As Donald Trump continues to spread his vitriolic views, Latinos keep calling him out on his racist bullshit. On Tuesday, 67 of the loudest voices in the Latino community joined together to lambast Trump.
Intellectuals, artists, and scientists from all over Latin America and Spain– including Demian Bichir, Junot Díaz, and Elena Poniatowska – said they wouldn’t stay quiet as Trump accused Mexican immigrants of “being criminals, rapists and drug traffickers,” and proposed deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants.
“Trump’s hate speech appeals to xenophobia, sexism and political intolerance; it recalls historical campaigns against other ethnic groups that led to millions of deaths,” the letter reads. “Physical attacks on Hispanics and public assertions that Spanish should not be spoken in public have already occurred.” The letter goes on to condemn Trump for spreading unproven assertions and reducing his opponents to being “stupid” and “weak.”
The letter tries to appeal to reason, something that is often missing from Trump’s comments. “The expulsion of Mexican immigrants would be catastrophic for states such as California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, where Mexicans carry out most manual work. In California our immigrants harvest 200 agricultural products, serve in hotels and restaurants, and collect garbage…. Without Mexican workers, the economy of the state, followed swiftly by the rest of the country, would go to ruin.”
Recently, Anthony Bourdain also defended Latino immigrants and their strong work ethic. He explained that without Latinos, who are willing to start at the bottom, the entire restaurant industry would collapse.
Here is the full list of the Latinos who signed the letter:
Héctor Abad Faciolince
Manuel Alcántara
Arturo Álvarez-Buylla
Ariel Armory
Roger Bartra
Silvia Borzutzky
Carmen Boullosa
Martín Caparrós
Jorge Castañeda
Jennifer Clement
Ramón Díaz Alejandro
Jorge Duany
Jorge Edwards
Sebastián Edwards
Joaquín Estefanía
Julio Frenk
Francisco Goldman
Francisco González Crussí
Teodoro González de León
Roberto González Echeverría
Enrique Krauze
Mario Lavista
Antonio Lazcano
Valeria Luiselli
Nora Lustig
Carlos Malamud
David Mares
Ibsen Martínez
Óscar Martínez
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma
Carmelo Mesa-Lago
Verónica Montecinos
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Moisés Naím
Enrique Norten
Silvia Pedraza
Elena Poniatowska
Alejandro Portes
Luis Prados
Rodrigo Rey Rosa
Rafael Rojas
Vicente Rojo
Ranulfo Romo
Diego Sánchez-Ancochea
Antonio Santamaría García
Arturo Sarukhán
José Sarukhán
Fernando Savater
Javier Sicilia
Eduardo Silva
Guillermo Soberón Acevedo
Edward Telles
Mauricio Tenorio
Antonio Ugalde
Diego Valadés
Álvaro Vargas Llosa
Enrique Vila-Matas
Rolando Villazón
Juan Villoro
Gabriel Zaid