Barbara Howard: In these polarized times, it is easy to label a person as blue or red, liberal or conservative, but things are often more complex. Last year, 35-year-old Candace Cheatham of Medford organized a bus load of mostly women to go to Washington, D.C., for the women's march. Also on that bus was her 29-year-old cousin Orlando Gonçalves of Taunton. Both share a Cape Verdean descent. But unlike Candace, Orlando Gonçalves voted for President Trump, and now a year later, the two have agreed to sit down and talk. Thank you both for coming in.

Gonçalves and Cheatham: Thank you for having us.

Howard: So Orlando, while riding on that bus a year ago, here's what you told WGBH reporter Phillip Martin.

Sound clip of Gonçalves

Reasons why I'm marching are because I have strong women in my family who inspire me. I was raised by women so I know the power that women can do without a man. I’m marching for my grandmother, for my cousin Candace.

Howard: OK, Orlando, you say you're marching for Candace, but you did vote for Trump. So what's that about?

Gonçalves: I did, and I can understand why you would think that's a little a little weird or off kilter there, but I didn't … at least I don't feel like I necessarily voted for Trump or necessarily voted for anything. I think that my vote last election cycle was a demonstration against — my vote was really to kind of let Washington know that I'm not happy.

Howard: Let me play for you what you said back then.

Sound clip of Gonçalves

 One of the biggest reasons that I got on his bandwagon was because to me he felt like he wasn't beholden to anybody. And not that I'm singling out Barack Obama specifically, but I feel like the whole ‘yes we can’  thing — I was led to believe my voice had more power than it actually did. I was angry. And I wanted my anger to be gotten out.

Howard: Would you vote for Trump again?

Gonçalves: Given the exact same election him versus Hillary Clinton, yes.

Howard: Today would you vote for him against Hillary Clinton?

Gonçalves: If I'm going to be honest with you, yes.

Howard: What's that Candace — that little sigh?

Cheatham: Knowing what you know of him personally and his hatred towards women and people of color and people who are Muslim, knowing what you know …

Howard: Where did this come from? Why do you have such a split?

Gonçalves: It entirely comes from our, I think, our grandfather, our entire family, our grandparents.

Cheatham: You know, our grandparents they were working class African-American who really, really, really wanted the American dream, and they got it. But they also had to deal with things that weren't a part of the American dream such as being African-American and having different skin and different hair.

Gonçalves: I agree. It's funny because my grandparents haven’t been alive for over ten years. But when I think about it now, and who do you think our grandparents would have voted for, I know the house would have been divided because my grandmother was very much a liberal, very caring and understanding of other people's plights and wanting to help. My grandmother is the type of person if you didn't know her, if you were hungry, she would feed you.

And my grandfather was kind of the stark opposite of that. You know, if she [my grandmother] was feeding somebody out on the street he'd say, ‘Anne, why are you giving them our food?’ My grandfather was very hard-working. He was into keeping what was his. And I kind of saw him go from a blue Democrat to a red Republican, not even necessarily consciously, but just the things that he would say and the way that he would view a lot of the policies in the Clinton era.

Howard: Sounds like you take after him.

Gonçalves: Yeah, I lived with him.

Howard: And it sounds like you take after your grandmother?

Cheatham: Yeah, I could see that. I definitely could see that. I think a lot of this has to do with them really trying to be an American family, and being an American family, what underlines that is being white. Every other ethnicity — it's African American, it’s Chinese American — but if you're American, you're white. So it was them trying to achieve this American dream, and at the same time, not trying to forget, but not be so outwardly embracing our black roots. I would say it wasn’t until our generation that we started really embracing our black roots and not hiding the fact that we were African-American. My grandfather could pass. Passing was a big deal.

Gonçalves: I remember he had a very specific hair product that he would put in his hair that would make his hair very fair. My grandfather's very light-skinned, lighter than either of us, he could pass.

Cheatham: And you can't blame him either. I mean we can talk about it, but at the same time, if you're treated more as a human being and not a second class citizen, what are you going to do? If you've got five children to feed at home and passing is how you're going to make that 50 cents more an hour, what are you going to do?

Gonçalves: And one thing that I know about my grandfather was there was a line between being a black person and then being 'that' type of black person. And he very much put himself on the 'You know ... you know, this is how you do it. This is how we're supposed to act not like them over there.'

Cheatham: That's a very American culture thing to do. You're able to establish yourself. You have to point out what someone else is or isn't to show your value, which isn't right, but that's what he had to do to survive.

Howard: But he started off as a Democrat.

Gonçalves: Yeah, he did. Definitely towards the end of his life, there was a change. I'm not sure what sparked it, but there was a change. There was. It suddenly became less about the collective and more about '[This is] my family, and how am I going to take care of us?' Not necessarily that's what Republicans stand for [or] anything like that, but I feel like that's the line of the fence that he felt like he needed to be on to properly do that.

Howard: And how would he vote in that election — Trump versus Hilary?

Gonçalves: See, I don't know. But if I were to just use any experience, I mean my grandfather would've voted Trump.

Howard: And you take after him, you think?

Gonçalves: I think so.

Howard: And Candace, you take after what, the grandmother who gives away money on the street.

Cheatham: Yes, I do. I do actually.

Howard: It sounds like you Orlando agree that …

Gonçalves: I definitely have a certain level of empathy. That's why I went on the march in the first place. Policy aside, or what color I vote, I don't approve of anybody being abused or cast away or set aside.

Howard: So you're not totally at peace with the current Trump administration?

Gonçalves: I'm not. I don't agree with everything or even mostly of what the man says. But I also believe that I'll never agree with 100 percent of anything any political candidate ever says.

Howard: OK. Thanks so much for coming in.

Cheatham: Thank you.

Gonçalves: Thank you for having us.

Howard: That's Candace Cheatham of Medford and Orlando Gonçalves of Taunton. They are cousins and they're talking things through.