As Mexican newspapers all suspiciously echo the Mexican government’s triumphalist official story about Trump’s Mexico visit, one illustrious Mexican has stepped up to the task of airing the collective grievances of his countrymen in the Spanish periodical El País. In a forceful op-ed published today, Alejandro González Iñárritú pulled no punches in his condemnation of the Enrique Peña Nieto’s horribly miscalculated publicity stunt.
After a characteristically flowery introduction about the colorful outfits of Mexican and Central American farmworkers, the four-time Academy Award winner finally got to business when he said:
“Enrique Peña Nieto’s invitation of Donald Trump is a betrayal. It gives validity to a man who has insulted us, spat in our faces, and threatened us for over a year in front of the entire world. It shows a lack of dignity and in turn strengthens a political campaign of hatred toward us, toward half of the world, and toward the most vulnerable minorities on the planet. It puts our future and the lives of 16 million Mexicans at risk.”
But the director of The Revenant didn’t stop there. After defending the honor and work ethic of Mexican immigrants in the United States, he made a powerful assertion that should go right to the heart of any Mexican: “168 years ago, Antonio López de Santa Ana gave away almost half of our territory. Yesterday, Peña Nieto gave away the little dignity we had left.”
Ouch, right? And just to put the cherry on top, Iñárritu made it clear that Peña Nieto no longer represents him (which is basically true for almost 80% of the Mexican population), before saying the perfectly coiffed political robot was “not worthy of leading a country.”
Check out the text in its entirety here.