The John F. Kennedy Library, with its vibrant murals and sculptures, was the backdrop to a political feud in its parking lot on Election Day. The library is located in Hialeah, a city with a large Cuban-American population, and generally a Republican stronghold. In the last presidential election, though, Hillary Clinton got more voters there than Barack Obama did, and this election, the tension simmered at the polling place.
At times, voters had to speak over the salsa music, megaphones and honking that aimed to drown out opposing opinions.
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Carolina Hidalgo McCabe, who voted for the first time, stood near a table with signs from "Cubanos con Biden." She took a semester off from college in Boston to get out the vote with the Miami Freedom Project on Election Day.
"We need action regarding the climate," she told WLRN about her support for Joe Biden. "I’m terrified for the future of this planet if we have a president that doesn’t believe the scientists. We need a leader who implements a mask mandate. We need a leader who prepares our hospitals to insure they have enough [personal protective equipment] and to have a president that lifts up the voices of immigrants would be incredibly powerful."
Carmen Pelaez agreed, speaking to WLRN about her experience as the daughter of Cuban immigrants as a reason to want to help other immigrants who aspire to move to the U.S.
"This country opened its arms to Cubans. The speed at which Cuban Trump supporters want to close the door, speaks to the nationalism, the racism, that they learned in Cuba, and it speaks to what they learned under a dictatorship," Pelaez said. "That is not acceptable."
She and a group of friends, including Hidalgo-McCabe, were going from polling place to polling place with pastelitos, plantain chips and water for people and, she added, as a tribute to a friend of theirs who died, Cuban American Democratic political organizer Patrick Hidalgo — whose family has been calling on state health officials to count his sudden death earlier this year as caused by COVID-19.
On the other end of the parking lot, Elio Ramos sat in his car after voting. He said he supports Trump and wants him to "start eradicating the problems caused by the pandemic, give a vaccine for free to the public and keep the economy on the upswing."
Carlos Garín stood with a group of Cuban-American veterans. He told WLRN his top concerns are social issues.
"The most important thing, in the first place, is the right to life, the right to childhood, the right of our children," he said, adding that Democrats support abortion rights, which he opposes.
Other Cuban Americans near him said they disapprove of any warming of relations with Cuba. Trump has turned back the Cuba engagement policy of the Obama administration and in this election, Trump received the majority of Florida's Cuban-American vote.
