At the Pennsylvania Conference for Women, Michelle Obama made some controversial comments and described the Republican Party as “all men, all white.”
With all due respect, Obama’s comments overlooked me and many others like me who don’t fit the “all men, all white” view of the Republican Party. Her remarks overlooked Republican politicians such Marco Rubio, Mia Love, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and many others. I know the GOP is not perfect and there’s a lot of room for improvement, but other voices are there and they matter.
In honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which ended on Oct. 15, I talked with Yali Nunez, the Republican National Committee’s director of Hispanic media, and Jon Espinoza, who currently works on staff in the House of Representatives, to discuss what it’s like to be a Hispanic Republican.
It may be true that the GOP is not doing great with Hispanic communities in general. Data from 2016 from the Pew Research Center show that Hispanics generally believe Democrats are “more concerned” about their community and overwhelmingly tend to identify with the Democratic Party.
Two-thirds of Hispanic voters identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party
Image of Democratic Party improves over the past decade among Latino registered voters
There are those that take this kind of data and believe it legitimizes a stereotype that Hispanics and the GOP are mutually exclusive. It has become a weapon for the identity politics police who question one’s loyalty and even morality if they dare to veer from this trend.
I can vouch for the pressure this puts on a person. So many times during the last election I was asked how, as both a Latina and a woman, I could continue to support the Republican Party with then-candidate Donald Trump espousing racist and sexist comments. More often than not though, the questions were more in disbelief than genuine inquiry.
On the Mexican side of my family, my aunt completely rejected the idea of identity politics. It made her feel like she had to choose to between being Mexican and being American. She said it was fine if people celebrated their heritage — for her, as a second-generation American, she felt disconnected from Mexico.
“I didn’t like people telling me that I was Mexican-American,” she continued, explaining that it felt like she was being told, “I’m only half American.”
For Espinoza, there is no need to choose between his heritage and his party affiliation, though he readily acknowledges the pressure and criticism that exists for Hispanic Republicans.
While he stressed that the Hispanic community “still faces challenges” economically, educationally, and socially, Espinoza said, “It’s harder to be Republican than Latino.” He described that he has felt pressured by friends and family, and not only from members of the Hispanic community.
“People like to label people,” Espinoza explained. He expressed how he felt that people “need to look beyond” the stereotypes and misconceptions “and see who we really are as the GOP.”
Espinoza, who graduated from Georgetown in 2016, has worked in Trump’s White House and currently works as a House staffer. In his time at the White House, which he described as “the privilege of a lifetime” regardless of party, he said, “my ideas were always respected.”
As a proud Hispanic and openly gay man, Espinoza feels that his time in politics is an opportunity to represent his communities, not defy them. He said, “The day you forget that you’re serving the public is the day you need to step down.”
Espinoza described how he felt that he couldn’t express himself while at Georgetown University. He said that expressing views that didn’t quite fit with the liberal trends on campus would get slammed with accusations of being homophobic, racist, sexist, etc. For him, “those words were just as hurtful.”
As a current senior at Georgetown, I’ve also felt and witnessed a similar push back in campus dialogue.
Nunez’s immigrant experience, fleeing from Fidel Castro’s Cuba and succeeding in America, has made her proud of both parts of her identity. Washington Examiner‘s Melissa Quinn wrote a wonderful piece about Nunez’s journey to the U.S.
“I feel it is important to know where you come from so you know where you are going,” she wrote in an email. “I feel as American as I do Cuban. I also feel I have an eternal debt to this country that has given me so much.”
It is in that vein of gratitude and pride that Nunez works at the RNC to promote the party’s Hispanic outreach.
Nunez explained that the GOP is expanding their ground game and training staff to “communicate the Republican message.”
She highlighted that the tax reform plan “which the American people — including the Hispanic community — have [wanted] for so long, will allow us to boost the economy, simplify the process, and support American jobs.” She noted that this reform will give families “a larger child tax credit.”
In 2016, the economy was the second-highest area of concern for Latinos. According to Pew, 80 percent of all registered Latino voters felt the economy as a national issue was “very important.”
Immigration is ranked towards the bottom of top national issues for Latinos. It fell from the fourth- to the fifth-most important issue from 2014 to 2016.
Education and the economy top issues for Latino voters in 2016 election
Top Issues for Latino Registered Voters
Despite the low ranking during election season, immigration has become a major issue nationwide, especially with President Trump’s rollback of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, programs.
I never knew for sure how my great-grandmother came to America until just last week. Details of how and when she came over are actually still a mystery to my grandmother and aunt, because no one ever thought to ask. “Back then, nobody cared,” my aunt explained.
I never got to meet my great-grandmother, Grandma Tula, but my aunt told me that she was very proud of her green card and of being a legal resident. She learned English from the woman whose house she cleaned and “was more American than we are.” Although my aunt did mention that Grandma Tula never returned to visit Mexico — she was afraid that the government would not let her back into America.
The tension and confusion in my family history is not unique, but for many Hispanic Republicans, valuing security and rule of law does not negate the compassion for immigrants.
“I have great appreciation for people who are seeking a better life for their family, but they should go about it through the legal channels,” Nunez wrote. “Particularly those of us who fled from corrupt nations, we know the importance of rule of law and we should always seek to abide by it.”
Espinoza had similar thoughts on immigration. He stressed that as a nation we can’t and shouldn’t deport 11 million people, except for those with a criminal record of high crimes and felonies. “We need to bring them out of the shadows” in order for the U.S. to practice “what we preach [regarding human rights] around the world.”
“We need to secure the border and respect American sovereignty,” he stressed, and said the federal government should employ “the most effective tools possible.” For Espinoza, strengthening the border is “not to keep people out, but to know who is coming in.”
Regarding DACA, Nunez and Espinoza’s responses differed.
For Espinoza, he admitted that he was “a little disappointed in how we handled DACA as a party.” He explained, although he felt DACA was unconstitutional, and should have been officially enacted through Congress, “you can’t put an entire section of the population in limbo.”
Harking back to his point on deporting criminals, he stressed that there is no way prove mens rea for a three-year-old who was brought across the border.
Nunez, on the other hand, expressed a more positive outlook on the DACA situation. She stressed that the Trump administration’s rollback actually brought the DACA program “out of the migratory limbo it was under” in order to “find a permanent and compassionate solution to the lives of these young adults.”
“We all understand how sensitive this issue is and I hope Congress uses this time wisely to come up with a compassionate, fair, and permanent solution.”
On Oct. 6, despite his previous contentious statements about Hispanics, Trump gave a speech in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.
Trump said, “The spirit and creativity that shines through Hispanic heritage is woven into the very fabric of our great nation. Our amazing Hispanic American communities embody our great American values of faith and family and security and hard work and freedom.”
Both Nunez and Espinoza expressed the importance of similar values to me.
Nunez feels the Republican Party’s values “embody” why the U.S. is the best place to live. “Having lived in Cuba under a dictatorial regime, I have an even greater appreciation for the principles that the Republican Party stands for, such as limited government, freedom, and respect for human rights.”
“The biggest thing for me is hard work,” Espinoza explained. He described how his family grew up poor, but that their struggles “were the American dream.”
His great-great-grandmother, who came to the U.S. legally, knew she would never have a lavish job, but knew it would give her children a better life. His mother had him when she was young, but insisted that it was her “responsibility, not the government’s, to raise you to be contributing members of society.”
He would advise anyone who feels like being Republican is a burden “to never compromise your morals and ethics and what you believe in, in order to fit into a mold.”
For me, someone who has had a complicated relationship with my Hispanic heritage, I do not feel that being Republican sacrifices any part of that. Both are aspects of my identity and I am proud of both. Both are areas that I will continue to grow in. Both are equally deserving of recognition.
Gabriella Muñoz is a commentary desk intern with the Washington Examiner and a student at Georgetown University.
