Buried deep in Jack Herrera’s fine Texas Monthly piece titled “Why Democrats are losing Texas Latinos” is the story of 28-year-old English teacher Melissa Castro from Laredo, Texas:
But the question of race arrived in South Texas like a heat wave during the protests against the murder of George Floyd last year. On a sweltering day in late May, a group of a hundred demonstrators, most of whom were young Mexican Americans, marched on Laredo’s city hall. They carried signs declaring Hispanic-Black solidarity (“Tu Lucha Es Mi Lucha: Your Struggle Is My Struggle”) and “Black Lives Matter.”
As the protest proceeded, Melissa Castro, a 28-year-old English teacher at one of the city’s public high schools, who was not at the rally, posted a picture on Instagram. It was minimalist: a photo with banner text reading “All Lives Matter.” The reaction from her friends was immediate and severe. One woman, whom Castro had known almost her entire life, sent her a message saying she should take it down. That friend launched into a diatribe against the lasting legacy of slavery and the ongoing oppression of Black people. But ultimately, she centered on one point, repeated multiple times: “You are not white.”
When we met for the first time in a hotel lobby near downtown Laredo, Castro spoke with the lucidity and patience of an educator, slipping between languages, as many in Laredo do. She joked that if someone from a northern state met her, they’d probably call her Mexican. But she was clear she doesn’t see herself in that way. She’s American.
And it is not just identity politics that is driving Tejanos away from the Democrats. Progressive attacks on law enforcement and the fossil fuel industry are all driving Tejanos to become Republicans. Herrera reports:
But what about Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric? Doesn’t that turn many Tejanos away? Former Webb County Republican chairman Tyler Krauss, who spent the day canvassing South Laredo before talking to Herrera, explained why Trump isn’t a deal-breaker for many. “A lot of people I talk to are several generations removed from their grandparents who moved from Mexico,” he said. “They’ve formed the mentality of American citizens, and so they don’t take the things Trump said [about immigrants] as offensive.”
The more Democrats let their party’s priorities get set by wealthy urban college graduates, the more they are going to drift apart from a diverse base that is far more conservative than they are.
