By Pastor Herrera Macurán
Horizonte Cubano News
August 29, 2026 — Morning Edition
When politicians talk about Cuban Americans in Miami, they usually talk about Cuba.
Communism.
Sanctions.
The embargo.
Havana.
Political prisoners.
Elections.
Republicans.
Democrats.
But there is another Cuban conversation taking place every morning across Miami-Dade County.
It begins when an alarm clock rings before sunrise.
Someone puts on a restaurant uniform.
Someone climbs into a work truck.
Someone begins cleaning hotel rooms.
Someone reports to a construction site.
Someone opens a small business.
Someone drives for hours.
Someone works in a kitchen.
Someone starts a second job because the first paycheck is not enough.
These Cubans are rarely standing behind politicians at press conferences.
They are working.
And many are simply trying to survive another month in South Florida.
There Is Another Cuban Miami
There is a Miami of successful businesses, beautiful homes, political influence and extraordinary Cuban-American success.
That Miami is real.
Its accomplishments should be celebrated.
Generations of Cubans arrived in the United States, rebuilt their lives and created businesses, institutions and opportunities that helped transform South Florida.
But that is not the complete story.
There is another Cuban Miami.
It is the dishwasher closing a restaurant late at night.
The construction worker standing under the Florida sun.
The hotel employee cleaning rooms.
The elderly person counting every dollar.
The recently arrived Cuban accepting whatever honest job is available.
The worker commuting long distances because housing near the workplace is unaffordable.
The person working two jobs while still wondering how the rent will be paid.
Their Miami is real too.
Work Does Not Always Mean Economic Security
Miami-Dade is not a cheap place to live.
For workers near the bottom of the wage scale, everyday mathematics can become unforgiving.
Rent.
Electricity.
Food.
Car insurance.
Gasoline.
Transportation.
Telephone.
Health expenses.
Childcare.
Debt.
And then something unexpected happens.
The car needs repair.
A child needs something.
A relative becomes sick.
A family member in Cuba needs help.
The paycheck disappears.
For many working families, poverty is not necessarily unemployment.
Sometimes poverty works forty hours a week.
Sometimes it works overtime.
Sometimes it has two jobs.
That is an economic reality politicians need to understand.
The Cuban Worker Is More Than a Cuba Voter
This is where Cuban-American politics needs to mature.
For decades, politicians have approached Cuban voters primarily through foreign policy.
What is your position on the Cuban government?
What is your position on sanctions?
What is your position on the embargo?
Those questions matter.
But the Cuban worker living in Miami-Dade also has other questions.
How much is my rent?
Can I afford health insurance?
Why is my car insurance so expensive?
Can I buy a home?
Will my salary increase?
Can my children afford to remain in South Florida?
Will Social Security be there when I retire?
Can I afford groceries after paying my bills?
Those are Cuban-American issues too.
Because Cuban Americans are Americans.
Ask the Dishwasher
If politicians want to understand working-class Miami, perhaps they should occasionally leave the fundraising dinner and enter the kitchen after the restaurant closes.
Ask the dishwasher.
Ask the line cook.
Ask the person taking out the garbage at midnight.
Ask the hotel housekeeper.
Ask the maintenance worker.
Ask the electrician.
Ask the construction laborer.
Ask the delivery driver.
Ask the small-business employee.
Ask them what economic prosperity looks like from where they stand.
They may provide a very different answer from the one heard at a political reception.
There is dignity in every one of those jobs.
The problem is not the work.
The problem begins when honest full-time work no longer provides a reasonable path toward economic security.
The Newly Arrived Cuban Faces a Different Miami
Recent Cuban immigrants encounter a South Florida very different from the Miami encountered by earlier generations.
They may arrive with professional experience that is difficult to transfer immediately into the American labor market.
English can be an obstacle.
Credentials may not transfer.
Housing is expensive.
Transportation is essential in many parts of the county.
Some begin again near the bottom of the economic ladder regardless of what they accomplished in Cuba.
So they work.
Restaurants.
Construction.
Warehouses.
Transportation.
Cleaning.
Maintenance.
Delivery services.
Small businesses.
Whatever legitimate opportunity appears.
There is nothing shameful about beginning again.
That story is part of the history of immigration in America.
But political leaders should understand the economic reality of starting from zero in modern Miami.
Working People Should Not Be Invisible
Political campaigns are very good at finding voters during election season.
Phones ring.
Messages arrive.
Advertisements appear.
Candidates visit communities.
Then the election ends.
Working people return to their jobs.
Their problems remain.
That relationship needs to change.
Representation should not begin three months before an election.
A member of Congress should know what a worker’s life looks like between elections.
That means listening continuously.
Not only to donors.
Not only to business organizations.
Not only to political activists.
And not only to the loudest voices in the Cuba debate.
The person cleaning the office after everyone leaves has a voice too.
Small Businesses Are Under Pressure Too
The worker is not the only person struggling.
Many Cuban and Hispanic small-business owners face their own daily battle.
Payroll.
Insurance.
Rent.
Utilities.
Taxes.
Supplies.
Licenses.
Employee shortages.
Competition.
A small restaurant owner and the dishwasher working inside that restaurant may appear to occupy opposite sides of the economic equation.
In reality, both may be struggling with the same high-cost environment.
Public policy should recognize that relationship.
Helping small businesses survive can protect jobs.
Protecting workers’ wages creates consumers who support small businesses.
The two interests do not always have to be enemies.
Miami-Dade Cannot Become a Place Where Workers Serve a Community They Cannot Afford to Live In
This should concern everyone.
A healthy community needs teachers.
Restaurant workers.
Police officers.
Nurses.
Electricians.
Construction workers.
Drivers.
Hotel employees.
Maintenance workers.
Retail employees.
Sanitation workers.
If the people performing essential work cannot afford to live anywhere near the communities they serve, eventually the entire local economy suffers.
Housing policy is therefore workforce policy.
Transportation policy is workforce policy.
Education is workforce policy.
Healthcare costs affect the workforce.
And wages matter.
Economic policy must be evaluated from the perspective of the person receiving the paycheck, not simply from aggregate economic statistics.
Cuban-American Politics Must Become About More Than Havana
Cuba will remain important to the Cuban-American community.
It should.
Families remain divided between both countries.
History matters.
Human rights matter.
American foreign policy matters.
But a congressional representative from Miami-Dade is elected to represent people living in the district.
Their lives do not stop at the Florida Straits.
They live in Kendall.
Hialeah.
Homestead.
Westchester.
Miami.
And communities throughout Miami-Dade.
They wake up every morning and go to work.
Their representative must care about what happens in Havana.
But that representative must also know what happens when a constituent opens the refrigerator on Thursday and payday is not until Friday.
That is representation too.
Listen to the Cuban Who Is Working
Over the coming months, Horizonte Cubano News intends to listen increasingly to ordinary Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits.
Not only politicians.
Not only activists.
Not only academics.
Workers.
Families.
Small-business owners.
Retirees.
Recent immigrants.
People whose names may never appear in a newspaper.
Because if we want to understand the Cuban community, we cannot understand it exclusively through politics.
We have to understand how people live.
How they work.
What they earn.
What they pay.
What they fear.
And what they hope their children will achieve.
The Cuban-American story is one of extraordinary success.
But success should never make struggle invisible.
There is another Cuban Miami waking up tomorrow morning and going back to work.
It deserves to be heard too.
Pastor Herrera Macurán is the founder of Horizonte Cubano News. The views expressed in this article are those of the author.