Well, now that the Easter Sunday proclamation on DACA has come and gone, and most of the saner advisers have been driven out of the White House, we can see president 45 freely luxuriating once more in some of his favorite misconceptions--that is, lies--about Latino immigrants. And spreading these false ideas all over the right-wing media, of course, is his intention.
Let me start by saying what a few people in the truth-focused media are finally beginning to acknowledge: Trump hates Latinos. It's been obvious since the early days of his campaign when he first accused Mexicans of being criminals, killers, and rapists. We are in socioeconomic times when lots of fearful folks are looking for an "other" to scapegoat, so with Trump's famous "base" (and I do mean "base") this sort of talk goes over very well. But I ask you, is there any other racial or ethnic group that a public figure could get away with assaulting in this manner? Jews? No way! Blacks? Forget it! People (light-skinned) of European or Slavic (his favorite) descent? Unthinkable! Muslims? Well, yes! But in response to all this invective, have American Leftists come to Latinos' defense? Not perceptibly.
And being a diverse group of people with relatively little political power and great incentive to avoid making themselves visible through resistance, Latinos--and Mexicans in particular--have for the most part felt it necessary to put up with this cultural character assassination for well over a year without offering any significant rebuttal.
The stereotype of Mexicans as "thieves" and "bandits" has always seemed to me to be an odd projection and inversion of the fact that the United States robbed Mexico of roughly one third of its territory in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Likewise, Trump's unfounded assertion that Mexico has "taken advantage" of the welcoming generosity of the U.S.A.;who has really profited from our two nations sharing a border, and who has been victimized? Once again, the truth has been turned inside-out. It's an odd variant of a "thought disorder," thinks this former psychologist!
Most of the people reading this are familiar with the long-established research that disproves many of the right's assertions about immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries. The facts are that our people are less likely than white Americans to engage in criminal behavior; that we work hard under abominable conditions and often start successful small businesses once we've gotten an economic foothold; that we tend to be more resilient, creative, and ambitious than our neighbors back home who opted out of making the perilous cross-border journey; that we do not make use of the American welfare system more than any other ethnic group; that most of us have a passionate desire to learn English and assimilate despite being unwilling to abandon our cultural identity. And on and on.With regard to the resilience of Latino cultural identity, my hunch is that it has to do with the deeply rooted memories and traditions of resistance to imperialism and genocide, and even of political revolution, which are so much a part of our national histories. The Cuban flag patch on Emma Gonzales' sleeve probably speaks less of admiration for the Castro regime than it does of Cuba's centuries-old history of struggle for independence from the Spanish and the Yanquis. And, of course, of pride in her roots as well.
So let's get the truth out into the sunlight, all of us who are, know, or love Latin-American people; and throw the racist "alternative facts" beloved by the Trumpster into the dumpster where they belong!
