Word: havana
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...Democratic Opening in Little Havana, 1 p.m. E.T. Putting a finger to his lips, Heriberto Basurto says he always keeps his political thoughts to himself. That's because the 78-year-old tailor lives in Little Havana, where it's easy to get shouted down if you don't embrace the Republican preferences of the conservative Cuban exile community. But in recent years the demographics of working-class Little Havana have been changing dramatically - and non-Cuban Latinos like Basurto, who hails from Guayaquil, Ecuador, don't feel so much like the minority they were when he arrived in this...
...this overcast election morning in Miami, Basurto, in a neatly pressed shirt and golf cap, was one of the seniors sitting at the Obama campaign office in Little Havana waiting for a ride to the polls to cast a ballot in his first U.S. election. "I like this fellow Obama," he said in Spanish. "I agree with my daughter that it's time for a change around here, and he seems to have a more open mind than McCain." Basurto, who doesn't exactly hail from Ecuador's lily-white élite, is also pleased by the fact that Obama...
...just non-Cuban Latinos who are changing Little Havana's politics. A half-century after Fidel Castro took power in Cuba, younger and more moderate Cuban-Americans are coming to the fore in Miami - and their votes could be critical to whether or not Obama upsets McCain in Florida, the nation's largest swing state. One of the young volunteers waiting to transport elderly Obama voters is Hector Martinez, 21, a film major at Miami-Dade College who feels an uncanny bond with Obama...
...Like Obama, Hector never really knew his father, a Cuban-born radiologist who died when Hector was a toddler. Raised by his mother, a nurse, Hector says he also feels close to his grandmother, who is in her 80s and still lives in Havana. But the tighter Cuba travel restrictions that President Bush imposed in 2004 means Hector can't visit his abuela as much as he used to - and he's voting for Obama in part because the Illinois Senator has promised to revoke the travel rules. "I've been thinking about that a lot since I heard Obama...
...might be right: at nearby polling sites like the Little Havana Housing Project 1, the long early morning lines that are usually close to 100% Republican sported a rare mix, perhaps 60-40, of McCain and Obama supporters. Even so, Basurto says he's still not telling anyone in his neighborhood whom he voted for until he sees the results tonight. "Mejor para ahora quedarme quieto," he says - better to stay quiet for now. - By Tim Padgett / Miami