33 minute read
Maria Hinojosa Flexing Latinx power
JOURNALIST AND MEDIA EXECUTIVE
Maria Hinojosa shares a personal account of America’s greater immigration crisis. From the September 4, 2020, online Inforum program “Maria Hinojosa: Latino USA.” Part of our Good Lit series, underwritten by the Bernard Osher Foundation.
MARIA HINOJOSA, Founder, President and CEO, Futuro Media Group; Anchor and Executive Producer, NPR’s “Latino USA”; Author, Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America
JACQUELINE MARTINEZ GARCEL, CEO, Latino Community Foundation—Moderator
LOVE & HATE IN A TORN AMERICA
Trailblazing Latina journalist Maria Hinojosa on immigrants, discrimination and what’s happening with the Latinx vote.
JACQUELINE MARTINEZ GARCEL: I have to say that when I got the email from The Commonwealth Club, I actually did a triple-take. I said to myself, “She wants me to interview her?” A hundred thoughts and questions rushed through my mind. Then I got your book, Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America. I got the hard copy, but I also did the audio because you’re an amazing storyteller, and I wanted your voice to guide me through these pages.
When I read through it, it just all came together. This book felt like a sancocho for me, honestly, Maria. First, I just want to say thank you for writing this. It’s so powerful. I would recommend this book for any beating heart that is wondering how we’re going to turn this corner from this dark period of history right now. It’s when we read her story that we can understand how our story, our legacy, our generation’s going to fit into this crazy upside-down world we’re living in right now.
I actually want to start [at] the moment that you were a baby in your mom’s arms, just come into Dallas, Texas. Here she is, this petite, young woman, five feet tall, facing this man who you later describe as 100-year-old redwood, because he was so tall. It was in that moment that your mom, when she was threatened, the thought of you being taken away from her because you had a little rash on your skin that you had just gotten because you had a blanket in the plane; they threatened that they would take you away from her. That’s when your mom [reacted], her voice just resounded.
I want to hear from you, how did that moment, as you reflected on it, shape your recognition of your own voice throughout your life? MARIA HINOJOSA: The arrival of my mother is an important part of the story, and I didn’t really realize what was happening. I would often tell the story, once I got it, because I didn’t get it until I was in my 30s.
Part of what I hope happens with Once I Was You is that people actually start asking. It’s hard to get people to tell the arrival stories, because some of them are really hard. There’s some shame. I realize that this is what happened with my mom. First time I heard the story, it was like, “No, because we arrived. We all
had our green cards. We were going to meet dad who was at the University of Chicago in Chicago.
“This very tall immigration agent at the Dallas Airport in the early 1960s said that you had the measles and that he was going to have to put you in quarantine.”
My mom is speaking, and she’s like, “And I just stood up to him.” I said, “No, no, no, no, no.” The way that I would tell this story was that my mom understood what it was to be an American. Even before she was an American, she had a green card. She was like, “I know my rights. I’m going to stand up.”
I would tell the story—if I was on stage with you at The Commonwealth Club, I’d be prancing around and telling the story about this little woman who stands up. That was the applause moment in my speeches. It was like, “Oh, now I know where I get my voice, tiny but mighty—my mom.”
Then, I’ve been reporting about children being taken from their parents, for not just in the past 10 years, but before that. But certainly when we heard the audio of toddlers and four- and five-year-olds screaming for their parents, it was a shocking moment for everybody.
I was at the airport, and my mom called. My mom was in tears. She just said, “I realized that that could have been me.” I was like, “What are you talking?” She was like, “Ma.” She says, “Mamita, the women who have had their babies taken away from them, that could have been me. Those babies, that could have been you.”
I just went into a mini-state of shock, because then it all made sense. I never realized that what was happening, to be honest with you. I was like, what a fluke this was, at this Dallas immigration agent at the airport. What a total fluke. That guy was crazy.
Well, no actually. There was a policy of taking children. I’m going to use a slur now. So, please understand, but there is a very particular. There is a very particular slur that is used for Mexicans. That slur, you know what it is because you know that there are two words that go together for the slur. The words are dirty Mexican.
By law in the state of Texas until the year 1964, you could actually search and check Mexicans to see if they were dirty. That’s what this led to. There was actually a campaign. It’s complicated, what happened in El Paso and all of this, but that law was on the books in Texas until 1964. That’s why that immigration agent was looking at me. That’s why he was going to take me when I had a tiny little rash. I wasn’t just a fluke.
The next part of Once I Was You, if I had time, would have been to do the search, get the architectural plans for the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport in 1963, ‘62, and find out where was the room where they were going to take me. Then, you’re like, “Oh, wait. There was a room?” I wasn’t the only one. This is exactly what he said. He said, “We’re going to keep her.” That’s when my mom— it wasn’t the feminist, “I’m an American with a green card, and I’m going to speak.” It was trauma. That’s what my mom called to say. She said, “I realize what it was, was I was in a state of panic, and that’s why I started screaming.”
This has been going on for a long, long time. Too long. GARCEL: Somebody had to take us to that moment. You start your book with this beautiful letter that you write to this little girl that you met at McAllen Airport [in Texas]. That inner voice of that speaking to you wherever you go, that turns into that louder voice where you speak out loud and you choose to speak in Spanish in that moment in particular, so those children can hear you.
Talk us through what was going through your mind at that airport. HINOJOSA: Except for the pandemic I’m a seasoned traveler, which means I know airports really well. I’ve been to all 50 states. I know airports. I know airport body language. That morning at seven o’clock in the morning at the McAllen Airport, I see a little girl. I’m actually on my knees trying to find a plug as usual. I look up, and I see a beautiful little girl with the most amazing skin and eyes. I realized she’s not looking at me. She’s looking through me.
Also, when kids are at airports, kids are like this; they’re just like, “Oh my god. We’re at an airport. What’s going?” That’s what caught my eye. Then, when I did the wide angle and I zoomed out and I was like, “Oh, my god, she’s one of these kids.” Oh my god, I’m seeing this. It’s happening. I had seen it before, but I hadn’t realized. That’s the whole idea, that these children are being transported in the airports, and it’s happening in plain sight. It’s kind of really sinister.
When I realized, “Oh my god, this is my moment,” I went and I sat next to her. I had not so much a journalist moment; it was like a mother moment, because I felt like, “Oh my god. She hasn’t seen her mom.” I sat down so that nobody would realize what was going on. I just started talking to her very quietly because the so-called chaperones—I would say they are the traffickers, kidnappers. I’m sorry. The definition of being trafficked is that you do not know who is taking you from place to place. You do not know where you’re going. You do not have access to your documents and you have been told not to speak to anyone.
These children are being trafficked as per the definition of being trafficked. The chaperones would not let me speak to them. What happens in the end, is that I’m like, “Okay. Well, I have to say something. They’re not letting me speak to these children. I need to say something to these children.” Then, I get into Spanish, I start basically talking to the chaperone, but I’m actually talking to the kids in Spanish. I’m saying these kids need to know that they can speak to a journalist, that they have that right. We want them to know that they are loved, that we’re not afraid of them. There are people who are on top of what’s happening to them.
Then, I say to this little girl, “I wanted you to hear me, because I see you. I see you because once I was you.”
One of the most challenging parts of this book was when I was finished and finding the title. We could not come up with a title. It happens. I was very sad. I was like, “How is it?” My agent was like, “Don’t worry. It’s all going to fall into place. Don’t worry.” Then, finally, we had another reader come in. They were like, “There’s your title.” I really, really love it. GARCEL: It’s so beautiful, Maria. It actually speaks to who you are as a person, as a journalist. It’s seeing people, seeing them. So much of this book is about seeing the humanity in all the worlds that you traverse; from seeing that little girl to being in places where most people would overlook, or looking for a hidden story. It’s just so beautiful to be seen and written throughout this entire book.
One of the things that stood out for me throughout it was how you crossed borders both physical and emotional, class borders and race borders between Mexico, the U.S., Washington Heights and Midtown, Manhattan, having [Dominican musician] Juan Luis Guerra in your house with [public radio journalist] Scott Simon.
But one of the things you said about that moment is that you love the fact that neither of them knew who they were. These worlds that you’re a part of, that you go in and out of, have become a superpower for you. It’s grounded you so beautifully in who you are.
That was a defining moment for you. Talk to me about that moment that it all came together, not needing to be defined by one world over the other, but all these worlds
“[T]he so-called chaperones—I would say they are the traffickers, kidnappers. I’m sorry . . . these children are being trafficked as per the definition of being trafficked.” —MARIA HINOJOSA
that you were part of. HINOJOSA: Juan Ruiz is a friend of my husband’s. My husband actually designed [the cover of Guerra’s fourth album,] Ojalá Que Llueva Café. Juan Ruiz was in town. They came up. Isidro Bobadilla, who is his percussionist, actually is the reason why I met my husband, because I knew Isidro. Everybody was hanging out at a super big party. I had invited Scott. I was like, “Come on up.” He came up.
We had opened up the roof. I just remember saying this is like the jam. Scott Simon is here, and a certain group of people at the party knew who he was. They were like, “Oh my god, Scott.” Then, a whole other group of people knew who Juan Ruiz was. They were like, “Oh my god.”
Yeah. I do think that living in all of these multiple worlds helped me to understand being a border crosser in multiple ways, understanding that concept.
I loved writing about growing up on the South Side of Chicago near the University of Chicago, but it was a Black community. Then, every week, we would drive—once we finally got a car—to the Pilsen [neighborhood], 18th Street in Chicago, which is where the Barrio Mexicano was, and how my mom would become this perfect Mexican woman in El Barrio Mexicano. She was speaking to everybody [in Spanish]. Seeing my mother in another place and then driving back [home], like it was another world, I think this allowed me to not be afraid of the crossing back and forth of the living in Washington Heights and working at CBS News. I did feel like, especially as a journalist, it gave me a superpower because I was like, “Y’all don’t even know what’s happening uptown.” Now, interestingly, what it meant as a journalist was that it gave me real life experience for what communities were living through.
I remember when I was living on 106th Street. I was married to German [Perez]. Raul was born. We lived on 106th Street, which was Crack Alley. That was the name of 106th street. I called 911, because there was a shooting on the street corner. People were dealing drugs. I called 911.
I got a recording, “Please, hang up and try your call again. All circuits are busy.” I was like, “What is going on?” This happens in our communities, but other places, you call 911 and an operator answered. I remember my editor at NPR was like, “Yeah. That didn’t happen.” I’m like, “It happened.” This was kind of the gaslighting where we as people of color are experiencing—like right now, we’re experiencing a certain reality, and our hair is on fire saying something is going on. We’re being told, “Yeah—no.” This is what we’re living through right now.
The fact that the book would be released at the same time that the story is breaking about forced hysterectomies on women, I think is very telling about what I’m trying to say. We have a problem in terms of immigration in this country. We know that, but the level of dehumanization, it’s beyond alarming. I do hope that the Mexican government files an international human rights case against the United States government. I’ve been waiting.
Sadly, if you know Mexican politics, the leftist indigenous president of Mexico is, I’m sorry, a collaborator of Donald Trump’s— very, very, very, very disappointing. I’m not sure if that will actually happen, because of the geopolitics. Once again, immigrants thrown under the bus by both parties, by both governments. It’s desperately sad. GARCEL: Actually, it’s funny you use those words. That was the segue to this next part of the conversation about this present moment. Your book felt so much like a warning, sounding alarm all over—1986 to 1996, 2006 sounding the alarm, sounding the alarm. Here we are and Latinos make up 59 million in our country, 32 million, largest ethnic voting block in our countries, second largest ethnic [group].
Here we are getting headlines about what’s happening—not new to the United States— happened in Puerto Rico, happens to Mex-
ican-American woman, the sterilization. It’s happened. Maria, can it get any worse?
The other thing I tied to this question is, we’re about to have [a second presidential] debate. I’m thinking, “Maria should have been the one moderating that debate, first of all.” If you were the one in front of those two candidates right now—what you say in your book is still true, this is not a Republican or Democrat [issue]. Both of them have thrown us under the bus. They’re all equally responsible. Can this get worse? What would you say? What would you ask these two candidates? HINOJOSA: Oh, sweetie, let me tell you. You know what’s sad to me is that it’s less than two months to the election and neither Kamala Harris nor Joe Biden has agreed to speak with me. I don’t understand that. It makes me very sad that they feel like they have to be afraid of me. I don’t think that I’m a mean person. I don’t think that I’m a scary person.
Actually, if you listen to all of the interviews that I did with presidential candidates, Bernie Sanders is not really soft and gushy. I made him get a little soft. I don’t understand why they’re afraid of me. Latinos and Latinas, we have questions. As the second largest voting bloc in this country, we deserve answers. A politician that is afraid to speak to a journalist, I don’t even understand that. I’m just like, “I’m not going to bite you. You know what I’m going to ask you. I would hope that you already have thought about an answer.”
Four years ago during the presidential debates, I was complaining about this. I was saying how is this possible? This man is running on an anti-Latino, anti-Mexican, anti-immigrant platform. He began his campaign using hate speech. Why is it that we call it hate speech, but other people just call it his campaign? It’s hate speech. Do I want to be in the same room as this person? I’ve been actually. He sat behind me on Broadway during Def Poetry Jam. Donald Trump sat behind me. He left at intermission. He left a bunch of hand wipes all on the floor right underneath him. . . .
I think what’s hard for us is really watching this erasure happening as we speak. Here’s what I say to my colleagues. I don’t understand. And this is like when people say, “Well, what can we do. What can we do?” In this particular case, for example, I don’t know.
My colleagues in the mainstream media could say “We’re in a boycott. We are not going to participate in the presidential debates until you name a Latino or Latina anchor.” Just one. I was actually saying, “Why only just one?” You’re Dominican. I’m Mexican. We have different experiences. Yet, Dominican and Mexican—actually super important to have both of those perspectives.
I feel like this erasure—I’m getting really angry about it, because it’s the basics of journalism, of accountability journalism that a community that is being attacked have a chance to ask for accountability. We as Latinos and Latinas are being denied by the presidential debate commission. Shame on them.
By the way, it’s like six people. It’s not a big commission. It’s six people. GARCEL: We wrote letters. Latino Community Foundation was writing a letter to them. We publicized it. We reached out to The New York Times, because it’s embarrassing that at this moment in history—2016, a defining moment for this current president, how he went out campaigning—we’re not going to have a moderator that’s Latino to represent the second largest voting bloc in our country. It’s just mind-blowing. HINOJOSA: It’s mind-blowing, but the thing is that we cannot be gas-lit. You did the right thing. We’re going to use our voice. It may feel like a drop in the bucket, but that is what we have to do. That is absolutely what we have to do. GARCEL: Maria, some questions are coming in [from the online audience]. I’m going to go back and forth, because one question that just came in relates to that. She’s a young journalist. She’s saying, What advice do you give us at this moment to continue? It’s hard time to continue to use our voice.
What advice would you give young journalists right now? HINOJOSA: My advice is, please, don’t give up. After you read Once I Was You, please read the book, News for All the People, by Juan González. The reason why is because you will understand that your role as an American journalist is essential to the history of this country. Essential.
I’ve been interviewed by several Latina journalists. It’s adorable now, because there are many. They’re like, “Were you really the first? What was that like?” I’m like, “Well, to be honest with you, I was really happy I had a job.” But I understood that I was the first. With that came an understanding of my privilege.
Then, I was like, “Well, if you’re privileged that you can be here, then you have a responsibility to use this privilege.” I know how frustrating it is for young journalists. Futuro is small. It’s growing, but it’s small, but I want you to think—Futuro didn’t exist 10 years ago. There will be others. As far as we know, I’m the only Latina right now running a nonprofit newsroom in the United States.
I also didn’t know that when I created Futuro. So understand that there are going to be other opportunities. If you want to work in a mainstream [media organization] like in The New York Times or the San Francisco Chronicle or the LA Times, go and put in the work there and find your allies so that you can withstand it, because it’s not easy. But also, there are other opportunities that are going to come up. Futuro is growing right now.
Big picture is just find your allies, find the people who you can let it all out. Find a way that you, whatever it is—meditating, working out, dancing, listening to loud music— whatever it is that helps you to come down and then realize that you are a part of history and that we need you desperately. I know it’s so hard, but please try not to give up.
Even if you have to leave journalism and come back or leave journalism and do something else but you still do journalism on your free time, don’t give it up. We need you. GARCEL: We need more Latino-led newsrooms. We need more stories being told from us by us. There’s just not enough. HINOJOSA: Before you go to your next question, I want to actually say something about that, because Futuro media is actually in the process of growing.
One of the things that we’ve developed— which I’m so excited about and this happens because I have an amazing chair of my board who has inspired me to write the book. Deepa [Donde] actually said to me, “You know what, Maria? Let’s create your own unit within Futuro.”
Even though I’m the founder, it’s like my next thing. We created the Futuro Unidad Hinojosa, which we call the FUH. What I’m doing with the FUH is that we are in the process of launching an investigative unit that I’m going to run and create because—guess what, Jacqueline—there is no place that has a consistent investigative unit that is looking at stories that need to be uncovered specifically for the Latino-Latina community. Not even Univision, not even Telemundo have consistent investigative units, because it’s expensive. It’s hard work. It takes time. You have to work on a story for a year, for example.
We are trying to do that. We want to be the first to create an investigative unit that is specifically uncovering stories of systematic and structural abuse of Latinos and Latinas and immigrants in the United States of America. The tip of the iceberg is the horrors. When you ask that question “How much worse can it get?” It’s there already, I’m sorry to say.
There is no way that we can prove that an infant, a toddler who doesn’t even speak English, how are they going to talk about the fact that they’re being sexually assaulted in an immigrant detention cage. That’s happening right now.
Women are being raped right now. People are being fed food with maggots right now because that’s how the private prison industry makes money; it buys expired food, and it serves it to us. Investigative work. Let me tell you, I am fired up. GARCEL: We should be. We need it desperately. We need it with respect and dignity to lift up those voices with integrity.
There was a moment where you were questioned in terms of your Latino agenda you were bringing to the newsroom. [you had to] get the story to Walter Cronkite; you were told “He’s not going to read that,” but you push. You push, Maria. When you said this, you made it clear you’re not pushing for yourself. You’re pushing for everyone else who is going to come up behind you, and we can keep pushing forward. HINOJOSA: I really loved writing this, because I had never put it on paper. The story goes that I end up working at CBS. My father was finally happy that I had a network job, even though I had told him I don’t know how long I’m going to stay, because getting into a network is good, but I also write about the golden handcuffs. If you start working in one of these places it might be hard to leave, because you’re making money. Money is a nice thing to have, but it may mean that you don’t necessarily do the best journalism necessarily.
Anyway, so I was working at CBS News. They asked me to produce Walter Cronkite’s end-of-the-year commentary. It was the year 1987. That was the way to keep him connected to CBS, because he had already retired.
As a producer, I had to write his commentary. I really suffered through this, because of my imposter syndrome. I was like, “My god.” I was suffering through this.
I wrote a lot of drafts by hand. I remember writing it by hand on that long legal pad and then going back. I worked really hard, because I wanted to be sure that I wasn’t coming off as the angry Latina, that I had to be a good journalist and know that Walter Cronkite was going to read this.
I had to internalize Walter Cronkite. That’s when I was like, “I’m a good writer. I can try to do that, but I will never see the world through his eyes.”
That’s okay. I’m not a lesser journalist because of that. Anyway, so the story goes, I write this commentary and my boss says, “Now, Walter will never read this.” It was really taking on the government, because Oliver North was a convicted liar at that point. I guess he had already been charged. Anyway, corruption galore in the United States of America, with the contras and all of that stuff under the Reagan administration. I said, “Well, I think he’ll read it.” He said, “No. It’s too much you.”
I thought he was going to do this. I said, “Well, let’s go downstairs to the fishbowl,” which is where they produce the “CBS Evening News.” Even today, it’s called the fishbowl, because it’s all glass offices around the anchor desk. We went down there. I said, “Don’t tell him who wrote it. Just give it to one of the senior editors. See what he says.”
He went down there. He handed it to [Cronkite]. He read it. It was short. He was like, “Yeah. This is good. Just change that word. It’s great.” It was that moment where I was like, “Stop gaslighting yourself. You are good enough. You are good enough.”
I did feel like I had to take one for the team. [CBS News producer] Norman Morris was such a champion of mine. Then, in this moment, he let me down. I was like, “I’m not going to let you down. I’m going to prove to you that the reason why you
hired me is because I am good. I’m good at what I do. It’s not just because I’m Latina. It’s because I’m good.” But there was a lot of imposter syndrome that followed me up until not too recently. GARCEL: Maria, the other thing that you talk about in the book [is] California Prop. 187, 25 years ago last year. Prop. 29 happened around the same time. It was part of this trifecta of an anti-immigrant set of policies that were trying to hush us, push us out, criminalize us.
This year Californians have an opportunity to actually reverse it with Prop. 16—the [Proposition] 209 ban on affirmative action. Prop. 16 [would] reverse that. Any insight on how the outcome of that might affect the rest of our country? HINOJOSA: What happened in California with Prop. 187 had ripple effects all the way to my house. At that point, my family was still in Chicago. My mother and my sister became American citizens—they’re based in Chicago—because of what was happening with Governor Pete Wilson and California.
Other than that, I don’t think that they would have become citizens. That’s the kind of ripple effect that that had. As you know, the ripple effect also was that it created a slew of Latino and Latina activists who have become empowered. They were the precursors to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Can you imagine California putting forward a Prop. 187 now? I want to remind people that my early years of journalism here in New York City were covering racially motivated hate crimes in New York City. New York—where we really try to all get along, and I think we’re doing a pretty darn good job considering we just took down the pandemic, this one city. That’s what was happening here.
If you think of New York and California now, it’s like, “That was old stuff and we’re so past that.” What happens in California is going to have a huge impact in the rest of the country. If that happens, if affirmative action is reinstated, it’s going to be another plateau, but the point is we’re having a moment of reckoning right now. [California voters rejected Proposition 16 by 57.2 percent to 42.8 percent.—Ed.]
One of my staffers said something like, “This third iteration of Black Lives Matter.” I was like, “No, mamita, not third iteration.” Black Lives Matter began the day the first black and slave person arrived here. It has been consistent throughout. The anti-immigrant sentiment that we deal with is built on anti-indigenous hatred, anti-black hatred, anti-immigrant hatred. We need to make those connections. GARCEL: Again, the questions are coming in. Any advice for a first generation Latina trying to have a conversation with her Mexican parents about anti-blackness? HINOJOSA: We’ve just got to have it, just got to have that conversation. Its like I don’t even know where to begin, but if you can, talk to your parents about what happened in Mexico. What happened is that Mexico was very forward thinking. In the mid1800s, they had a caste system that was all about caste based on race.
Then, in 1865, Benito Juarez is elected president, the first indigenous president. So you can use that as an entry [into the discussion with your parents]. Let’s talk about anti-indigenous hate in Mexico. Why is it so hard to accept our indigenous selves and yet Mexico did elect Benito Juarez—who by the way his most famous saying is respect for other people’s rights brings everybody peace. Brilliant Benito Juarez, an indigenous man.
Mexico then got rid of the castes. Mexican, Black, white—you were all Mexican. Then there was no Black or white. That’s a beautiful thing, but it erased the fact that there were many, many, many Black Mexicans. Therefore, we didn’t have a way to talk about Afro-Mexicanos. We didn’t have the language, because they didn’t want to talk about the issue of race, which in many ways was kind of progressive.
If we can talk about our own families, I immediately think of, “Oh, my god.” When I had the moment, my revelation growing up in a Black community hearing anti-Black statements from my family, then just kind of thinking about this and looking one day at my uncle. I’m just like, he looks black. What’s up with her? What’s up with the facial marking?
That’s why I was like, “Can you talk about the Olmecas and the Cabeza Olmeca,” which if you see is a Black Mexican, then maybe you can say, “We have to understand that it actually is part of us in Mexico.” Then, if you can talk about the history of racism in this country, why do you have racism against Black people? Well, because they were brought here in chains, and there had to be a way to make them feel less than. That’s all part of the narrative. We don’t want to participate in a narrative that makes a human being less than.
If you’re able to make those connections and then maybe move to, “You understand the way people talk about Black people is the way they talk about us.” To my dad, who had issues around internalized homophobia, I would say, “Papi, don’t use that word, papi. There are members of our family who are gay.”
In some ways, it’s just like old words that they just can’t get out of. With patience and love mostly, if possible—it’s how I would have those conversations. GARCEL: Wherever we started, we’ve just got to open our mouth and be the ones to initiate those conversations. My dad is Black Dominican; mom is white Dominican. It’s painful that we don’t talk about this and center our own pain from the anti-Blackness in our own community. HINOJOSA: I’ll see you. You’re going to come to Washington Heights soon enough. GARCEL: I was just there two weeks ago. HINOJOSA: Oh my god. We would have to go to Elsa La Reina Del Chicharron. GARCEL: Yes, I went there three times while I was there, mask and all, waiting my 10 minutes outside to get my libra de chicharrones. HINOJOSA: Okay. People who don’t know, I didn’t know about Elsa until 10 years ago. I really should not be eating pork, but let me tell you something— GARCEL: I can just smell it right now. HINOJOSA: Oh my god, there’s nothing like it. Oh my god. GARCEL: All right. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to get some chicharrones. Then, we’re going to get a cafecito.
This is from Peter: Any advice to both [political] parties on how to improve their reach to varied Latinx for their votes? HINOJOSA: Both parties? Well, the Republican Party is going to have a lot of work to do. I don’t really know how they’re going to repair this. The fact that, let’s say, 25 percent of Latinos and Latinas support Donald Trump and this Republican Party is cause for concern, but I’m not really sure that you can grow it much beyond that. I don’t know how you recuperate and rebuild the party that is built on hatred and anti-immigrant and anti-Latino sentiment.
I’m really not sure what’s going to happen. I’m really watching all of the former Republicans that have now formed the Lincoln Project. What will those Republicans do, because they’re now all supporting Democrats? We need a Republican Party. We need that friction.
The Democratic Party, time is running out. I have said this publicly all over the place. You really cannot win huge and big unless you have massive Latino and Latina
“What we did learn after the enthusiasm of getting Barack Obama elected [is] that no matter what happens, it is up to all of us to hold them accountable. Period.” —MARIA HINOJOSA
voter support.
Do you know about the elections in Puerto Rico, what that’s like? Oh, my god, it’s a party. The elections in Puerto Rico involved caravanas, caravans with speakers that are as big as my room, speakers that will blow your head off and the speakers have jingles for each of the candidates. I’m like, “When is the Democratic Party here in the United States going to figure out contra?” Just get the caravanas. Get those flags going. I’m not a political activist. How is it that I can figure that out and they can’t? GARCEL: They haven’t gotten to know us. They don’t listen. They don’t see us.
Maria, the other question related to this one: Some Gen Z Latinos are feeling really disillusioned at our political system specifically because they don’t want to vote for either Biden or Trump. What do you have to say to them? HINOJOSA: I don’t know who it was that said it so beautifully, because I’ve just seen so many things. It was somebody super political who basically was like, “Yeah, Biden’s got problems all over the place. I’m voting for him. There’s no doubt about it.”
At this point with Ruth Bader Ginsburg—who also was not perfect, but okay— with her gone, this is some very scary stuff. The possibility of Donald Trump being able to name even more people to the Supreme Court would be a real-life horror for us.
I’m going to tell you something that someone close to me said, but maybe this will be a reason why Latinos and Latinas should absolutely get to the polls and vote no matter what. I feel the disrespect. Bernie Sanders would not have won were it not for Latino and Latina voters. We showed up. Then, it was kind of like, “Thank you. Next.”
But this person said to me this morning, “I think I better make the appointment at the gynecologist.” I was like, “Okay. Why? For your annual checkup?”
She said, “No. Given what’s happening in the country with the Supreme Court, I think maybe I should get my IUD now in case Donald Trump gets reelected.” There’s a reason why I stopped watching The Handmaid’s Tale. I could not continue because it was too close to home. We are at that point.
I’m going to make a joke now, because it’s getting really deep here. I’m five things that this president doesn’t like, which is why if he gets reelected, it’s going to be really challenging because I am these five things.
I am Mexican.
I’m an immigrant.
I’m a journalist.
I’m a woman.
I’m flat chested.
I know. You guys are like, “What? What did you say?” I can say that because it’s my body. You can’t say that, but I joke.
But the truth is that we couldn’t imagine four years of Donald Trump. It was a very scary moment. Look what we have: forced hysterectomies, children who are in cages ripped apart from their parents, Muslims being banned from this country, trans people being banned, Puerto Rican people being insulted by having paper towels thrown at them, and a kind of bullying.
Donald Trump, he’s the product of a psychopathic father. I did read Mary Trump’s book. He’s also not very smart. We all see this. He cannot get the basic names of states right.
The deference that media gives to him, it needs to stop. This is an authoritarian regime that we’re living in. That is a reason, maybe not to get enthusiastic, but let me tell you this. What we did learn after the enthusiasm of getting Barack Obama elected? I’m not on a political train. I’m not like, “Yeah. He won. It’s all good.” We have learned now that no matter what happens, it is up to all of us to hold them accountable. Period.
It’s not like, “Oh, he won. It’s all good. Oh, it’s a Black man. Yes.” No. Democracy doesn’t stop. Activism doesn’t stop. Demands don’t stop because of that.
