I found myself Tuesday standing around the television with my roommates watching the Election Day results, with Fox News reporting live at 2:04 a.m. that Donald Trump was in the lead over Hillary Clinton at 254 electoral votes to 218.
I started to reflect on a country that elected a demagogue and television star to presidential office, and what that means to me, a student born and raised in Reynosa, Mexico, and to the whole Latinx student body.
I reflected on the past year and how gradually Trump became a threat. At first, his ideas and comments angered me, but my laughter at their ridiculousness distracted me. However, as his campaign progressed and his influence grew, farce became tragedy.
His nativist, xenophobic rhetoric incited fear and hatred toward undocumented Latinx people, especially Mexicans. I truly did not foresee the possibility of a presidency that catered to the interests of white nationalists, the KKK, Neo-Nazis and Islamophobes.
In this reflection, I write to my fellow Latinx students and my fellow Mexican students who share in the pride of our beautiful and beloved Mexico: Do not falter in your spirit.
Be resilient, be active and, most of all, be proud of your identity and where you come from in the face of a future presidency that invalidates the struggles and voice of a people whose spirit is embodied in their native tongue of Spanish. We reclaimed our language from European oppressors long ago. Strong people fought hard for independence and power for the indigenous people of our countries.
You may hear disparaging comments from and get in disputes with students who wanted this man in power. You may be told to get out of the country, that your people are illegal humans. It will not be easy, but it will not be hopeless.
Trump alienated us by calling us “the Hispanics.” He made cheap promises to make us pawns for his authoritarian agenda. But he sorely misunderstood us, what we can do and the power in our hands and our voice.
A strong voter turnout of Latinxs and other people who cared for our rights and representation produced a light in the darkness of this election through Roy Cooper claiming victory as governor of North Carolina.
Cooper met with over 25 Latinx community leaders in Greenville to discuss the implications of his election as governor for Latinx people, including the possibility of implementing driver’s licenses and in-state tuition for undocumented students or re-establishing the office of Latinx affairs in North Carolina.
This office would serve as a continuous liaison between the state government and the Latinx community. Cooper seeks to have more diversity and a higher representation of Latinxs in government offices. The future still looks bright.
A Trump or even a Clinton presidency could not discourage me from my activism, my writing and my singing of the anthem “Mexico Lindo y Querido” (Beautiful and Beloved Mexico).
“Beautiful and beloved Mexico/ If I die away from you/ May they say I’m asleep/ And may they bring me here.”
No presidency can suppress our strength, our solidarity and the sound of our chorus of might as we step forward as Latinxs and as Americans for our rights.
