Via a local merchant, who will talk politics when no one else is in the store, comes the story that e-mails are circulating in the Cuban-American community claiming that Sen. Barack Obama’s father was Cuban.

The e-mails are apparently being circulated (in Spanish) by Obama supporters to encourage Cuban-Americans to vote for him. (I have yet to find independent information to confirm this.)

The story–which sounds like total rubbish–goes that Obama’s mom spent some time on a commune in Cuba in the 1960s and met a young communist with whom she conceived a child. She then returned to Hawaii and married Barack Obama Sr.

I was told that nobody is taking the story seriously, but that this e-mail (and others) have become ubiquitous in the run-up to Election Day.

Has anyone else seen these?