“Trump first ran for president warning about rapists coming in from Mexico,” iconic Mexican American singer Linda Ronstadt recently wrote in an Instagram post, announcing her endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris after this week’s presidential debate. “I’m worried about keeping the rapist out of the White House.”
Like Taylor Swift and Aubrey Plaza before her, Ronstadt accompanied this devastating takedown with a picture of her holding a cat. As I hummed “A Long Long Time,” I searched for Latina journalists who’d written about the singer’s endorsement. I eventually found Latino Entertainment Journalist Association member Tatiana Tenreyro in the Hollywood Reporter. But most outlets still have white folks covering the Chicana icon’s response to an event in her 42% Latinx hometown of Tucson. Sigh.
Thankfully, many Latinas covered this week’s presidential debate and our communities’ various reactions to it. Even though they can be hard to find on Google News and mainstream outlets, their work is necessary and I’m here to help deliver it to you.
Over at Dímelo, Annenberg Media and USC’s bilingual, student-run news desk, Valeria Macias, Erick Trevino, Alexa Hernandez Diaz, and Michelle Chavez covered the debate in real time, noting the importance of Latinx voters along the way.
For Planet Detroit, Isabelle Tavares talked with Latinx voters concerned about climate change (we’re not a single-issue community!). They left their watch part mostly disappointed that neither of the candidates had much to say about our changing planet.
They weren’t the only frustrated Latinx viewers. Over at the Women’s Media Center, Victoria Moran Garcia spoke to first-time Latina voters about the debate. Their primary issues are housing affordability, prejudice against immigrants, and foreign policy. While they leaned towards Harris, the former prosecutor did not do enough to earn all their votes.
And that’s before we get to the whole immigrants-are-eating-our-pets thing. Journalist Annabel Rocha at Reckon asks, “Trump says Haitian migrants are eating pets. Why aren’t Latino groups dragging him?” She notes that leading groups like Voto Latino and Latino Victory decried the former President’s racist rant but our Latinx community should have been a lot louder about it. So, for the record, Haitians are Latinx. An attack on them is an attack on all of us. We’ve got to root out anti-Blackness in our communities – it makes us both weaker and wrong. And make no mistake – this is an attack. Rocha reports how Haitian American communities are experiencing more harassment following Tuesday’s debate.
I also suggest Natasha S. Alford’s CNN segment about the effects of Trump’s (thankfully fact-checked) hate speech. She’s also got a primer at The Grio on protecting your vote, the history of enfranchisement, and your various voting options. Don’t miss it.
