Everyone is Mexican on Cinco de Mayo! Who doesn’t love Taco Tuesday? And, just a few weeks ago “Latina,” makeup was trending on TikTok. Yet, 49% of the United States voted for a xenophobic, authoritarian-in-republican-drag, idiot. Day one back on the job Donald Trump issued executive orders to end all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs, firing countless government employees simply based on association with the acronym. Latina Media Co wrote about the wage gap and Trump’s discriminatory policies in fall of 2018, and since then things have only plummeted for the Latinx community. Forget the .57 cents Latinas still get for every $1.00 of their counterparts – stop firing us, bring innocent human beings with legal status back, and quit allowing ICE to determine who is a “good” and who is “bad” based on appearance and racist assumptions. That’s the cost of being Latinx in Donald Trump’s America.
Former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, Lisa Rinna’s daughter Amelia Gray, can carbon-copy model Gabbriette’s entire vibe and be praised endlessly for her innovativeness, then turn that imitation into a joke for a Marc Jacobs campaign. Willy Chavarria can win a coveted CFDA award and be appointed Vice President of Men’s Design for Calvin Klein off his Chicano-inspired designs, but outside of the runway, the look still carries a stigma.
Meanwhile, I can’t hide my skin color. I’m visibly Puerto Rican, Spanish, and Mexican. No amount of lighter foundation shade can hide it. It’s not a fashion accessory I can change out with every season.
I thought Americans would collectively outgrow Trump and his racist white nationalism after he incited an insurrection and kept classified documents in a random room at his golf club. Bad Bunny was the first non-English language artist to be Spotify’s Most Streamed Artis and he held the title for three years. Wednesday starring Jenna Ortega became one of Netflix’s most-watched series, and Rosalía Rosalia’d (she’s Spanish, we know). But obviously there was racism residue left, because Donald Trump was re-elected four years later.
To say I was flabbergasted at the re-election of a convicted felon to the highest office in the country would be an understatement on unfathomable levels. Hate really does trump common sense and self-interest. How do tax cuts for multi-billion dollar companies benefit Republican voters? Have those profits trickled down yet or are companies increasing pricing while simultaneously giving shareholders record returns?
I once heard something about squirrels that sums up billionaires fairly accurately. If scientists encountered a squirrel, who hoarded and hoarded nuts to an obscene amount, as other squirrels around it were dying from starvation, that animal would be studied. Yet, it’s apparently aspirational for human beings to hoard wealth while paying their employees an unlivable wage. Companies buying houses and making it impossible to achieve the “American Dream” is business as usual.
Within the first 100 days of his second presidency, Donald Trump issued an updated travel ban which includes both Venezuela and Cuba. Immigration advocacy groups started litigating, immediately, arguing the ban is discriminatory on nationality and religious grounds. Yet, 42% of Latinxs nationwide voted for Trump in 2024 versus 19% in 2016. A large number of those votes coming from Cuban Americans in Miami, Florida. It’s like they don’t realize their choices make the cost of being Latinx that much harder.
We all can’t be seeing, reading, and existing in the same space as the people cheering the president on as he plunges America into its decline with these bigoted executive orders. All empires fall, but I didn’t think I’d live through mine. MAGA politicians have created a systematic shift in normal, civil decorum. Americans keeps lowering the bar on acceptable behavior from elected officials.
There’s no sane rule of law anymore. Since regaining office, the president has tried to expedite and expand the detainment of immigrants, unsympathetic to the atrocities most are attempting to escape. Selena Gomez, a Texas-born US citizen, was threatened with deportation by some uneducated, political pundit for voicing concerns about the inhumane treatment of deportees. Empathy for immigrants is referred to as a sin on X. These are examples of the real cost of being Latinx in 2025.
Fascism is fully back, yet oddly, might have a crush on Jenna Ortega. It’s perplexing and contradictory to their ethos, but when have Nazis ever made sense?
