WALNUT, California — Pete Buttigieg pitched building a national museum celebrating the contributions of Latino Americans as part of his plan to patch over relations with the community after President Trump.
“The demonization of the Latino community is a stain on the morality of our country, and it is the job of the president to send a different moral message,” Buttigieg, 37, said Friday during a Latino town hall in Walnut, California.
The South Bend, Indiana, mayor and Democratic presidential candidate added that meant “making sure that we have the kind of education about the contributions of Latino Americans, including a museum.”
“[A museum] I believe deserves to be established at the national level,” he said.
The Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino organization has been pushing to establish a Smithsonian American Latino Museum since 2004. A Commission to Study the Potential Creation of a National Museum of the American Latino submitted a report in 2011.
On Friday, Buttigieg detoured from his stump speech’s usual focus on “belonging” to talk about racial inequities in South Bend. The mayor described how his hometown’s population had been boosted thanks to an influx in immigration and that immigrant communities had helped rejuvenate “neighborhoods that were almost dying.” But he noted how those same communities had been “paralyzed with fear” during the Trump presidency because of the administration’s crackdown on illegal border crossings, recalling one man’s detention.
“In the end, the only way for their family to stay together was for all of them, including his kids who only knew this country, to move to Juarez,” he said of the city on the Texas-Mexico border.
Buttigieg, who has struggled to appeal to nonwhite primary voters, was pummeled by his 2020 Democratic rivals during this week’s debate in Los Angeles over a high-end fundraiser in a “wine cave.” The Harvard College graduate and former Rhodes scholar, who once worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company, referenced his fiery clash with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren over transparency during the town hall.
“I’ll throw an elbow when I have to,” the Afghanistan War veteran responded when asked whether he had the gall to take on Trump in the general election. “I don’t mind defending myself.”
Friday’s Latino event was Buttigieg’s second in the Los Angeles County area. Earlier, he held an environment roundtable in South Gate.
California represents a delegate prize for candidates seeking the nomination. Buttigieg, however, trails former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, as well as Warren, averaging 9.6% support in the state, according to RealClearPolitics data. California’s primary has been moved up the calendar, with voters this cycle casting ballots on Mar. 3, or “Super Tuesday.”
