Opinion: Not All Cubans Back Rubio

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Miguel Perez is a Cuban-American and he considers it insulting that people just assume he backs the political views of U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).
Perez writes at Creators.com,”As the Florida Republican senator becomes the voice for limiting immigration reform, as he puts Machiavellian conditions on a path to legalization, as he clearly puts the interests of his party before those of his own Hispanic community, mind you, not all Cuban-Americans feel proud of him.”
That lack of pride, Perez writes, also means that Cuban-Americans aren’t automatically backing a potential Rubio presidential candidacy. “If I dreaded the though of Mitt Romney in the White House, why would a Romney supporter appeal to me now? Especially when on most issues, tone deaf to the election results, Rubio still sounds like Romney?” Perez wrote.
The columnist also calls into doubt Rubio’s support of Latino beliefs. “He is not a Latino who happens to be Republican; he is a GOP ideologue who happens to be Latino. And there is a huge difference. Latino leaders fight to empower Latino voters, Republican leaders fight to keep minorities from voting.”
Rubio isn’t the key that unlocks the door to Latino support for the GOP, Perez opined. “If this is how Republicans expect to win back the Latino voters they have been loosing in recent elections, if they think they can do it with a Latino puppet who keeps following their anti-immigrant playbook, they still have a lot to learn.”


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