After expanding my research into Católicophobia and Floridanophobia, I’ve observed an emerging trend among pro-Catholic Hispanic communities under Trump: a growing call for a “Florida First” political approach grounded in a distinct regional identity.
The Latino conservative movement is rising rapidly in Florida. While it was once dominated largely by Cuban voices, the expanding presence of Puerto Rican, Peruvian, Colombian, and Dominican communities has added new layers of complexity to the political landscape. Within this diversity, however, a shared sense of purpose is beginning to take shape. Floridanismo is an effort to formalize and strengthen that unity.
Floridanismo advocates for a more unified Latino community as a means of achieving political change that expands Latino businesses and their economic opportunities throughout the state of Florida. This vision of unity also includes linguistic cohesion, with support for English, Latin, and Spanish as official languages of the state, reflecting practical communication needs as well as cultural continuity, including the development of a more Latin-influenced form of English.
Floridanismo supports expanded access to free or low-cost healthcare through a combination of public and private initiatives. It also calls for stronger regional trade, military cooperation, and political alignment among the southern United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America, emphasizing Florida’s role as a regional bridge.
Many supporters of Floridanismo emphasize the defense of the Catholic faith alongside Indigenous American religious traditions. They tend to favor socially conservative policies while supporting more economically liberal approaches, though with defined limits. This includes opposition to elective abortion and advocacy for high “sin taxes” on certain goods and services.
Advocates of Floridanismo generally view race as an inherently limiting framework and treat it as a secondary or descriptive detail rather than a defining political factor. When race is discussed, it often includes considerations of ethnicity and historical concepts such as the casta system. Within the movement, some supporters view “Latino” as a race, while others see it as an ethnicity; however, there is broad respect for the term as a clear and practical way to refer to the shared community.
Overall, Floridanismo is a response to longstanding social, political, and cultural pressures faced by Latino Catholics in Florida. It is not merely a call for electoral or policy change, but a broader movement oriented toward cultural cohesion, collective identity formation, and long-term communal advancement. Central to this vision is support for bilingual and trilingual communities, which are viewed as both practical tools for integration and symbols of cultural continuity.
Floridanismo calls for cultural expansion also includes structured cultural exchange with Japanese and Korean communities, framed as a means of fostering intercultural dialogue, strengthening social cohesion, and enriching the evolving Latino-Floridano cultural identity. Within this framework, the learning of additional languages—such as Japanese, Korean, and others—is not discouraged, but rather accepted as a complementary form of cultural engagement that broadens intellectual horizons while remaining rooted in a shared regional identity.
