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Florida's Puerto Rican community and its allies rallied on Saturday in West Palm Beach to remember the victims of Hurricane Maria and blow up the federal government for what they see as mistreatment of US territory.
Among the hundreds of people present at the Meyer Amphitheater in West Palm Beach, two high-level Democrats were hoping to win the Puerto Rican vote in the November 6 mid-term elections: US Senator Bill Nelson and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum. for governor
The two criticized what they saw as a weak response by the Trump administration to the hurricane that devastated the island a year ago, as well as recent comments from the president asking if the death toll was close to of 3,000 was exaggerated.
"These comments only worsen the injuries," Nelson said.
Gillum's is called a friend from Puerto Rico and said it would remain so in the future.
"We should not have to remind this country to do good by the people of this country," Gillum told the cheering crowd. "A year ago, we saw a failure at the federal level in terms of the epic proportion of support for the people of Puerto Rico."
There has been much speculation that the migration of Puerto Ricans to Florida after Maria could be a blessing for Democrats. Candidates from both sides of the aisle are courting the Puerto Rican vote.
Marcos Vilar, a native of Orlando and originally from Puerto Rico, participated in the organization of the event. He said that it was planned to be part of the memory and to protest in part.
"We remember lives lost after the hurricane and said that there had been negligence in the way Puerto Rico had received help after the hurricane that was directly responsible for the deaths, "said Vilar, executive director of civic engagement. Alianza group for progress.
President Trump has infuriated many Puerto Ricans by calling the federal government's response a "misunderstood success" and complained that the death toll, estimated at 2,975, was greatly exaggerated in the Democrats' effort to make it bad.
"It was shameful. It has no respect for the people of Puerto Rico, "said Gamaliel Rivera, a native of Puerto Rico and living in Miami.
Rivera said he was disappointed by the federal government and the Puerto Rican government.
"I'm here to say that something needs to be done," said Rivera, who has wreaked havoc on family members on the island.
While the event often resembled a Democratic campaign event, with participants wearing shirts supporting Gillum and other candidates, Vilar said he had invited several Republican leaders, including the US senator Marco Rubio. However, Governor Rick Scott, who challenges Nelson for the other Senate seat, was not invited. Vilar said Scott had not done enough to help Puerto Ricans who moved to Florida after Maria.
"He used the hurricane as a political problem, but he did not meet the same standards as the governors of other states who looked after the displaced," Vilar said.
He said community organizations did most of the work providing food and shelter to Puerto Ricans who moved to Florida.
Florida's Puerto Rican population has probably surpassed the Cuban-American population and exceeds the Puerto Rican population of New York, said Luis Martinez-Fernandez, a professor at the University of Central Florida, specializing in the history of Latin America.
Most of the more than 1.1 million Puerto Ricans living in Florida are concentrated in the Orlando area, along the I-4 corridor of the state. But census figures show that South Florida is also home to a large Puerto Rican population, with more than 223,000 Puerto Ricans living in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Editor Skyler Swisher contributed to this report.
[email protected], 561-243-6637 or Twitter @ smtravis
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