Pondering Mexico’s “independence” at a time when Trump wants to use ethnicity as a political punching bag

It’s Independence Day in Mexico, and if by chance you live near a Mexican enclave in this country you probably got to see and hear a taste of the celebration last night spilling over into Friday.

TRUMP: Will his defeat bring celebration?

Heck, even Gov. Bruce Rauner felt compelled to take part Thursday night in a replication in Chicago’s Harrison Park of “el Grito,” the cry for independence that acknowledged the 1810 breaking away of Spain’s colony into a free and separate nation of Mexico.

WE HEAR A lot about the growing Latino population in this country and see evidence that it is influencing the masses as a whole.

Yet I also don’t doubt there were some individuals who saw and heard the celebration that took place in parts of this country and wound up gnashing their teeth in anger.

These are the people who have their own nativist leanings whose own xenophobia has turned into a particularly irrational hang-up with regards to anything having to do with the Spanish language – particularly as it applies to Mexico.

Which makes sense, in a sense, because it is roughly two-thirds of the Latino population in this country that is specifically of Mexican ethnic leanings. I could see where people who are inclined to be clueless would think that it is “Mexico” that is somehow taking over.

NATURALLY, THERE’S BOUND to be someone inclined to use such leanings to their own benefit. That may well be Donald Trump.

RAUNER: Even Bruce celebrated Mexican freedom

The New York real estate developer who now says he wants to be president has made a point of anti-Mexico rants in his campaign rhetoric. He began by bashing Mexican people in this country as being rapists and drug dealers and all other sorts of slurs.

Of course, many Mexican Americans think of Trump as nothing more than a pinche pendejo (look up a translation yourself) and a baboso. The impression that the level of contempt being contemplated is mutual. There will be many of the people who celebrated Mexican independence who will be prepared to see Trump go down to defeat.

It is a safe bet to say that Trump will NOT take the Latino vote on Election Day. The only real question is if he will set a record low for a Republican candidate. Because many Latinos who vote will be casting ballots against him just as they did against John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

KAINE: Language an advantage?

WE REALLY DIDN'T think that highly of Barack Obama – it was more a sense that we saw him as less objectionable than his opponents. Which really is the case with Hillary Clinton in her bid against Trump; who if Latinos had had their way would have been the Democratic nominee back in 2008.

But I know there are those political observers who are unsure of what will happen because of the sense that the nativist element of our society is excited about Trump BECAUSE OF the fact he’s willing to talk so much trash about Mexicans and is willing to give them the fantasy of a government that will be openly hostile and push for mass levels of deportation.

KIRK: Turning to Spanish to save self politically

It may well come down to the 2016 election cycle being a showdown between the xenophobes and the growing Latino population. I’m sure the nativists are viewing this as a chance to put the foreigners in their place.

While Latinos, including all us Mexicans (my own grandparents came to this country in the 1920s and wound up settling in the South Chicago neighborhood) may use this election cycle as a chance to silence those people politically, once and for all.

THOSE PEOPLE OF sense will see this. I find it humorous that Clinton chose the Spanish-speaking Timothy Kaine (he once worked with Catholic missionaries in Honduras) as her running mate, particularly whenever political pundits feel compelled to say that his language skills are meaningless.

They’re probably the ones who also are peeved with Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., who recently cut a Spanish-language campaign ad for himself – one in which he talks about his own disapproval of Donald Trump. It could sway the Latino vote in his re-election bid against Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill.

While the top priority will still be the presidential campaign. If you think the celebration last night and Friday was out of line, just envision the Latino reaction to a Trump defeat.

Think of the remains of all the piñatas in Trump’s image that will be littering the streets after being smashed to smithereens in joy!

Will Trump be in tatters on the streets of Mexican enclaves everywhere following Election Day?

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