Many people may wonder how so many Hispanics in the US are MAGA Republicans. There is a historical explanation.
Mexicans such as my great grandparents who fled the Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s had experienced the tyranny of oppressive government, and the instability of revolution. Once settled in the US, their kids were sent to segregated schools throughout the Southwest, where they were conditioned with a patriotic education and denied the ability to speak Spanish. They were taught to love the idea of America, and to despise their own culture. Once of age, most of my great uncles enlisted in the military, both out of duty to country as well as to family. After all, in the border town where my grandparents were born and raised, Douglas Arizona, the only work available in the area was either the cotton fields, or else the local copper smelter. So, the young men would join the military as a career opportunity, sending monthly allotment checks back home to the family. This is the story of so many Chicanos.
Then there are the Cubans who fled after the revolution, mostly of the well to do class and more Spanish than Taino or African in roots, and that enjoined unparalleled privilege in pre-revolutionary Cuba. Those first-generation immigrants have largely identified as a counter revolutionary demographic, and naturally gravitated towards the platform of the Republican party, historically as well as today.
Then there are all the Central Americans who settled in the US during the revolutionary period of the 1980s in which there were Marxist revolutions, and US backed counter-revolutions– in El Salvador and Honduras, in Guatemala and Nicaragua. These refugees are composed of a blend of both Democrat and Republican oriented, depending on which side or party they place the blame on for the source of their suffering. As a result, many who blame the rebels for their trauma identify as Republican.
And many South Americans who have come here, and who identify as MAGA Republicans, are also members of the educated and elite class, also usually more of European blood than indigenous or African, who have come here to flee Leftist governments in places like Venezuela, Brazil, and Colombia.
In other words, political lines are drawn largely on the historical experience, coupled with class and race. There are variations, and nuances, yes. But alas, we are generally given only two options Democrat or Republican, which of course is an ultimatum. So, is this truly a democracy? Or a sham? Perhaps a tragedy?
Truth2Power!