Coral Gables Orlando
 | |
| Era | The Nineties |
|---|---|
| Age | 50-65 |
| Home | Coral Gables, FL |
| Demographic | Cuban-American, exile, commercial property |
| Lean | Strong Republican |
| Race | hispanic |
| Successor | Hialeah Gladys |
Orlando is a Cuban exile who came to Miami as a boy after the Cuban revolution and now sells commercial property. He is the firmest Republican among the cast's Hispanic voters, and for him politics comes down to one issue, opposition to Fidel Castro.
Who they stand for
Orlando stands for the Cuban exile community of South Florida, the first wave of exiles who left the island between 1959 and the early 1960s. This community has voted Republican since the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and is the anchor of the Republican Party in Miami-Dade County. The Cuban American National Foundation, led by Jorge Mas Canosa, shaped Cuba policy under presidents of both parties. President Bush signed the Cuban Democracy Act in 1992 after Clinton had endorsed it in Miami, and President Clinton signed the Helms-Burton Act in 1996 after Cuban military jets shot down two aircraft flown by exiles. The Elián González affair, which ended with an armed federal raid to seize the boy in April 2000, turned the community against the Clinton administration, and George W. Bush carried Florida that November by only 537 votes, a margin the Cuban vote swinging against the Democrats helps explain. This position weakens with distance from the island. Hialeah Gladys inherits Orlando's anti-communism, reinforced by the Elián González affair and the Iraq War. Miami Maria directs the same anti-communism at Senator Bernie Sanders, but supports abortion rights, a position Orlando would not hold.
Playing to them
Orlando is won by hostility toward the Cuban government and by almost nothing else. Keeping the trade embargo, enforcing the Helms-Burton Act, funding Radio and TV Martí, accepting Cuban rafters rather than returning them, and a president who calls Fidel Castro a dictator without softening the word, all hold his support, and such a president is forgiven almost any domestic policy in return. He does not forgive engagement with the Castro government. Loosening the embargo, meeting with Castro, returning a Cuban child to the island, or a federal raid in Miami's Little Havana all end his support, and he treats the word socialism used in any domestic programme as the same kind of betrayal.
Orlando is cheap to keep, and few personas in the cast oppose him directly. Scarsdale Ellen and Madison Steph think the embargo has failed, Dot-Com Drew wants to trade with Cuba, and Castro Marty resents Orlando's closeness to the Catholic Church. What winning Orlando costs is mainly the president's attention and time; Country Club Chip, Plano Kimberly, Lejeune Dustin and Bayou Earl come along with his support at no additional cost.
Where they live
The five states where Coral Gables Orlando makes up the largest share of the electorate in the nineties:
- New Mexico
- Texas
- Florida
- Arizona
- California
Lineage
Coral Gables Orlando → Hialeah Gladys → Miami Maria
Cuban-American anti-communists, one step weaker in each generation as the distance from Cuba grows. For Orlando, who left Cuba as a child, Castro decides every issue. For Gladys the anti-communism is inherited from her parents and confirmed by the Elián case and the Iraq war. For Maria, Castro is dead and the anti-communism is directed at Bernie Sanders and at anyone who uses the word socialism. Their Catholicism weakens at the same rate: Maria supports abortion rights, which Orlando and Gladys would never say. Strong Republican, then strong Republican, then lean Republican.