He’s a Pro-Trump Rapper and a Cuban Dissident. The Trump Administration Is Deporting Him Anyway.

In 2021, like many Cubans and Cuban Americans that summer, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was jamming to “Patria y Vida,” the Grammy-winning protest anthem that became a rallying cry for dissidents in Cuba. The hip-hop song, whose title translates to "Homeland and Life," directly rebuked Fidel Castro’s revolutionary slogan, "Patria o Muerte" — “Homeland or Death.” That was a cause that resonated with Rubio, the son of Cuban exiles, so much that in 2023, he introduced the "Patria y Vida Act," “protecting against Tyrants” and expanding internet service in Cuba. MORE