What Latinos Know About America and Trump Doesn't
Clarence Page is away. This column is by Mary Sanchez.
News from the campaign trail has Latinos across America cringing.
It happens every time a scene like this splashes across the news: Protesters went plumb loco outside a Donald Trump rally in Albuquerque, N.M. Waving Mexican flags, they lobbed rocks at police, set fires, pushed aside barriers and generally acted like little hooligans.
The outburst was followed by the inevitable. Cable news talking heads, as they always do, wondered why the protesters were so angry.
Really? The United States is veering shockingly close to electing as president a man whose version of "making America great again" includes scapegoating some of the very people who helped make the country so incredible -- Latino immigrants.
That's the problem. That this has to be explained. And, no, this is not an excuse for the riotous behavior of a few.
Most Hispanics know such out-of-control displays of emotion will not help. Decapitating a Trump piñata might feel good -- a symbolic display of cultural fury. But when it's televised, such an act merely lends credibility to Trump's innuendo that Latinos are interlopers intent on mayhem and criminality.
Nothing could be further from the truth -- even for those who arrive here without all the legal paperwork. If you want to find someone willing to literally die to become an American, find a recent Latino immigrant. Talk to the Central Americans who risked their lives to cross through multiple countries, hoping to gain asylum in the U.S.
They can tell you about yearning for the dignity and freedoms America, privileges that so many third-, fourth- or nth-generation Americans take for granted.
Latinos have some of the highest rates of service in the U.S. military. They are highly entrepreneurial, creating businesses wherever they settle.
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