MIAMI — Lin-Manuel Miranda stood in a Coral Gables courtyard. The walls behind him read “Censorship leaves us in the dark,” with a list of banned books printed in black paint.
“You may be wondering, why is Lin-Manuel Miranda in front of a bookstore in Florida on a Thursday?” he quipped, his tone shifting seconds later. “Well, the reality is what happens in Florida affects the rest of the United States.”
On Thursday morning, Books & Books hosted a Latino Victory voting rally featuring Miranda, the songwriter, actor, producer and director best known for the Broadway musicals “Hamilton” and “In the Heights.” At the event, he endorsed several local and state candidates, including state Sen. Annette Taddeo, who is running against U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, and Karla Hernandez Mats, who is running for lieutenant governor alongside gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist.
“I know why you’re here, 'cause I read the news too,” he said. “And I know you’re sick of the political stunts being played with our people.”
The rally was Florida Democrats’ first high-profile event, an effort to garner Latino support before early voting begins Oct. 24. Election Day is Nov. 8.
The candidates endorsed at the event would represent a Florida unlike the one today, where the governor uses Venezuelans as political pawns and sends them to Martha’s Vineyard and New York, said Luis Miranda, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s father, who is also a chairman of Latino Victory.
“We have many candidates that represent the future of our community,” he said in Spanish at the Coral Gables event. “But not only of the Latino community, but of Florida.”
When Taddeo was considering running for her seat in 2017, many told her not to bother. And when she did, she was told she wouldn’t win.
“Don’t tell a Latina she can’t do something,” Taddeo joked. “Latino Victory was there with me every step of the way, and we made history (when) nobody thought we were going to win.”
In Taddeo’s eyes, this election will be the same, though even more important. She mentioned her opponent, who she nicknamed “la mentirosa” or “the liar,” because, she said, Salazar has claimed that Taddeo doesn’t support freedom.
“You can’t be for freedom in Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela if you’re not going to defend our freedom and our democracy here in the United States of America,” Taddeo said.
Hernandez-Mats had a similar message for voters. Freedom is on the line during this election, and American democracy is fragile, she said, pointing to the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. She also took swings at one of her opponents, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“He’s anti-everything,” she said. “He’s anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ+. There’s a lot at stake here, we know as educators. He’s banning books.”
While Florida Democrats haven’t hosted large rallies, which Hernandez-Mats said was due to Hurricane Ian, the Latino community is distraught by what they’ve been witnessing. And the Thursday campaign event, she told the Miami Herald, was to urge Hispanics to vote and understand the power of their right and of their voice.
“Our Latino community is with their eyes wide open,” she said. “They’re seeing that they’re being played, that they’re just political pawns. And they’re angry.”
———
