{"id":13004,"date":"2023-08-04T18:55:47","date_gmt":"2023-08-04T18:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13004"},"modified":"2023-08-10T14:48:01","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T14:48:01","slug":"13004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/?p=13004","title":{"rendered":"Why Trump and Republicans want Mexican-Americans to forget about their ethnicity, heritage and history"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Alex Gonzalez<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

After the rally in New Mexico, many reporters and pundits wrote pieces about it trying to figure out a \u201cTrump strategy\u201d<\/a>\n noting that New Mexico is one half  Hispanic and voted overwhelmingly \nDemocrat in 2018  and the state has not gone Republican since 1992 in a \npresidential election, except in 2004. They also too tried to show that \nthough there is a small groups of \u201cHispanic\u201d supporters for Trump in New\n Mexico, some Hispanics in the state do support Trump fervently. And \nthis is a fact. In New Mexico and Texas, traditionally 30% of \n\u201cHispanics\u201d support or vote Republican in presidential election or \nstatewide races.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from statistics used by reporters to show the majority of \nHispanics, about 70%, in New Mexico rebuked Trumpism and his policies in\n 2016-18, few reporters tried to form a profile of \u201cHispanics supporting Trump.<\/a>\u201d\n Few pundits touched on the cultural and racial arguments of those \nHispanics supporting Trump make: 1. deny Trump was a racist and 2. That \nTrump immigration policies were not anti-Hispanic, even if the record \nshows the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of these Hispanic Trump supporters deny Trump immigration \npolicies are anti-Hispanic and argued  that \u201cthey belonged to families \nthat had been in the United States for at least three generations,\u201d and \nthat their support for the president was most closely tied to his \nimmigration policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

We are American,\u201d said Martha Garcia, 65, who moved to \nNew Mexico from Southern California two decades ago. She said she voted \nfor Mr. Trump in 2016 and agreed with much of his rhetoric about the \nneed to curb immigration.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

These views on Immigration and denial of ethnicity are the cultural \nviews that actually fit the profile of that what kind of Hispanics will \nvote for Trump, and should not be overlooked because it does reveal how \nthe GOP usually coerce and bullies older Mexican-Americans into thinking\n that they only way to be \u201cAmericans\u201d is to deny who they are, and \nembrace an alleged \u201cAmerican identity\u201d invented by older white party \nbosses to force Mexican-Americans into thinking whites still get to \ndecide who is \u2018American.\u201d For example, some Hispanics supporting Trump \nargued that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Trump\u2019s rhetoric protected Hispanics like them because it emphasized their American nationality over their ancestry.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the campaign has officially labeled its outreach effort \n\u201cLatinos for Trump,\u201d all of those interviewed eschewed the label and \ninstead identified as Hispanic, which emphasizes ties to Spain and the \nSpanish language instead of Latin America, and is a term that is often \nmore readily embraced among conservatives\u2026 <\/em>When asked about the\n mass shooting last month in El Paso, when a white nationalist killed 22\n people in the most deadly attack targeting Latinos in modern American \nhistory, most simply shrugged. Several said they had never heard of the \nshooter\u2019s manifesto, which said the attack was \u201ca response to the \nHispanic invasion of Texas.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Essentially, you have a group of older third  generation of \nMexican-Americans claiming that they are \u201cHispanics\u201d and denying that \nthe mass killing in El Paso was  deliberately against Mexicans and \nHispanics to stop an \u201cinvasion,\u201d even these \u201cinvaders\u201d were American \ncitizens who happened to look \u201cMexican\u201d or \u201cHispanic\u201d from South Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can you rationalize this? Mexican-Americans denying Trump \nImmigration are anti-Hispanic and anti-Mexico and quickly veer to reject\n that mass the shooting was a deadly racist attack  aimed at killing \nMexicans and Hispanic American citizens?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How can Republican party bosses and activists coerce Hispanics into claiming that the racist leader of the party, Trump, is not a racist, that the mass killing in El Paso was not against U.S.-born Mexican-Americans, or Hispanics,  and that their only way for them to be accepted as full \u201cAmericans\u201d is to deny they are Mexican-Americans? As some of reports noticed in who those supporters were mostly older Hispanics, post-2016 election Analysis<\/a> about \u201cHispanics\u201d who voted for Trump are the same that would fall for this GOP party cultural \u201cHispanic\u201d trap: older and poor Hispanics. The post-2016  analysis shows Trump did much better than Mitt Romney among Hispanics in the rural Southwest \u2013 rural counties with large Hispanic populations in New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Colorado and Nevada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why would Hispanics vote for Trump, despite his many anti-immigrant and anti-Mexican statements? <\/strong>One\n answer: poverty. The Hispanic communities in the rural Southwest that \nmoved toward Trump were some of the poorest in their states. One of \nTrump phony immigration argument for Hispanics is that immigrants will \ntake their jobs and that immigrants get on welfare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, older Hispanics also tend to believe in the idea of \n\u201cpatriotism,\u201d so GOP party bosses and activists made them believe that \nthe only way they can be fully Americans and \u201cpatriots\u201d is by denying \ntheir identity as Mexican-Americans; keep in mind that these are rules \nof \u201cpatriotism\u201d set by white party bosses to discriminate against \nMexican, under an alleged patriotism, and still force Mexican-Americans \nto say this is not a racist and discriminatory party agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, keep in mind that these Mexican-Americans who grew before 1960s in places like Texas and Arizona  where Mex-Americans were subjected to cultural shame<\/a> and even corporal punishment in school just for speaking Spanish, and as result,  have hesitation about their Mexican-American identity; insecurity about their Mexican-American identity comes from the harsh treatment some Mexican-Americans in  the Southwest experienced when they were growing up, so a more generic label  like \u201cHispanic\u201d is often used in Republicans circles as coping mechanism to be accepted in white Republicans circles that have anti-Mexican members controlling the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the GOP party bosses exploit these cultural traumas in older Mexican-Americans with invented tests of patriotism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a very complex issue but worth analyzing because it affects a\n generation of Mexican-American who were punished as children in school \nfor speaking Spanish, which led to Mexican-Americans feeling inferior \nand ashamed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samuel Huntington argued that national identities are constructed by \nideology; and Identity is an individual\u2019s or group\u2019s sense of the self. \nBenedict Anderson\u2019s Imagine Communities also argues that Identities are \nimagining selves. They are what we think we are and what we want to be. \nPeople may inherit ethnic identity, and they can embrace it or reject \nit. Moreover, identities are defined by the self but they are also the \nproduct of interactions between the self and the others. How others \nperceive an individual or a group affect the self-definition of that \nindividual or group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National identity is an \u201cinvention\u201d as Benedict Anderson argues in \nImagined Communities, or \u201cconstructed\u201d as Huntington argues\u2014and often \nthey are mere bureaucratic procedures. So Individuals have a natural \ntendency to seek spiritual or ethnic connection with those with whom \nthey share similar ancestral roots.  Thus, nation-ness, like cultural \nidentities, are cultural artifacts that used to be invented by kings, \nand now are invented by governments through an national myths, similar \n\u201cgroup experience\u201d  or ideology, or by religious leaders as it the case \nof the Jews; so identity is the voluntary individual\u2019s desire wanting to\n be part of something bigger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the 1960s, there was a generational shaming for \nMexican-Americans, this leads to some Mexican-Americans denying their \nMexican-American identity (Mexican-ness) to avoid any suspicion of \n\u201cdouble loyalties.\u201d However, Mexican-Americans are the only ethnic group\n with a legitimate historical emotional attachment to the Southwest. \nBut, like in rally in Rio Vista, New Mexico, and like in most \nRepublican  and \u201cconservative circles  in the Southwest,  they were \nforce to reject their identity so as to prove their patriotism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, because one\u2019s identity also depends on how others perceive \nyou, even if Mexican-Americans don\u2019t want to be perceived as Mexicans, \nthey are already perceived as Mexicans by the others because that is \nwhat prompted other to ask them not to be too \u201cMexican.\u201d Moreover, \ndenying that you are Mexican-American could also be perceived as a sign \nof weakness and shame more than \u201cpatriotism.\u201d So the idea behind \nRepublicans coercing Mexican-Americans to use alternative labels like \nHispanic is not to build a more cohesive \u201cHispanics base\u201d but rather to \nfracture and dilute, or at least retard,  any Mexican-American political\n influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, in Republican circles, turning the Mexican-American \nidentity into something negative it is also a tool to suppress the \nempowerment of Mexican-Americans in politics. Unlike Cubans, who are \nconcentrated in south Florida and are only 4% of all \u201cHispanics\u201d in the \nU.S., Mexican-Americans are concentrated across 8 states and in the \nSouthwest and they are 70% of all Latinos, and as they are the only \nethnic group with legitimate claims to this land since they have been \nlonger than anyone else. Thus, to prevent, or retard, this cultural \nawareness and Mexican-American empowerment from coming together as a \ncohesive political force across neighboring states is one reason why \nRepublicans shame Mexican-Americans and give them new labels like \nHispanics. Many party activists resort to cultural shame and portray the\n Mexican-American identity as anti-American,  anti-Western and \nanti-Christian culture, despite fact Mexican culture itself is an \noffspring of Western culture and Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

But much of this cultural shaming, and demonization of the \nMexican-American identity  \u2013 especially in politics \u2013 has to do how \nMexican-Americans, the older generations, approach their history and \nethnic identity with a cultural insecurity and fear of being accused of \n\u201cdual loyalism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I have argued before, no other ethnic group has been here in the \nU.S. longer than Mexican-Americans. But their political power \u2013 millions\n of new voters- is only a recent things; so many of already-established \nand \u201cassimilated\u201d older -generations sometimes have hesitations to \nembrace the new wave of Mexican immigrants from the 1990s, which led to a\n large increase of Mexican-American community in the Southwest and \nacross the nation to 40 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To some degree, it is the insecurity of the older generations that \nstill allow this demonization of the Mexican-American identity by \nRepublican politicians and party activists who to turn the \nMexican-American identity into something  negative and \u201canti-American.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Republican groups with lots political clout understating this \n\u201cMexican\u201d insecurity and use it against them to suppress the identity; \nsometimes they even hire non-Mexican \u201cLatinos\/Hispanics\u201d to instill \nshame in Mexican-Americans  and de-legitimize the Mexican-American \npresence in the Southwest, their culture and history. In this case Steve Cortes,<\/a>\n a Colombian from Chicago, who was at the rally in New Mexico and has \nbeen a Trump supporter defending Trump immigration policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have also argued that many Republican party bosses and interests \ngroups have vested interests in bringing non-Mexicans Latinos from \nothers states manipulate Mexican-Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too, often, Mexican-American are trapped into the \u201cLatino\u201d or \n\u201cHispanics\u201d labels because the Hispanic label is used interchangeably by\n political small groups, like Cubans, to further their agenda by \nclaiming to represent all Hispanics.  However, this Hispanic identity is\n weak and easily fractured because it is a political creation and it \ndoes not really embody the group(s) experience that tend to strengthen a\n community. It is only when a community shares a common cultural \nexperience that it can be built into political power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this is how the Trump campaign has hired \u201cHispanics like Steve \nCortes and Cubans from Florida, to lead Hispanics in the Southwest by \npushing anti-Mexico and anti-Hispanic party propaganda. In sending \n\u201cHispanics\u201d to the Southwest, Trump hopes that Mexican-Americans will \nfollow a party \u201cHispanic\u201d agenda and avoid directly addresses the \ninterests or concerns of 40 million of Mexican-Americans in the \nSouthwest who feel attacked by his Immigration policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But these are irrational anti-Mexico policies that even white Republican politicians from border states disapprove, and want a more harmonious free trade policies with Mexico and even a comprehensive Immigration reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let\u2019s  be clear that these cultural exigencies of loyalism to \nMexican-Americans are purely political and have nothing to do with  \nAmerican ideals, the U.S. Constitution and patriotism; these demands are\n purely party ideas push by rank-in-file party activists, and some state\n parties bosses, who do perceive that rise of a cohesive \nMexican-American political force as a threat to their power structure in\n state like Texas and Arizona and \u201cwhite-ness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, across generations, Mexican-Americans interact fully and \nthe they are aware of common cultural lineage, and hold their Mexican \nheritage (or Mexican-ness) highly. It is only in politics, especially in\n conservative circles, that Mexican-Americans are demanded that they \nprove their loyalism, and abandon any display of their Mexican-ness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t expect non-Mexican Latinos to understand why Trump overt \nanti-Mexican policies and  are so vile. For the same reason that  they \nwon\u2019t understand why Mexican-Americans in 1930 who were Americans \ncitizens were rounded up and deported under FDR to give jobs to poor \nwhites who were suffering during  the Great Depression. In don\u2019t expect \nnon-Mexican Latinos do understand why  Eisenhower deported American \ncitizens and Mexican immigrants as \u201cwetbacks\u201d  to give jobs to returning\n GIs. I don\u2019t expect non-Mexican Latinos to understand why GI Mexican \nAmericans, after fighting  in Europe, they came home and had to fight, \nhere at home, for the right to be  buried with same honors as any other \n\u201cwhite\u201d soldiers. This is an issue that pertains mostly to \nMexican-Americans in the Southwest. This contentious American history is\n unique to Mexican-Americans. As a result, Trump policies are more \noffensive to Mexican-Americans than any other group, and thus, why  \nTrump want to camouflaged as \u201cHispanic\u201d support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t expect those so-called \u201cLatinos\u201d like Steve Cortes and few \nCubans in Florida who are getting ready to support Trump so they can be \nparaded  as \u201cLatino  supporting Trump\u201d by the RNC and Trump campaign.  \nAnd it is Ok since many have to keep their token political titles and \nget campaign jobs; but for Mexican-Americans, this is greater than this \nelection and Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Mexicans-Americans, it all start with who we are, what we want as Americans. In the Southwest, Mexican-American cultural heritage is greater an expression of what Jefferson intended  under States Rights; states have the right to have their own culture, and neither the federal government, nor a national party, have the right to impose national culture\u2014or suppress one to favor others\u2013other than a \u201ccommon civic culture\u201d. Jefferson would have agreed that a few states in the same region have the right to bond together to protect their culture and history, as long as it doesn\u2019t conflict with the Constitution. Therefore, Mexican-Americans have the right to insist that their culture be reflected within the whatever political party they join, and we have to right to demand our history and heritage no longer be scapegoated or be labeled as anti-American or as un-loyal. Once, this happens, the Mexican flag will be perceived as a symbol of resilience and history, not anti-Americanism or foreign culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure, there will always be those who are oppose to the idea that Mexican-Americans becoming more politically assertive. But that is politics, and the day of the \u201cbad Mexican\u201d will vanish since now we have a \u201creverse migration\u201d and both Mexican in Mexico and Mexican-Americans here in the U.S. will find ways to iron out their regional difference and build a more cohesive economically integrated region that serves the interest of both nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, Trump and the RNC want these older third and fourth generations of Mexican-Americans to reject any ethnic cultural connections with the new waves of \u201cHispanics\u201d \u2013 Mexican and Central Americans \u2013 so Trump can freely attack immigrants and the older Mexican-Americans can argue \u201cit is not against us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Gonzalez is a political Analyst, Founder of Latino Public Policy Foundation (LPPF<\/a>), and Political Director for Latinos Ready To Vote. Comments to vote@latinosreadytovote.com or <\/em>@AlexGonzTXCA<\/a><\/p> . <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alex Gonzalez After the rally in New Mexico, many reporters and pundits wrote pieces about it trying to figure out a “Trump strategy” noting that New Mexico is one half  Hispanic and voted overwhelmingly […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,65,70,72],"tags":[86,81,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-13004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-slider","8":"category-culture","9":"category-latino-vote","10":"category-lrtv-articles","11":"tag-culture","12":"tag-latino-vote","13":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13694,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13004\/revisions\/13694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinosreadytovote.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}