candidates are not even leftist.

[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

If you break it down on a policy by policy basis (is this policy leftist?) like dems are certainly not leftist. People conflate being "left of republicans" with being "leftist" even though a lot of their positions are quite centrist.

[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 16 points 3 months ago

tfw petty burgeois are mad that communism took their oligopolies

[-] nifty@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

Citizens and immigrants need to be provided mandatory civics education, especially adults

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 months ago

Hmm maybe these things are connected!

[-] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 3 months ago

It's not like Bautista wasn't a dictator, so the question becomes why didn't they flee the dictator that allowed you to have slaves instead of the one that wanted every Cuban to have a house and be able to read.

[-] Leviathan@lemmy.world 9 points 3 months ago

Do they also support ending the embargo?

[-] jadedwench@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

I am terrified to talk to mine about politics. Even though the Suarez's are cool as shit, when it comes to Trump it is like I am talking to a bunch of terrified children.

[-] MediaBiasFactChecker@lemmy.world 8 points 3 months ago

The Independent - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)

Information for The Independent:

MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: Medium - Factual Reporting: Mixed - United Kingdom
Wikipedia about this source

Search topics on Ground.News

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cuban-latino-vote-trump-republicans-b2590277.html

~Media~ ~Bias~ ~Fact~ ~Check~ ~|~ ~bot~ ~support~

[-] ABCDE@lemmy.world 23 points 3 months ago

Credibility: Medium - Factual Reporting: Mixed

Can we get rid of this shitty bot?

[-] criticon@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 months ago

Just block it

[-] NobodyElse@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 months ago

That’s not good enough. Threads like this show up in the comment count and give the appearance of activity on a post even when there is none.

[-] WhyFlip@lemmy.world 7 points 3 months ago

Stupid is as stupid does.

[-] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Reminder.

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/10/02/most-cuban-american-voters-identify-as-republican-in-2020/

The calls are coming from inside the house.

[-] KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 months ago

i hope for most people who fled, that they would be able to vote. This is why america exists after all.

on a sidenote, i would be curious to ask maga people about what they think people moving from authoritarian or dictator type governments would think about trump. But then again they have such aggressive cognitive dissonance they'd be confused why they aren't voting for trump.

this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2024

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