Marina Family History & Genealogy

Minor-leaguers of Mayor's race have a message
The following article appeared in The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida) on Sunday, October 25, 1987:

Long shot, n. 1. (colloquial) Any venture with only a slight chance of success, but offering great rewards if successful. 2. (Miami politics) Ernest Mailhot 3. (Miami politics) Evaristo Marina.

There are five candidates in the 1987 race for Miami's mayor. Even those only marginally interested in the campaign could probably name three of them: the incumbent, Xavier Suarez, the former mayor, Maurice Ferre, and the principal newcomer, Arthur Teele Jr. If the others don't strike chords right off, it isn't because your memory is out of tune. Evaristo Marina and Ernest Mailhot are, by most definitions, long shots.

"If the message I am sending out to the Cuban people . . . reaches the people, I would have a good probability of winning," Marina said. "When you're running for president, you have to win your state first. I have to win Little Havana."

"Obviously, I'd be surprised if I won the election" Mailhot said.

If Noah Webster, whose successors provided the first definition above, had met Ernest Mailhot, the famous lexicographer might have redefined the term long shot. Mailhot (prounced "mayo"), a 39 year old Eastern Airlines baggage handler, is the Socialist Workers Party candidate in an election that is supposed to be nonpartisan. The only way Mailhot could have picked a worse place to run for mayor than right-leaning Miami would be if Wall Street were a muicipality. Mailhot is undeterred. "I think people's views are changing", he said, speaking from party headquarters in Little Haiti., a sparse streetfront office without enough furniture to deaden the echo.

Mailhot, quick to smile, strapping and looking a tad uncomfortable in a suit and ties, earns points for having a clearly defined - if not locally relevant - platform. Mailhot says he would "demand that the United States mercenary support of the contras in Nicaragua be limited." He opposes American military involvement in the Persian Gulf, as if Miami's mayor had any say in it. On some issues, though, Mailhot deftly ties his party's socialist agenda to local concerns. Fighting the clandestine networks that deliver drugs to the streets is no different from fighting any other profit-oriented corporation that tramples workers' right, he says.

If Miami is the least likely place for a Mailhot candidacy, it is the most likely - well, the only - place for Evaristo Marina's candidacy. He is appealing exclusively to the Cuban exile community in an effort to unseat Miami's first Cuban-born mayor. Marina's Spanish language literature proudly states, "Always in Little Havana, always Cuban, always Republican." "Suarez was born in Cuba like me, he had a Latin name like me, but Suarez does not represent Cubans," Marina said. "I represent the more old style Cuban."

That's because Marina, 56, played a role in old Cuba. He was director of public order for six years under Fulgencio Batista. He is now president of Miami Aerospace Academy, a Little Havana military school for elementary and high-school students. Marina, with flashing blue eyes, an infectious smile and red hair whitening at the roots, has a measure of name recognition. He is a veteran of five previous races for public office, including a 1984 try to state representative in which he missed a runoff berth by only a handful of votes. A recent poll by WLTV-TV Channel 23 showed Marina receiving 3 percent of the overall vote, including 7 percent of the black vote. His campaign has raised $l24,925.

Marina emphasizes conservative moral values. "I want to bring this city under God. I am not a fanatic, but without God you cannot do anything." He is thin on specifics, however. He bases his appeal on his background as a self-made businessman, the need for leadership, and his general stand against "criminality."

Asked by WEDR-AM radio interviewer Leah Gaynor how he would fight criminality, Marina said he couldn't be specific, as if doing so would tip off the criminal element he was out to stifle. "If President Reagan had said what he was going to do in Grenada, things would have been different afterward," he said.

Photo of Evaristo L. Marina which appeared in an article titled 'siete candidatos luchan por banca de rose gordon' translation 'Seven Candidates Battle for seat of Rose Gordon' the El Miami Herald on Tuesday October 30th 1979.