shaped

Reporting from Las Vegas — He was known as Tony back then, a young boy so persuasive and self-assured that he helped persuade his family to ditch Catholicism for the Mormon Church, and he marched in a union picket line with his dad, a casino bartender, to demand better wages.

Marco Rubio’s life might have turned out very differently had he stayed in this working-class neighborhood off the Las Vegas Strip, where service workers like his father and mother, a hotel maid, dreamed of a better life while providing the labor to power the gambling industry’s economic engine.

But the Rubios returned to Miami after six short but formative years in Nevada. Rather than coming of age in the small “L” libertarianism of the West, where most Latinos skewed toward the Democratic Party, Tony began high school amid South Florida’s conservative Cuban American exile community. And that’s where Marco Rubio, early tea party favorite and Republican presidential hopeful, was forged.

All that Rubio left behind in Las Vegas points to a world view once considered, but ultimately rejected, a time he tried on new political and cultural ideas he later would shed.

His childhood enthusiasm for the powerful Las Vegas unions has been replaced by a pro-business economic sensibility. He abandoned the Mormon faith in favor of a mash-up of his wife’s evangelical Christianity and his own Catholic roots. He has publicly criticized the gambling industry.

As he drove his weathered Prius recently through the residential streets Rubio roamed as a kid, Mo Denis, Rubio’s cousin and the former Democratic leader of the state Senate, reflected on how Rubio had changed and how his time in Nevada influenced the kind of politician he became.

“We’ve talked about it on occasion,” said Denis, who still lives in the Nevada neighborhood where Rubio arrived in 1979 as an 8-year-old and lived until he was 14. “His time here was part of who he is.”

Denis said Rubio’s years in the diverse neighborhood of working-class white and Latino families exposed him to lifestyles and socioeconomic conditions he wouldn’t have seen in the more insular and politically conservative Miami. That may have helped broaden and temper his views on some topics.

“I don’t know that he’s rejected it,” Denis said of Rubio’s experience in Las Vegas. “He’s incorporated it, added to it. … As a president, I think that would be helpful to him — that experience he had here — because he really does have that insight. Whether he chooses to [act on it], that’s up to him.”

As Rubio’s campaign builds momentum following a strong debate performance last month, the candidate returned to the Silver State on Thursday to highlight his time there and stump for votes. Supporters are positioning Rubio as a more compassionate, optimistic alternative to Donald Trump and others who have dominated the field.

On Saturday, Rubio tried to reconnect with Nevada’s Latino voters at St. Christopher Catholic School in North Las Vegas, which he briefly attended as a child. (He begged his parents to enroll him in the Catholic school, but then quit after finding it too strict.)

Rubio likes to joke that he has more relatives in Vegas than in Miami, but he remains a relative unknown in the city.

“Most people still have no idea he spent time here as a kid,” said longtime Nevada political guru Jon Ralston. “Whether that creates any special nexus for him in Nevada remains to be seen.”

Some of his current positions risk alienating the same Nevada voters he’ll need for the state’s early Republican nominating caucus and, if he becomes the party’s nominee, the general election.

His past criticism of gambling, in particular, appears out of step with conservative casino moguls, such as billionaire GOP donor Sheldon Adelson, and the army of unionized Strip workers who turn out working-class voters. Nearly 400,000 Las Vegas residents are employed by casinos and related tourism.

“I have a long history of opposing expansion of gambling,” Rubio said this year on the presidential campaign trail. He fought against the gambling industry’s reach into Florida when he was the state’s House speaker. As a U.S. senator, he told the Miami news media that casinos “bring their problems” and “are not the solution to everything.”

Such positions might come back to haunt Rubio as he tries to mobilize support in Nevada.

“It’s no secret some of these candidates have taken a hard line on the industry,” said Geoffrey Freeman, chief executive of the American Gaming Assn. “It sure would take a lot of chutzpah to go to Nevada to raise money and not take a lot of time to learn about the industry — or even malign it.”

So far, however, Rubio’s views do not appear to have damaged his relationship with the high-rolling executives who loom large in Republican politics. In recent months, nevertheless, he has fine-tuned his criticism of the industry.

Rubio continues to be a favorite of Adelson’s. The billionaire is more interested in Rubio’s positions on national security issues and support for Israel, according to those familiar with Adelson’s thinking.

And Rubio is aligned with Adelson’s campaign against efforts to legalize online gambling. The two are said to talk regularly as Adelson, who bankrolled Newt Gingrich’s 2012 campaign, assesses the current field.

When Rubio first stepped off the plane in Las Vegas in 1979, his family was a minority among a growing Mexican American minority. Their branch of the family did not flee Fidel Castro’s Cuban government; they came to the U.S. before Castro’s revolution, for a better life. As Miami’s crime rose and opportunity withered, they headed west.

The Rubios stayed with relatives before buying a modest two-bedroom cinder-block home in the College Park neighborhood, an older tract of houses with mid-century angles.

Rubio became interested in politics at an early age. He backed Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s 1980 campaign for president, but his Cuban grandfather instilled in him conservative values; during Ronald Reagan’s presidency, young Rubio embraced the Republican Party.

Even so, he threw himself into the Culinary Union’s landmark 1984 labor strike in Las Vegas. He made protest signs and joined the picket at Sam’s Town, where his dad worked. The work stoppage, remembered as the longest in Las Vegas labor history, left both sides bruised.

Rubio’s support for the strike was so strong he lashed out at his father — calling him a “scab” — when the man eventually crossed the picket line to go back to work, Rubio wrote in his autobiography, “American Son.”

As a senator, Rubio has come down squarely against organized labor. He voted against extending unemployment benefits as the economy showed signs of improving in 2014 and helped filibuster legislation aimed at preventing employment discrimination against gay workers.

Michelle Denis, another cousin, recalls Rubio as a boy who enjoyed acting together in skits and singing the Osmond Brothers’ pop hit “Sweet and Innocent” at family parties. He was always the director in charge. She said it was hardly surprising that he changed after leaving Nevada.

“It’s totally two different lives, here to Miami,” Denis said, now working as a caterer at MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. “I do believe he believes in what he’s saying. He has strong beliefs.”

His faith has shifted, as well. Rubio joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Las Vegas, where the church has a strong undercurrent, and tried to get his father to quit casino bartending as “sinful” because of LDS teachings against alcohol.

But after a few years, he drifted away “to be Catholic again,” he writes, and as an adult, also attends his wife’s Christian church. His campaign is now courting the well-organized Mormon political community.

In his book, Rubio, now 44, called it a “charmed” childhood. He played quarterback on a Pop Warner football team for Caesar’s Gladiators and swam in the family’s above-ground backyard pool, which was a hand-me-down from relatives.

“Las Vegas is not often the first place that comes to mind for people looking to raise their children in a wholesome environment,” he wrote. “Yet in many respects, it would prove to be the family-friendly community my parents hoped it would be.”

At C.C. Ronnow Elementary School, Tony — the family still calls Rubio by his middle name — stood out as an energetic, if overly chatty youngster.

“He could certainly talk — he would talk so much he’d get in trouble,” said Bryan Thiriot, a childhood friend who now lives in Utah. Almost once a week, their fourth-grade teacher would punish the talkative Rubio by seating him beside her and requiring that he copy definitions from the dictionary. “That’s why he has such a deep vocabulary,” Thiriot said.

In Sin City, it remains to be seen whether candidate Marco Rubio will be welcomed as a native son. Despite the election of Republican Brian Sandoval as Nevada’s first Latino governor, the Latino electorate is overwhelmingly Democratic.

Back in the old neighborhood, Yesenia Castaneda, a mother of three, is the new owner of the former Rubio home, and she is exactly the kind of voter Rubio is hoping to sway. A Mexican immigrant, she’s a stay-at-home mom and is open to the Republican Party.

But she said she isn’t sure who will get her vote. She also likes Hillary Rodham Clinton.

[email protected]

Twitter: @LisaMascaro

As Jasmine Harman addresses her husband’s heart attack in her brand new series, the Mirror takes a look at the A Place In The Sun star’s family heartbreaks, including the devastating loss of her sister-in-law

A Place In The Sun star Jasmine Harman has opened up about her husband’s heart attack horror, and it’s sadly not the first family struggle she’s endured.

While filming a recent episode of Jasmine’s Renovations In The Sun, 46-year-old cameraman Jon Boast, whom Jasmine met on the set of A Place In The Sun, began suffering persistent chest pains while renovating their family home in Estepona, Spain.

In dramatic scenes that aired yesterday, Jasmine, who will this week celebrate her 50th birthday, told viewers: “So, we’re at the hospital now. Jon had a funny turn at home, and I had to call an ambulance, but he’s sleeping now, having a little rest. Hopefully it’s nothing serious, but we’re just waiting for some test results.”

Giving an update from his hospital bed, brave Jon said: “Just when we thought we were getting back to normal life, or as normal as life could be, mid-renovation, and I was getting back on my feet.

“This afternoon, when we were with one of the builders, I got sort of pains in my chest and tight chested, aching arms. We called an ambulance and now I’m in hospital, and the blood test results suggest that I’ve had a mild heart attack.”

Speaking out for the first time about the ordeal, Jasmine told The Mirror that Jon has recovered and is back working. She said: “I know this sounds strange, but even with the background of what could have happened and worrying he could have died, it makes you feel lucky he just had a mild heart attack and everything is fine. But the challenges life throws at you has made me take things in my stride a lot better than I used to.”

Here, the Mirror takes a look at some of the painful heartbreaks mum-of-two Jasmine and her family have had to deal with over the years…

READ MORE: Jasmine Harman breaks silence after husband’s heart attack horror

Tragic loss of sister-in-law

Back in 2016, Jon tragically lost his sister, Joanne ‘Jo’ White, who died suddenly after going into cardiac arrest. Jo was just 40 years old, and her death came as a terrible shock to loved ones. In the years since, Jon has thrown himself into supporting CRY, a charity which helps to screen for cardiac risk among young people.

A video previously shared via Jasmine’s Instagram sees a tearful Jon announce: “I support CRY in memory of my amazing sister, Joanne White. [She] passed away suddenly in the night in 2016, from sudden cardiac death.

“Jo was an amazing mother, daughter, auntie, wife and sister. The reason I support CRY is they were there for her family when she was taken so suddenly, offering us guidance and immediate screening.”

Asserting that Jo would have wanted her story to be used to raise awareness, Jon continued: “CRY continue to support us with yearly heart screenings of myself and some of Jo’s family. […] Any funds raised will continue to support the amazing work CRY do in their research, the screening of young people for potential heart problems and raising awareness of young, unexplained cardiac deaths.”

In her new series, Jasmine explained that she and Jon had decided to move to Spain partly because of the shock of losing Jo. She said: “She was fit, well and very healthy. It was a very big shock.”

Baby agony

Jasmine and Jon share two children together, Joy and Albion, but their road to a happy family life was far from easy. Opening up in an interview with Fabulous magazine, Jasmine, whose two children were both welcomed via IVF, spoke candidly about the heartache she and Jon faced when trying to expand their family.

Back in 2017, the couple had tried for baby number three, only for their hopes to be dashed when the embryo didn’t implant. Jasmine shared: “Sadly, when we tried for a third baby in 2017, our embryo didn’t implant. This came so soon after losing Jon’s sister, Jo, who died suddenly at 40 from an unexplained heart problem.”

She continued: “We’d hoped that welcoming a new baby might have lifted the family and brought fresh joy after such a painful time, but instead we were reminded how fragile and precious life can be.”

Mum’s extreme condition

Although Jasmine is well used to looking around beautiful homes, she faced a very different sort of challenge in 2011, having set about helping her extreme hoarder mother clear away 30 years’ worth of clutter. This emotional journey was highlighted in the BBC doc My Hoarder Mum & Me, which resonated with many viewers.

In a candid 2023 episode of This Morning, the property guru gave a heartfelt joint interview with mum Vasoulla, admitting that she previously found her condition “embarrassing”, and feared it would affect the career she’d worked so hard for.

Speaking with Dermot O’Leary and Allison Hammond, Jasmine shared: “In fact, when I started working in television, it was my biggest fear that someone would find out about the way I’d grown up and the way that we lived at the time.”

However, gaining a deeper understanding of her mother’s hoarding and where it stems from has helped her prioritise “having a loving relationship” with Vasoulla, putting aside the fights they once had.

Recognised as a mental health disorder as of 2013, the World Health Organisation (WHO) defines hoarding as “an accumulation of possessions due to excessive acquisition of, or difficulty discarding possessions, regardless of their actual value”.

During the same interview, Vasoulla explained that the 1958 murder of her father, Evangelos, who was just 32 when he died, triggered her anxiety-based disorder. After the killing, Vasoulla and her mother Maria fled their home country of Cyprus for England, and it’s then that the hoarding started.

According to Vasoulla: “We moved from Cyprus when I was about three, so I left my baby things back home and started collecting trinkets in bombed-out houses that were still about in the early Sixties, after the war – trinkets that I treasured.

“Then we moved back to Cyprus for a couple of years, and those things all got lost. Then we moved back to England and all my new ties got lost – so I just had lots of upheaval, lots of loss.”

She continued: “It’s more the loss, like a bereavement. Losing your father is a big thing, moving country …you lose everything, and you get a new place to live. The trauma of loss [is] something that a lot of people have as the onset of their hoarding behaviour.”

Jasmine’s Renovation In The Sun is now available to watch on Channel 4.

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