How has this “Age of Trump” impacted the U.S/Mexico foreign relations?

Most of us who have any interest in Mexico Independence Day got our celebrating done last weekend – in Chicago, parades were held in the South Chicago and Little Village neighborhoods. Yet the actual holiday Saturday will be acknowledged in the Pilsen neighborhood with yet another parade.

U.S. acknowledgement of Mexico independence

So on this 217^th anniversary of the date on which Spain’s North American colonies officially declared their independence as a free and sovereign nation, it intrigues me to wonder of the state of relations between our two nations.

PARTICULARLY SINCE OUR current president has gone out of his way to bash about Mexico every chance he can get so as to enhance his status amongst the nativist nitwit segment of our society.

It was right after Donald J. Trump was sworn into office at the beginning of this year that The New Yorker published its own commentary under the headline Donald Trump blows up the U.S.-Mexico relationship. While the Washington Post published a commentary by the former Mexico ambassador to the United States under the headline The U.S.-Mexico relationship is dangerously on the edge. Just a couple of examples – I’m sure you are aware of many more.

Now I don’t doubt the xenophobes amongst us could care less about this. The fact that we shouldn’t want the most significant nation with which we share a border to think of us as a hostile presence seems to allude them.

Mexican cry of Independence

Yet that seems to be a reality, according to a new Pew Research Center study.

SOME 65 PERCENT of Mexicans surveyed now think negatively toward the United States – that’s double the amount compared to two years ago and most-definitely an all-time high.

Yes, this is attributable to the presence of Trump as president – it seems only 5 percent of Mexicans surveyed have confidence that Donald J. will do the right thing with regard to world affairs Admittedly, most foreign nations think the U.S. president is a boob, but Pew surveyed people from 37 foreign nations and the Mexican perception of Trump is the lowest of them all.

It also seems that only 55 percent of Mexicans think that economic ties between their nation and the United States are beneficial – down significantly from 73 percent back in the Obama presidential days of 2013.

It’s not a pretty picture. Trump’s trash talk has created an environment that interferes with the ability of business to get done. Which is ironic, since Trump backers always like to claim (foolishly, I’d argue) that Trump’s business background and leanings supposedly give him an edge in achieving the bottom-line of success.

YET WITH THE activity of recent days where Trump is supposedly willing to consider backing off some of his rash trash talk on immigration policy and consider serious negotiation on issues such as DACA (that childhood arrival policy), it could be a positive step.

Except that Trump has our nativist nitwit segment of society all riled up into thinking that mass deportations of everybody not exactly like themselves are imminent any day now. They could wind up turning on him.

Whereas there are people who think that serious efforts between Mexico and the United States to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement ought to end because Mexico should not negotiate with such a political crackpot as Trump.

A move that truly would hurt interests in both countries – since we should keep in mind that the people most inclined to hate the concept of NAFTA are the ones who have ideological hang-ups about doing business with Mexico. They value their alleged Aryan purity over the almighty dollar.

SOMETHING THE NATIVISTS ought to keep in mind. That for all the hostility they want to spew toward Mexico, the sentiment is similar on the other side of the border. All because of the trash talk.

Mexico Independence celebrations, such as this 1957 parade through South Chicago neighborhood, have become Chicago traditions in their own right

Something we should keep in mind on this date when people in Mexico celebrate their independence, and the Spanish-speaking enclaves of this country also make their efforts to acknowledge el grito – the cry of independence first heard just over two centuries ago.

Something to think about just in case you happen to be amongst those out in the Pilsen neighborhood celebrating the holiday. Or maybe you're celebrating U.S. District Court senior Judge Harry Leinenweber, the Ronald Reagan era-appointed judge (and real Republican, rather than these ideologue-tainted and racially-motivated nitwits who run the GOP today) who on Friday issued the ruling that favors cities declaring themselves to be sanctuary cities and goes against the Trump-era government's threats to cut off their federal funding.

We really are better off as a nation if we manage to co-exist with our neighbors in a peaceful situation. Or at least don’t have them thinking our economic downfall would somehow benefit their interests.

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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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Day the river turns greener than usual

The holiday proper may be Monday, but Saturday's the day that the explorer who allegedly "discovered" America becomes Christopher O'Columbus for a day.

On Friday, it was the fountain outside Daley Center that was dyed green. On Saturday, it will be entirety of the Chicago River. Come Sunday, it will be the garbage from the parade that has a green residue. Photograph by Gregory Tejeda

It's the St. Patrick's Day parade, which in Chicago used to be an overbloated, pompous display of political might from the politicos of Irish ethnic origins.

IT'S NOT WHAT it used to be, though. I recall the old days of parades down Dearborn Street (and perhaps we ought to be fortunate that one of them wound up being integrated into the 1994 film "The Fugitive" so we can get a glimpse of what they used to be.

Now, those parades travel down about a four-block stretch of Columbus Drive. Which allows for the city skyline to be in the background. But which also gives them a generic parade feel.

Who can tell the difference between the Irish parade or the Mexican Independence Day event or any other group that has their annual parade along the same strip?

Gov. Pat Quinn will be on hand for the Saturday parade. But what will it say when an authentic Irish-American pol will likely be overshadowed by a Jewish guy?

RAHM EMANUEL IS, after all, Da Mayor. Quinn is just a political schnook who has to go to Springfield to be considered important (and even there doesn't get a whole lot of respect).

If anything, it is the events such as the South Side Irish parade out in the Beverly neighborhood that takes on more character, or the events that will be held in various suburban communities.

One of those in Elmhurst took place a week ago, and it resulted in a man having spent the past week in the DuPage County Jail, where charges are pending against him for comments he posted on a website hinting he might set off explosives during the event.

Definitely not someone in the holiday spirit.

PERSONALLY, I DON'T get all that excited about St. Patrick's Day. Although it is encouraging to see that Cinco de Mayo celebrations in Chicago are not the only ethnic-inspired events that result in way too much alcoholic consumption. (Just for what it's worth, the Census Bureau says 34.1 million U.S. residents claim Irish ethnic background, compared to 53.03 million who are Latino).

But it does say something about the ethnic character of Chicago that the people still try to do something to maintain an awareness of who they are and where they came from.

Which is something I find dismaying about visiting other places, where the white people have become so generic that they don't have a clue what they are (and anybody who tries to retort "They're American!" is missing the point of what our nation truly is).

I also find it amusing to see the annual tradition in Chicago that will be carried out this morning -- where the Chicago River is dyed green.

A NICE, BRIGHT shade of kelly green that looks like something the Lucky Charms leprechaun would wear before you took a bite of that overly-sugary mass that no one above the age of six ought to eat.

Which is different from the dull shade of greyish-green tha the Chicago River has become every other day of the year -- on account of the century's worth of pollution that has accumulated ever since the river flow's direction was altered to keep pollution out of Lake Michigan.

That makes me wonder about all those people who claim that the alteration is to blame for the possibility of Asian Carp getting into Lake Michigan. They'd have the engineering miracle undone.

Which could mean the residue of St. Patrick's Day could wind up in the lake. How many decades worth would it take before the lake turned green -- and we'd have to hear a batch of political dweebs from Michigan and Wisconsin complain about that!

SO FOR THOSE of you who feel compelled to show up at the Columbus Drive parade, here's hoping you enjoy yourself. Although I couldn't help but notice that the commuter trains I rode on Friday made a point of of mentioning that no alcohol would be permitted this weekend.

Although from my past years' experiences, I'm sure there will be those who get themselves "loaded" before catching a train, while also finding a way to smuggle a few bottles on themselves.

Is that the "Chicago Way" when it comes to parades?

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