Hear ye: Lincoln Diaz-Balart may be responsible for turning on the sunshine during the beautiful Miami winters
Al’s Loupe
Hear ye: Lincoln Diaz-Balart may be responsible for turning on the sunshine during the beautiful Miami winters
By Alvaro F. Fernandez
alvaro@progresoweekly.com
Miami is a special place. I say this with the knowledge that I am as Miamian as most get. I arrived in this town in April 1960, and other than the fact that I went to college elsewhere and occasionally must leave the city on business, it is where I’ve lived most of my life. So a half century of history here, there are few who can sell me a fictional story of the place. Although I will admit, what happens here often reads like fiction.
As my hometown, which it is, there is no denying the fact that most everyone here is from some place else. And every 20 years or so, the city seems to reinvent itself. It’s an interesting phenomenon which in some perverted way, I suppose, creates the excitement this town offers visitors.
It’s simple to explain, too. Take a look at Ocean Drive on South Beach. Today it contains some of the most expensive real estate on the planet. Before getting murdered by some crazy named Cunanan, fashion designer Gianni Versace built his castle on the Drive. But, less than 20 years before Versace, you could bowl down Ocean Drive and not hit a person on the street. Most of the folks found there, then, were elderly residents sunning themselves on dilapidated art deco hotel terraces. Excitement for them was a daily stroll to the nearest “Early Bird” special for dinner. Real estate there, then… you couldn’t give it away. Nobody wanted a piece of what some termed a place where many came to live their last years in warmth.
Like I said, Miami has a way of reinventing itself: sometimes for the good; oft for the not so good.
I remember the 1980s. Half the tall buildings built in downtown Miami and Brickell Avenue, a testament to the industriousness of the Cuban diaspora, some claim. But easily left off the equation were the brown paper bags full of money that a certain white powder produced. The Cuban diaspora was involved in that too.
And how can I leave off David Paul, a phantom who arrived on our shores in 1983 and turned a small savings and loan institution into Centrust — one of the nation’s most important players in the junk bond world. And at the time of its collapse, Paul was using it as his own personal piggy bank. He was accused of using depositors’ money to purchase (for himself) million dollar works of art, a yacht, and a corporate jet while he travelled around town in his own Mercedes Benz limousine. And this was a time when limos were not often seen in this city. His building, the Centrust Tower, was the first to be lit up at night in a spectacle of colors. Tall and proud, I had a female friend who once called it Miami’s penis.
Flashy and extremely generous with his depositors’ money, Paul became an overnight pillar of South Florida society and business circles. Last I heard, David Paul still wears prison garb.
This brief recount of Miami’s recent history is a long and roundabout way of getting to Lincoln Diaz-Balart’s announcement last week that he will not seek reelection in the fall. For starters let me say good riddance. Although, as I wrote in my blog last week, we must be careful what we wish for.
In a nutshell, Lincoln was a liberal democrat who became a republican in the early 1980s when he determined it was impossible to win an election as a democrat during the age of Reagan. This fact amazes some, but those who know a bit of the Diaz-Balart history are not surprised. Rafael, Diaz-Balart’s father, was a member of Batista’s inner circle in Cuba until later in exile he told a U.S. congressional subcommittee that he was really conspiring against the dictator Batista while remaining in his inner circle because the other option was worse. Huh? (The other option being Fidel Castro.) It all sounds like a conundrum, I know. But what do you expect, it’s Miami.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart is our member of Congress who during his retirement announcement last week heaped praise on himself for bringing tons of federal dollars to Jackson Memorial Hospital, being a staunch defender of immigrant rights — and I was waiting for him to claim he is responsible for turning on the sunshine during the beautiful Miami winters.
If Miami media were honest with themselves, they should have checked some of the Diaz-Balart claims of accomplishments. Because if you are the tit that nurtures the hospital with federal dollars, why is it that SEIU Local 1991 president Martha Baker, a nurse in that same hospital, fight so hard in favor of Raul Martinez to defeat Lincoln in 2008? Or, doesn’t the local media wonder, if the federal dollars were flowing in because of Lincoln, why is Jackson in such financial dire straits today? On another front, if Lincoln was such a guiding light for immigrant rights, why haven’t true (and honest) immigrant leaders in South Florida ever been questioned about the area’s congressional representation? You might be surprised about what you’d hear. Lincoln often spoke of bringing TPS (temporary permanent status) to many Latin Americans and Haitians in our community who live here without proper documentation. But the fact is Lincoln had little to do with TPS — except when it was a done deal assured by a Democrat in Congress, and that’s when Lincoln, along with Ileana and Mario, would jump in front of the cameras…
As a politician, Lincoln Diaz-Balart was a fraud. That’s why I repeat what I said earlier: Good riddance! But then again, based on my knowledge of this area’s history and how it just loves flash and a good story (even when it’s fiction), I am not surprised that over the years Lincoln Diaz-Balart managed to get elected, and reelected.
