TAMPA, Fla. — Once you stroll into council member Luis Viera’s workplace in metropolis corridor, you’ll see his partitions coated in pictures and artifacts that encourage him.
“That’s, after all, Fannie Lou Hamer. My favorites listed here are Bobby Kennedy, this FDR clock is from 1944,” he stated as he gave me a tour of his workplace.
Viera has represented District 7 since 2016, comprising North Tampa and New Tampa. “And my first race, I received by 65 votes. It was very shut, very suspenseful,” stated Viera.
If you happen to ask Viera why he obtained into politics, he’ll let you know about his brother, Juan, who has an mental incapacity.
“, rising up with Juan was an enormous affect on my life, clearly, towards simply problems with tolerance and empathy and compassion.” That empathy and keenness fuels his need to signify his constituents and people with out a voice.
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“You bought to return from the center and that’s one thing that I believe unites all Latinos, which is that we aspire to return from the center,” stated Viera. “We’re all very emotional, so to talk. We put on our feelings on our sleeves.”
Raised within the Temple Terrance space, council member Viera is pleased with his Cuban roots.
“I’ve at all times been proud to be a voice for all refugees, not simply individuals who appear to be me, however all refugees as a result of, once more, that compassion that this nice nation had for my dad and mom 60 years in the past, it’s obtained to exist nonetheless as we speak for folks,” stated Viera.