CommentsLATINO PERSPECTIVE--As Donald Trump comes closer to clinching the nomination more people start to worry and pay closer attention. If you mention the name Donald Trump in East Los Angles you will now get a reaction, this is according to an article by Steve Lopez from the Los Angeles Times.
Lopez found out that, “On the Eastside of Los Angeles, as Trump's star rises, most of those reactions are not simpatico.”
When Trump first declared his nomination nobody, me included would ever thought that he’d be this close to become the Republic Party’s nominee.
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox told journalist Jorge Ramos "Please, you Hispanics, Latinos in the U.S., open your eyes the U.S. "is going to fail if it goes into the hands of a crazy guy."
Los Angeles Valley student Orlando Calderon, 19, told Lopez that his eyes are wide open. "It's a joke that Trump is running for president," said the student. He wants to be a physician. He predicted an agricultural industry collapse if Trump's promised "deportation force" becomes a reality.
Orlando will be punching in his first-ever vote for a president this fall, and he's hoping Bernie Sanders' name is still on the board.
As Lopez roamed the Eastside, stopping by restaurants and shops, he said he found more disappointment than surprise among Latinos who've been following the presidential campaign and the spectacle of Trump's candidacy.
"I haven't heard anything positive," Sally Zhu said at BJ's Party Rentals in Monterey Park, where she and Veronica Lozano told Lopez that the Donald Trump piñata business remains brisk.
Latino Democrats outnumber Latino Republicans 2 to 1 in the U.S. Lopez also argued that not all Latinos support illegal immigration, by any stretch he said, and reasonable people have legitimate concerns about the costs and implications of having 11 million people here illegally. But on the Eastside of Los Angeles, Lopez found that just about everyone has a personal connection to the issue and understands the nuances and complexities ignored by Trump.
“They know that people who are hungry, poor, living apart from loved ones and in fear for their lives because of violence are willing to take great risks for safety and opportunity.” He said.
Trump says let’s send them all back to Mexico, and we will build a wall and get Mexico to pay for it. ¡Qué locura!
Chris Ortega who is a volunteer at Libros Schmibros lending Library in Boyle Heights told Lopez that he really can't fault Trump for saying that he will build a wall because people are liking it.”
Libros Schmibros clerk Cuauhtémoc Hernandez, 25, told Lopez that the targeting of one group or another has been a powerful force throughout American political history. If things aren't the way you think they ought to be, there's got to be a villain out there. African Americans, Communists, and Muslims he argued.
I agree with Steve Lopez when he says that Trump’s red-meat pandering sends a stampede of Latinos to the polls nationwide to take mighty swings at the piñata, he could turn out to be this campaign's biggest fool. I can’t say it enough: Eligible Latinos in Los Angeles must go out and vote this November, Latinos in Boyle Heights know what’s at stake. The future of the Latino community and the country hangs in the balance.
(Fred Mariscal came to Los Angeles from Mexico City in 1992 to study at the University of Southern California and has been in LA ever since. He is a community leader who serves as Vice Chair of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council Coalition and sits on the board of the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council representing Larchmont Village. He was a candidate for Los Angeles City Council in District 4. Fred writes Latino Perspective for CityWatch and can be reached at: [email protected].)
-cw
