A close relative placed a post on her Facebook page recently that urged her friends to do the following: “Don’t damage friendships over politicians who don’t even know your name.  You can have differing political views and still treat each other with kindness and respect.”  A lofty ideal to aim for but unworkable in today’s political climate.

It is a fact that the majority of politicians have no clue of your name or your background.  To belong to the club where you are treated as best pals with elected officials, you must send them a contribution of $1,000 or higher.  The more you give, the more you are treated as blood relatives.  Nevertheless, it is your faceless vote that they seek, and you should do the proper research before you cast it.  Even if you give them a hefty financial contribution, there is not guarantee that they will help you in your hour of need.  To be influenced in your decisions by political lightweights like Taylor Swift or Robert De Niro is to put democracy and your futures in jeopardy.

When I lived in Cuba BC (Before Castro), my mother told me that she and most of her family opted to not get involved in politics because it was dirty business.  Yes, there were many chicaneries orchestrated by Cuban politicians – which ultimately led to a communist take-over of the country by Fidel Castro and his cabal of leftist deplorables.  But this is precisely why turning your back to the corruption of politicians is lethal.  The Cuban population has suffered a 65-year totalitarian dictatorship that has brought them nothing but hardships and a lack of the most basic civil rights — and which has forced millions to vote with their feet by emigrating to the United States.  Thus, if you are a Cuban-American, you – of all groups – should be fully reminded of the title that I chose for my book “Examining the Past to Understand the Present.”  Ignoring the past will bring back the same insanity that they fled from!

Today’s Democrats are in the habit of urging for unity and civility when dealing with those with differing political views.  Joe Biden appealed to the better angels in our nature in his 2021 inauguration speech to bring the country together by uniting Americans.  But during a 2022 speech in Philadelphia, Joe labeled former President Trump and the MAGA Republicans as extremists who threated the very foundations of the Nation.  Candidate Kamala Harris has said that Trump represents a threat to democracy and our fundamental freedoms, and that he will be a dictator if he gets elected to a second term.

But let’s get real.  Today’s Democrats and Kamala Harris are the only ones who represent a threat to our democracy.  Take for example that Kamala received no votes after she withdrew from the first primary in Iowa during the 2020 campaign, and yet she was put at the head of the 2024 Democrat ticket by party elitist who are disconnected from the wishes of their base.  A bevy of party politicians removed Biden from the ticket despite the fact that he received 14 million votes.  Therefore, Kamala was selected.  Not elected.  And this process mirrors the one used by third-world, banana republics like Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.  Today’s Democrats are the ones disenfranchising the wishes of 14 million of their supporters. Democracy has no other meaning to them than a pathway to gain or retain power.  How undemocratic of them!

Today’s Democrats claim that electing Kamala Harris to the Oval Office will be making history.  I am always leery of paying too much attention to “first’s.”  Many Catholics are regretful of the first Hispanic Pope as many of his policies run counter to Biblical teachings.  For example, Pope Francis claimed erroneously before a Singapore audience in September 2024 that “all” religions lead to the same God – bypassing John 14:6 quote of Jesus Christ saying “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  Being the first Pope should take a back seat to following Biblical precedents.  Similarly, electing Kamala Harris to the White House simply because of her gender would be a serious mistake – especially when many in the Democratic Party claim to ignore what a woman is.  Kamala has clearly demonstrated by her record that she is the most unqualified vice president in the Nation’s history.  Her flip-flops on policy issues demonstrate the vacuousness of her beliefs.  Her previous positions on price control, open borders, Medicare, and taxes show that her core principles are Marxist-influenced to replace capitalism with an all-socialist, big-government-controlled economy.

There are some Americans that while disliking Kamala refuse to pull the lever for Trump on November 5^th.  Their claim is that they can’t stomach Trump’s personality.  But who’s running the country in the next four years has nothing to do with personality traits.  It has everything to do with getting things done.  No one is asking any voter to go out on a date with Trump.  It is up to Melania to like or dislike her husband’s personality.  What matters is whether the next president will enact policies that will make America energy-independent, lower the price of gasoline and groceries, restore respect to the U.S. by our adversaries, lower interest rates, enhance safety in neighborhoods, and honor our Judeo-Christian values and traditions.   It has everything to do with putting Americans’ first in line, rather than “illegal immigrants.”

Today’s Democrats have called the 74 million MAGA Republicans who voted for Trump in the 2020 election by various pejoratives: deplorables, irredeemables, racists.  Their dislike for MAGA Republicans is solely based on the differences in their political ideology.  Rather than engaging or tolerating differing viewpoints, they opt to cancel them from society.  Honest disagreements become calls to destroy the enemy.  It doesn’t matter if those treated as the enemy are family members.  From the first inkling of MAGA sympathies, they become pariahs to other family members and to society at large.  And these enforcers find support from the fake-media outlets, from some online platforms, and even from several elected officials who should know better.

So, I urge my MAGA compatriots to stop paying attention to the sirens’ song to unity and peaceful Kumbaya by today’s Democrats and well-meaning but ignorant Good Samaritans.  We got a job to do on November 5^th.  The choices in this coming election are between freedom or slavery, capitalism or socialism, Christianity or atheism.  There is too much at stake for the survival of our Nation to be worried about turning the other cheek.  These are the times for action and not for embracing the tranquilizing drug of a don’t worry/be joyful mindset.

I leave you with a famous quote by former President Ronald Reagan: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.  We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream.  It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” MAGA warriors.  This is your time.  This is your duty.  Elect Donald J. Trump and other Republicans on November 5^th! Your children and grandchildren will owe you a huge debt of gratitude!  

It’s a terrible thing when leaders delay making important decisions.  They prefer to follow the easy path of keeping the status quo.  But kicking the can down the road brings out unintended consequences that are costlier in financial resources and human lives.

German Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer realized that the German Christians were in automatic-pilot mode in the 1930’s and tried assiduously to issue a wake-up call.  He was a pioneer in seeing the devastation that Adolph Hitler could bring to his homeland, its civilization, its reputation, and Jews.  He became famous for the quote “only the person who cries out for the Jews may sing Gregorian chants.

Another German Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemöller, immortalized the quote “Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew.  Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.”  Both pastors paid a heavy price for their convictions – Niemöller and Bonhoeffer were imprisoned, and the latter paid with his life. 

Isn’t it our moral obligation to defend Americans who are demonized as “white nationalists” by the Marxist woke crowds in the United States — in the same way that many fought discrimination against minority groups? The Marxist model of oppressor/oppressed is conveniently misused to attack Americans who are blameless to have been born “white.”  Don’t Christians pay homage to a God who is colorblind? Don’t civil rights laws and regulation forbid discrimination against any group? Niemöller and Bonhoeffer would have plenty to say on this issue if they were still alive. 

The German Christians were content with attending church, reciting their prayers, listening to sermons that addressed the Gospel, and embracing a mentality that encompassed the separation of church and state.  To them, the church was not a place where politics got mixed with religion.  Their myopic vision resulted in over 6M Jews killed by the Nazis in concentration camps and 40-50M casualties worldwide in World War II.  A heavy price to pay that could have been prevented if the German Christians had been energized to derail the ascension of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis to power!

It is incumbent on all religious leaders to address political issues in their sermons.  Nevertheless, I am aware of the damage that the Johnson Amendment of 1954 caused by prohibiting 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations from supporting or opposing political organizations in the United States. I can see where this amendment would disincentivize religious leaders from having any involvement with politics to protect their tax-exempt status.  But President Trump signed the “Presidential Executive Order Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty” in 2017 that stopped the enforcement of the Johnson Amendment against churches (although not repealing the Amendment).  Despite the new day brought about by President Trump, Archbishop William E. Lori made the following comment on the 2017 amendment: “”As a general rule, it is not a good idea for churches to engage in partisan politics. I believe that, generally, that proves to be a great distraction from our central task and mission, which is to preach the Gospel. Furthermore, I think it would have a tendency to unnecessarily divide our congregations.“

For Christ’s sake, pastors and priests can stay within the parameters of these laws by educating their parishioners about political issues that impact their freedoms and liberties without endorsing a specific political campaign.  In other words, religious leaders should rely solely on education and allow informed parishioners to make their own decisions at the ballot box.  Don’t they understand that fully-informed Christians make the best voters? It’s not rocket science!

Archbishop Lori’s tunnel vision should be corrected with new prescription glasses that direct him to the words of Apostle James (Santiago) in James 2:14, 18-26:

“What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? … But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.”  Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  You believe that God is one; you do well.  Even the demons believe – and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” – and he was called a friend of God.  You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.  And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”

Archbishop Lori is not alone in his delusion of keeping politics away from the pulpit.  The majority of priests and bishops follow his lead.  And this mindset is deadly at a time when Catholics, Christians, and Jews are under attack during the Biden administration.

After the issuance of the Dobbs decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in the summer of 2022, churches became a target of secular mobs. Broken windows, churches set on fire, worshippers harangued at services, graffiti sprayed on wall, hammer-bashing religious statues became commonplace. But help was not to be expected from the Biden bureaucracy. Rather than criminalizing attacks on places of worship, Bishop Barry Knestout of the Diocese of Richmond called on members of Congress from Virginia in February of 2023 to publicly condemn a leaked FBI memorandum that sought to link Catholics to violent extremists. All of a sudden, the victims got turned into the victimizers!

According to the leaked FBI memo, “radical-traditional” Catholics who were interested in the Traditional Latin Mass were likely to have ties to “the far-right white nationalist movement.” This process is a continuation of former President Obama’s mindset after referring to blue-collar workers in Pennsylvania in 2011 as those who cling to their “guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment.”  It is obvious that Christians have been under attack under the Obama and the Biden administrations.  This is hard to believe after considering that Obama claims to be a Christian and Biden a Catholic — but perhaps this is illustrative of the doubletalk that most politicians are used to to get votes. 

American’s freedoms and liberties are under attack by powerful and well-funded atheistic globalist and Marxist organizations that thrive on pushing radical transgender, pro-abortion, and critical race theories to supplant our Judeo-Christian traditions.  All of these ideologies are anti-God, anti-human, and anti-civil rights. Unfortunately, the bureaucracy in the Catholic Church has a Pope Francis who reprimands and punishes prominent conservative American churchmen – like Cardinal Raymond Burke and Texas Bishop Joseph Strickland. Considering that the Pope is the CEO of the Catholic Church, there are not many priests, bishops, and cardinals who are willing to challenge his anti-Biblical views.  In fact, Pope Francis has not much use for what he calls “backward” conservatives who have replaced faith with ideology.   

Pope Francis does not realize that what he calls “faith and ideology” are the same things that Apostle James called “faith and works.”  The ideology that Pope Francis militates against is the one found in the Bible.   

I remind everyone that doing the right thing often takes guts and a willingness to go against the status quo.  But the world becomes a better place when these luminaries defy the odds and make a difference. 

When former President Reagan traveled to West Berlin in 1987, Chief of Staff Howard Baker and General Colin Powell discouraged him from including in his speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate the following famous line: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” They advised the President that it would be extreme and unpresidential.  And yet, President Reagan went ahead and pronounced the famous line.  And the result was the falling down of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.   

So, what are American Catholics and Christians to do in the middle of a war against our religious traditions and founding documents?  

Stop attending and funding churches whose leaders have abdicated their responsibility to preach to their parishioners that the time is now to fight the Marxist insurgents who have declared war on Catholics.   

Attend churches whose leaders believe that the integration of politics and the Gospel are necessary to prevent catastrophes from happening in the future. 

Rather than offering financial support to churches who drop the ball by not addressing politics, channel your contributions to charitable organizations that support veterans, first responders, and conservatives. 

Kicking the can down the road is not a good policy – especially when the survival of America and Western Civilization are at stake!!!

Jorge E. Ponce is the author of “Examining the Past to Understand the Present” — which is currently available in hardback, paperback, and Kindle edition at Amazon.com.

I spent two weeks vacationing throughout Spain and just came back to the U.S.

I’d like to share some of my impressions of the country for friends who have never visited España or for those who may want to explore this part of the Iberian Peninsula.

But first, a disclosure.

I did not want to visit Spain.  As a Cuban-American who is very nationalistic, I resented the killing of the Cuban patriots like Martí, Maceo, Céspedes, and Agramonte when Cuba fought its War of Independence against Spain in the 19^th century.   This goes back in history, I acknowledge that.  But Spain has been one of the European countries that has invested heavily in Communist Cuba in the 20^th and 21^st centuries – business ventures that help prolong the suffering of Cubans and which are accessible only to those with foreign currencies. 

But I had to deal with an ultimatum that my wife gave me: “I’m going to Spain with you or without you.”  Well, I’m a sensible man who did not want to run the risk of my wife meeting a Don Quijote de la Mancha or an Antonio Banderas — and forgetting that I was still an inhabitant of Planet Earth.

I’m glad that I followed my wife’s advice.  I loved Spain.  Spaniards were a lot of fun to have around and were very courteous. 

In fact, I learned that a lot of what Cubans are like have their origins in Spain. Take for example the Spanish spoken by Cubans.  Words that are common in the Cuban vocabulary, I found them used in Spain: timbiriche (a small business establishment), botica (a pharmacy), atolondrada (a scatter-brained person), torreja (a Cuban French toast), tocino del cielo (a baked egg and caramel dessert).

And it’s a must when serving breakfast to Cubans to provide “churros con chocolate.” And being related on my mother’s “Cepeda” side to the Catholic Saint Teresa of Jesus, I made it a point to visit Ávila – where she was from. I was also pleasantly surprised that there was a traditional Spanish cake in Segovia with a name close to my Ponce surname: “Ponche Segoviano” – a layer cake that looks like a big rectangle of custard and marzipan that are topped with caramelized sugar, and which is decorated with a criss-cross design. It brought back memories when our son was very young and would call his grandfather “Ponche Ponche.”

Spain has been ruled by many conquerors throughout its history: Iberians, Celts, Greeks, Romans, Visigoths, and Moors (Arabs).  Therefore, you will find Spaniards with different physical appearances and ethnicities in today’s Spain.  When the Catholic monarchs – Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand – defeated and expelled the last bastion of Moors territory in Granada in 1492, the Kingdom of Spain was created.  Jews were given the option to convert to Catholicism or face deportation. 

The Catholic Church played a very important role with the Spanish rulers.  The opulent altars and chapels in most Spanish churches were bankrolled with royal funds and those donated by aristocratic families.  When reading about the death-sentences issued by the Spanish Inquisition with the support of the Spanish rulers, I got a better appreciation for the soundness of the separation of church and state in the U.S. Constitution.

Most of the Catholic cathedrals and churches were built on top of the Muslim mosques after 1492.  The beautiful Mesquita of Córdoba is the exception — as a Catholic cathedral was built inside the Mesquita.  From an aesthetic and architectural perspective, I was more impressed with the Mesquita than with the Hagia Sophia Mosque in Istanbul, Turkiye. The latter was at one time a Greek-Orthodox cathedral, then a museum, and a mosque after President Erdogan converted it to a mosque in 2020.  When visiting it, I was upset that the Muslims had removed or covered up all vestiges of Christian frescoes or sculptures.  Upon visiting Spain now, I found out that the Catholics were no different than the Muslims in this regard. The saying that power corrupts is very true.

One of the many things that bothered me when my family emigrated to the United States is that the Cuban authorities forced them to turn over all their personal belongings and properties to the Cuban Government without offering any compensation. In my opinion, this is the equivalent of highway robbery! But the Christian authorities in Spain did the same thing with the Jews.  Those who did not convert to Catholicism were deported and their personal belongings and properties were turned over to the Spanish crown without offering any compensation to pay for the Reconquista of the Moors in 1492. 

One of the main cultural sites in Valencia is the City of Arts and Sciences – an entertainment-based complex designed by architect Santiago Calatrava – who followed the architectural designs of Antoni Gaudi (the famous architect who designed the famous La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona).  Talking about a beautiful modern design, this complex is unique.  While the local tour guide mentioned an upcoming concert in this complex of “reggaeton” music, he made a comment that resonated with me deeply.  He said that this type of music gave him a headache! I agree that it is an abomination to use “music” with “reggaeton.”

When asking around for the most popular dinner entrée, many suggested “paella” – while others pointed out that the one made in Valencia was the best one.  Thus, when I was at a restaurant in Málaga, I asked the waiter to describe what was in this paella.  To my great surprise, he indicated that it was made with rabbit and chicken.  Come on! – I said, as the paella that I was used to eating in Cuba came only with seafood.  The waiter said that I could order a “seafood” paella – but he clarified that the shrimp on it came with the shell and head.  This was totally unacceptable, as I don’t like to dirty my hands when eating dinner.  Finally, he said that what I should order was the “pelada” paella (with all the seafood served without the shells or heads).  I took his advice, and loved it.

But make no mistake about it.  Spain has some of the best restaurants in the world per the 2024 list compiled by The World’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy — with “Disfrutar” in Barcelona being ranked number 1, and Asador Etxebarri in the Basque Country ranked no. 2. You just have to know what you are ordering and their prices.

One of the most popular fish on the menus is “hake” or “merluza.” I remembered when the Soviet Union shipped merluzas when I lived in Cuba to relieve the food shortages, and Cubans were not impressed with them.  After looking at what they looked like at the San Miguel Market in Madrid (they look like eels) and having a tourist offer me a sample of one (too fishy taste), I stayed away from them.

American writer Ernest Hemingway popularized bullfighting to his readers in his novel “The Sun Also Rises.” The Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona with the running of the bulls are highlighted in the novel.  Hemingway idolizes the matador as an individual who confronts the existential challenge of death – which he vanquishes only if he kills the bull. He views the bullring favorably as a war with precise rules as opposed to the messiness of the real war where everything goes.  While I don’t think that I would spend my time in a bullring, who I am to judge a long-lasting Spanish tradition.

I’ve often heard about “The Camino de Santiago” when I visited France, and now when I was in Spain.  Someone explained to me that it was a pilgrimage leading to the shrine in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia where one of Christ’s apostles was buried.  However, I had difficulty in figuring out whether Christ had an apostle with the name of Santiago.  I did not know of any. Upon further research, I found out that this Santiago was no other than the Apostle James.

I insisted on visiting the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) near Madrid – the monument ordered by Generalisimo Francisco Franco to be constructed between 1940-1958 to honor the Republican and Nationalist victims of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). It’s ironic that Spaniards who fought for the socialists were called “Republicans,” while the nationalists were the conservatives and traditionalists.  While the site was used as Franco’s burial place after his death in November 1975, his remains were exhumed on October 24, 2019 by the socialist government.  When I stopped by the gift shop to purchase a book on the history of this monument, the sales clerk informed me that the socialist Spanish Government had banned the sale of “all” books related to this monument.  I responded that the Spanish socialists would not be able to ban my purchasing a book from the Amazon portal after returning to the United States. I refuse to allow any person or any government to prevent me from becoming more educated on any subject.  I don’t let anyone or any group do the thinking for me. This incident should serve as a reminder that censorship is a weapon that “all” socialist governments have in their arsenals. 

There were many reasons why Spain was late in joining the Industrial Revolution.  Key among these was the political instability throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries triggered by civil wars, revolutions, and changes in government which hampered an adequate environment for investment and industrialization.  All this instability also caused a mass exodus of workers to other industrialized nations like England, France, and Germany – as well as to former colonies like Cuba.  There are better ways to solve disputes than by relying on wars.  Unfortunately, many countries have not learned this wise lesson — even today.  Two famous Spanish painters carried this message across to their canvases:  Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” and Francisco Goya’s “The Second of May 1808.”

Because of the current wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, tourism – a very important component of the Spanish economy – has increased by 300%.  Thus, tourists need to plan their trips well in advance and most importantly, buy the tickets to important sites many months before visiting Spain.  It’s practically impossible to get tickets to visit the inside of “La Sagrada Familia” in Barcelona if you wait until the last minute. 

Spaniards are very unhappy with the tax rates in their country.  For non-residents, incomes are taxed at a 24% rate, and at 19% for European Union member states. This might explain why the conservative center-right European People’s Party (PP) received the majority of votes (25.83%) in the recent election for the 2024-2029 European Parliament, while Marine Le Pen’s ultranationalist National Rally had a blockbuster performance in France by scoring twice the support of a centrist coalition led by President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party. Many Spanish workers can’t afford to pay the rents or the mortgages in Madrid and opt to live in Toledo (a 45-minute commute to Madrid on the high-speed train).  The diminishing income by the high taxes has led many of the younger generation to not have any children or to delay having them until they are in their 30’s.  The smaller families has forced many businesses to rely on the immigrant labor force – something that I witnessed in the hotels that I stayed, primarily from Ecuador. 

Everything is fast-paced in Madrid, but it is a beautiful city.  A Moroccan taxi-driver pointed to pedestrians trying to cross the streets in a hurry to beat the red lights as “if the light was never going to turn green again.” Traffic accidents are common, as well as pickpockets.  But travelers will have a pleasant experience by exercising patience and common sense. 

Miguel de Cervantes is regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language, and there are many monuments honoring his legacy.  “Don Quijote de la Mancha” is considered his masterpiece, and you will find many references to his memory throughout Spain. One of his memorable quotes is “When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness.  To surrender dreams – this may be madness.  Too much sanity may be madness – and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be.”  Don Quijote was a dreamer, but he is not the only one.  Join us travelers by visiting España with an open mind.

Some friends have expressed disillusionment at the disrespect that the United States has received lately from dictators, terrorist groups, and theocratic mullahs.  Most attribute this malaise to the weak foreign policies and weak presidency of Joe Biden. 

Other friends are outraged at the current state of the economy where most Americans can hardly make ends meet because of inflation.  Despite all the feel-good, make-belief propaganda disseminated by Biden’s acolytes, Americans confront reality when they go to pump gas for their cars, when they buy groceries at the supermarket, when they go out for lunch or dinner at a restaurant that had reasonable prices for their menu entrees in the past, when they purchase airfares for a needed vacation, when they go out to buy or lease a car, when they want to buy a house and the interest rates for a mortgage approach 8% – basically, when they buy any services that were affordable when President Trump occupied the Oval Office.

And Hispanics are the latest group to say that they’ve had enough with the failed policies of Democrats.  But this presents an “inconvenient truth” to the liberal cabal.  To discredit this switchover, they have called conservative Cuban-Americans all kinds of pejoratives – Batista sympathizers, inveterate hardliners, cavemen, reactionaries, Miami Mafia, and unauthentic Hispanics.  I’ve addressed the truth about Cuban-Americans by writing an article in my book.

Moreover, Hispanics realize instantly when politicians are only interested in their vote and not on their issues of concern.  When First Lady Jill Biden gave a speech in San Antonio, Texas and tried to ingratiate herself with Hispanic voters, she called them “breakfast tacos.” When Biden addressed a gathering of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus during the 2023 Hispanic Heritage Month, he mistook it for the Congressional Black Caucus. And some in the Democrat cabal have done the unthinkable when it comes to the Spanish language – they want to make it gender-neutral by using the term “LatinX.” Democrats ignore the basic fact that Latinos and Latinas will vote for politicians who have their backs.

Many are ready to hang up their hats and say that the era of reaching the American Dream and attaining life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is over.

I tell these pessimists to not tread so fast.  Rather than claim defeat, I ask them a simple question: what have you done lately to restore freedom and democracy to the country that we all love?!!! Let the road to recovery begin with you!

It is precisely when answering my own question that I tell others what I have done lately for my country. I spent a year writing the book – and editing it with my wife’s help – “Examining the Past to Understand the Present – The Journey of a Cuba-American Refugee and What Led to His Conversion from Democrat to Republican.”

The book will be helpful to those “legal” immigrants and political refugees who have made the decision to leave their homeland. It will not be an easy transition at first. The younger you are, the better you will be able to adapt to a different culture and language. But if you take my story as an example, the struggles will be well worth it. You will become a better person with a stronger focus on reaching the higher pinnacles of success. I narrate my life story in Cuba and the United States in parts 1-4 of my book.

The book will also be helpful to politicians who wonder how to get a big chunk of the Hispanic vote on their side, as well as those who wonder how they lost it. It will be an eye-opener to those who can’t figure out why it’s so difficult to get Cuban-Americans to vote for Democrats. Past experience living an arduous life under a Communist regime leaves indelible scars about the Left that can never be erased.

Although the book has over sixty of my articles on many subjects ranging from politics, philosophy, civil rights, religion, Hispanics, and Cuban-Americans in part 5 of my book, I do dwell on my transformation from a Democrat to a Republican and what led up to it. I tell past friends who got annoyed with my conversion that life is a journey that cause us to learn new things about the world and that change how we view the world.

But the challenge that I’ve faced is to market the book in conservative and Hispanic networks.  The conservative ones have ignored my interview requests because I’m not a public figure like the ones who publish books regularly on the Fox News network.  The Hispanic ones don’t want to hear from me because they think that my book message is antithetical to their leftist ideology. 

But I have always been a fighter for good causes, and I’m not about to give up the fight now.  Americans who will make a difference by electing Republicans in 2024 are not those belonging to the top-tier financial brackets, or those attending or graduating from Ivy League universities, or TV hosts from conservative, liberal and Hispanic networks. They will not be the ones and they never have been in the past!

I place by bets on God-fearing and life-loving Americans.  I ask you to help me defray the expenses associated with the publication of my book that I wrote because I wanted to circulate the message of our 45^th President to “Save America Again!”

My book will make a great Christmas (not a Holyday) present for you, friends, and relatives — and is available in hardcopy, paperback, and Kindle editions in the Amazon portal. Moreover, after you read it, write a review on the Amazon portal.

Keep the faith and Keep Hope in America Alive!!!