Supporters and protesters gathered in front of Trump National Doral resort on Friday, where President Donald Trump spoke at a Latinos for Trump roundtable.
NW 87th Avenue was politically divided between the two groups. About 25 Trump supporters rallied at the corner directly in front of the property.
Tera Chaparro, a 36-year-old Pembroke Pines resident, said she and her husband Frank support Trump and everything he stands for. What attracts them the most about the president is his pro-life stance and protection of the Second Amendment, she said.
Chaparro said she is upset that other Latinos are choosing to vote for Biden.
“There’s a lot of people that have dealt with communism and socialism, like in Venezuela and Cuba, and they’re siding with Biden,” she said. “I feel like they’re brainwashed. I don’t know what’s going on in their heads.”
She also said Trump is doing a great job at handling the coronavirus pandemic.
“If he knows certain things that are going on in the world that we don’t know, behind closed doors, then we have to follow the leader. He’s there for a reason," she said.
Daniela Ferrera, along with about 20 other protesters, stood across the street chanting, “Vote him out.”
Ferrera, 22, is a former Republican who switched party lines following the 2016 presidential election. She said that the president is not an ally of the Cuban-American community.
Ferrera criticized Trump’s trips to South Florida. She said she views his visits to Doral and drinking cafecitos in Little Havana as publicity and political stunts.
“What we’ve seen in the last four years is continuous exploitation by Donald Trump and the Republicans of the Cuban-American community,” Ferrera said. “They exploit our trauma for votes.”
Ferrera co-founded Cubanos Con Biden, a political organization that has over 12,000 members on Facebook.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm … for Joe Biden, because we know that with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, we actually have allies,” Ferrera said.
Ferrera refutes the argument some Latino Republicans claim regarding the Biden campaign following communist ideals.
“There is not a socialist or a communist bone in Joe Biden at all,” she said.
Ferrera said that Cubanos Con Biden does not stand for a socialist agenda – they simply want a president that can bring people together and solve the country’s problems.
Daisy Pelaez, a 66-year-old Cuban American, grew up and raised her children in Miami. Although she has some conservative views, she doesn’t plan on voting for Trump in November.
One of the major issues she has with the president is his strategy of dividing the country, a tactic she said was used by Fidel Castro.
“I’m not going to stand here and hear a president say ‘I’m not going to accept the election.’ This is not this country,” Pelaez said. “This country is freedom, and everybody has the right to express themselves.”
While looking at the other side of the street, Pelaez emphasized that she doesn’t hate Trump supporters, but she expects them to respect her views too. She said she’s been called a communist multiple times while protesting throughout Miami.
“I don’t think it’s necessary to insult one in another, it's kind of ridiculous,” she said. “They don't want to get in the middle. That’s what happened to this country – nobody’s in the middle. It’s the right, and the left.”
