Miami Immigrants Appreciate Election Process

Nov. 23 -- From corner delis to domino games and even voodoo shops, Southern Florida is teeming with Americans who learned the value of democracy the hard way.

As the closest presidential election in modern times turns into a ballot showdown between presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore and has moved from voting booths to the U.S. Supreme Court, many of Florida’s immigrants are celebrating the tedious process and the several days of recounts.

From Nazi Camps to Condo Life

Benjamin and Bernice Muler, who met in a Nazi labor camp in Siberia during World War II find the electoral standoff reassuring, to say the least.

“To us, this is freedom,” said Bernice.

While they both survived the Holocaust, Benjamin’s parents did not. “My mother was killed in Vilno,” Benjamin said.

Benjamin and Bernice got married in a displaced persons camp in Germany and then, after the war, caught the first boat they could to the United States.

Fifty years after Siberia, the two are retired and living the Florida condo life.They say they are grateful that the presidential standoff is being fought with lawsuits and press conferences, not machetes and machine guns.

In Miami’s Little Havana, Carmelo Gattorno agrees with the Muler’s. But, he admits he is more concerned with dominoes than dimpled chads.

Gattorno fought with guerillas against Fidel Castro in Cuba, after which, he says, his life was in danger.

Making a motion as if he were slicing his neck, he says, “It’s that simple. It’s that simple.” He fled Cuba 40 years ago on a makeshift boat. “We have a little problem with the election, but it’s not the end of the world,” Gattorno said.

Cynicism After Duvalier's Haiti

In Little Haiti, a more cynical view from survivors of the bloody Haiti uprising in the 1980s. Mericia Cooper, who in 1980 fled Haitian dictator Jean Claude Duvalier believes Florida’s powerful republicans stole the election.