Roots & Culture: Obama Inspires Caribbean Americans

Caribbean-born immigrants are swelling with pride as Barack Obama prepares to take office on Jan 20 as president of the United States.

As the first non-white to lead the US, Mr Obama is fulfilling the dreams and promise of the civil rights era.

But his is a story that provides inspiration among for black immigrants and their children.

We bring three opinions from Miami's Caribbean immigrant community:

RAY GONGORA
The Belize-born naturalized citizen emigrated to the US in 1986 and is regarded by census authorities as Hispanic based on the geography of his birth.


"I am black, so to speak - a brown-skinned Caribbean person," he told the Associated Press.

"You cannot identify yourself as a black American because our cultures are so totally different."

Speaking of Mr Obama's election, he said: "It's an individual accomplishment for each of us."

The 53-year-old postal worker has scheduled a vacation day Jan 20 to watch the inauguration on television at home.

His hope for his US-born children is that no one will question their citizenship in an Obama administration, even with a Honduran mother and a Belize-born father.

"I said to my (17-year-old) son, 'You are natural born, you were born here. You can be president even if your parents were both born in different countries'," he said.

JEAN-MARIE DENIS
"Obama is my brother!", beams the 67-year-old Haitian-American.

"Martin Luther King's movement was a continuation of Toussaint L'Ouverture's dream. Obama is, 40 years later, the realization of Martin Luther King's dreams," said Denis. "Toussaint L'Ouverture didn't work in vain."

Haiti is home of the world's first successful slave rebellion, led by former slave L'Ouverture.

Denis, a naturalized citizen whose runs a bookstore in Miami's Little Haiti, also sees himself in Mr Obama's father, who left a poor African village to study in the United States.

"Now his son is president," Denis said. "He's just like me. I came to this country with $50 in my pocket and now look at me, with two doctors in my family."

MARLON HILL
Marlon Hill, a Jamaican-born Miami attorney, made Mr Obama's election official as a member of Florida's Electoral College.


"It felt like carrying tons of history on my shoulder," the 37-year-old said.

But he said the inauguration should be about more than reflecting.

"It's beyond just being about Obama and him being a president who is black. It is about our circumstances and, whether we are black or black immigrants, can we do more with our circumstances?

"Can we provide for our families around us? . We have fewer excuses now because of an election of an Obama-like person."

--BBC Caribbean.com