Nathalie Roldan’s joy at President-elect Joe Biden’s victory was not shared by everyone in her family.
Roldan’s fiancée and his parents all voted for President Donald Trump this election season.
All four are Cuban immigrants but their politics are very different.
Roldan, 28, came to the United States at just 8 years old and has called the country home for two decades.
“Trump promotes everything that we should stand against as immigrants,” Roldan said. “There’s been too much hate and division in the past four years.”
Roldan said her vote for Biden was geared mainly towards voting Trump out but is more than happy to see a woman of color as vice president.
“It’s a stepping-stone for not only women but women of color like me and my daughter and I wish they could see that,” she said.
They had all voted for Hillary Clinton back in 2016, but things changed for everyone except Roldan as President Trump’s influence grew over the rest of the family.
She cited misinformation and the Trump Administration preying on the Cuban community’s fear of communism for this switch.
“It’s fear-mongering,” she said. “Trump and his supporters played the Communism angle and of course it worked on people that fled their home country to escape it.”
Alejandro Fong, 38, is the middleman between his parents and his fiancée.
“My vote was against the communist and socialist ideas I felt were spreading more now than ever,” he said in Spanish.
He doesn’t side with either political party but cited the importance of preserving the democracy of the country and his parent’s influence for his vote.
“I don’t mind Biden’s win, I think he’ll be a fine president, but I don’t take communism lightly,” he said.
Roldan’s father-in-law is more set in his beliefs than his son.
The son of a Chinese immigrant who fled the poverty of a war-torn and pre-Maoist China for Cuba, Pastor Fong, 80, lived through the Cuban Revolution and its aftermath.
“I supported the revolution like everyone did back then and then we lost everything,” he said in Spanish. “I left Cuba to never have to go through that again.”
Pastor Fong also voted for Clinton in 2016 but his perception of the Democratic Party changed after her loss.
“The Republican party has a stronger sense of leadership and better represent the Capitalist system, he said. “They’re a more unified group.”
Roldan, who is expecting, is clear about her feelings and her political views, despite how different they are from her fiancée and his parents but she also values family.
“I didn’t have the same experiences they did so I can’t know exactly why they think the way they do,” Roldan said. “I compromise where I can, I listen, and I try to inform but at the end of the day, they’re still my family.”
