PRI
By Gabe Ortiz
July 8, 2015
America
is having two simultaneous conversations in reaction to Donald Trump’s
offensive claims that immigrants from Mexico are criminals and
“rapists.”
The
first conversation we’re seeing play out on social media, in print, and
across cable news as company after company ends their business
relationship with a Republican
presidential candidate.
But
the second conversation — the one happening in Spanish in our kitchens,
the one happening between two housekeepers on the bus after work, the
one happening between
an angry immigrant mother and her US citizen son — is the conversation
the Republican Party cannot ignore.
About
two weeks ago, I called my mom to discuss Jeb Bush, who had just
entered the presidential race. Like Bush’s wife, my mother is an
immigrant, and I was curious about
her reaction to a potential United States First Lady of Mexican
heritage.
But my mother had other plans for our phone call — she wanted to talk about Trump.
My mother told me her regular prayer partner had told her about his comments over the phone, and they were both incensed.
In
fact, the last time I could remember her being so emotional about a
political development was during the border crisis last summer, when
flag-waving white Americans
in Murrieta, California, blocked a bus carrying women and young
children fleeing horror in Central America.
During
our call, she railed on Trump, calling our immigrant community
criminals, all the while employing those same immigrants to work
cleaning his hotels and office buildings
across the nation.
She railed on him enjoying expensive meals with food most likely picked by and prepared by immigrants and Latinos.
She
railed on the hypocrisy of him marrying an immigrant — “two of them,”
she noted — all the while insulting the immigrant mothers who work
tirelessly to give their children
better futures in America.
And
she expressed her anger at Bush, a Latin American studies major who
touts his Mexican-American family and Spanish-language fluency, yet,
waited days before denouncing
Trump’s comments. “I don’t care how much Spanish you know,” she
dismissed.
Republicans
have long been quick to dismiss Trump as a publicity stunt queen, for
years teasing beltway pundits with his presidential aspirations, only to
turn around
and announce the premiere date of yet another season of “Celebrity
Apprentice.”
But
Trump is an official Republican candidate now, and following his
heinous anti-immigrant claims that are the red meat of the conservative
primary base, he trails only
Bush in national polling.
The
damage between Trump and the Latino community — my mother confessed to
always enjoying his television show and slew of D-list celebrities — is
beyond repair. It’s
over. And Latinos have no interest in making amends with him, because
once you show your true colors, you can’t walk it back.
The
Republican Party, meanwhile, hangs by a thread in the eyes of Latinos.
For the past few years, we've seen seen the mass-deportation votes
coming out of the GOP-controlled
House. But when I and millions of other Latino and immigrant voters
step into a voting booth next year to pick the next president, we’ll be
voting for the members of our community, like my mom, who can’t.
Trump’s
bigotry has resonated from business to sports to the political worlds,
but it’s really gone beyond that. Latinos and immigrants, tired of being
the default punching
bag of the Republican Party, have led a cultural phenomenon. Univision
listened to us. NBC listened to us. Macy’s listened to us.
Will the Republican Party listen?
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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