Mendoza 1

Vanessa Mendoza
Anya Connelly
English 5
3 August 2016
Ethnic Issues Surrounding Politics
I find myself to be a part of many discourse communities. A discourse community is a
community of people, who have the same, if not similar ideas, passions, interests, and so on so
forth. One of the communities that I find myself to identify the most with, would be the
Hispanic/Latino community, but mostly with Mexicans/Mexican Americans. One of the issues
that this community faces, especially when the 2016 Presidential Election Year came around,
would be the identities that the Republican candidate Donald Trump put on us, which made us
question our own identity and caused outrage in many communities, especially the
Mexican/Mexican Americans and Hispanic/Latino communities. I do not personally support the
claims that Donald Trump has said about this community, including myself, because what he said
was very offensive and disrespectful to the Hispanic/Latino communities. I believe that we
shouldnt listen to public figures who dont have any supporting evidence to verify their own
claims; and that putting unnecessary identities on people hurts their feelings, plus its a form of
racism, since you are making an ethnic grouping feel/seem inferior to your ethnic group.
During Donald Trumps speech where he declared his candidacy, the identities that he
plastered on the Mexican/Latino community was rapists, criminals, and killers (Moreno).
One of the few quotes where Mr. Trump insulted the Mexican community goes as follows:
[Mexicos] sending people that have lots of problems...Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre
bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And some, I assume, are good people (Moreno). I wasnt fond

Mendoza 2
of the fact that he just assumed and criticized the Mexican community as bad people. I did not
show approval of when he waited until the end of this statement, to say that some people are
good, as if he didnt offend us already; maybe he was trying to appeal to some
Hispanics/Latinos, so he may get their vote. Or he was trying to make a few Mexicans/Mexican
descendants feel proud about his/her accomplishments, who knows. He didnt even use any facts
to support his claims! How are we supposed to trust this source, if he isnt reliable? Noting that
hes the Republican Party Presidential nominee and the potential President of the United States,
how are we to know what hes saying is truthful and correct? How does he think that a grand
majority of Mexicans are criminals, and just a small percentage are actually good people?
Apparently, Trump believes that the only immigrants that are rapists, killers, etc., are
coming from Mexico, and Central and South America, which concludes that he doesnt believe
that European immigrants, European Americans, or Americans are these identities as well. Ive
actually heard that the highest percentage of serial killers comes from England, I believe the U.S
comes in second. While doing some research about serial killers, I came across a graph that
showed that the U.S. has the highest number of serial killers. According to this graph, provided
by Radford University in 2013, the U.S. had 2,320 serial killers, England had 116, while Mexico
only had twenty-two (Quora). Staffan Rydin, the person who provided this information on
Quora, stated that The US has...the most serial killers in the world (per capita as well). Although
only about 4.5x the population of England there are over 20x as many serial killers in the US
(Quora). When I first read this statement, I understood that the English population in the U.S.
contributed to the amount of serial killers in America, which was not the case. While doing some
more research, again by Radford University, I discovered that in the U.S., the highest percentage
by race and decade was the white population, which totaled to 51.7, while Hispanics totaled 6.1

Mendoza 3
(Aamodt). I also discovered that 52.2 percent of serial killers in the U.S. were white, while forty
six percent were white males (Aamodt). I wonder if Trump knew about all these statistics. If he
did, well of course he did not mention it, because he doesnt want himself and other Caucasian
Americans to look bad. It turns out that native-born Americans have higher crime rates than
immigrants. The Washington Post states that first generation immigrants are predisposed to
lower crime rates than Native-born Americans, and that there is no evidence immigrants
commit more crimes than native-born Americans (Lee). This shows that Donald Trump was
wrong, and that he is just blurting out pure nonsense to his audiences. I found it interesting that
he didnt even mention anything about immigrants from other non-Hispanic countries (such as
Canada, the UK, Iceland, etc.). Was it because the majority, Im assuming, of people from these
countries are fair-skinned, which is why he didnt attack and disrespect them? Or maybe because
the majority of European immigrants come to the U.S. legally, and know the English language
well, well never know.
I found it ironic that many Americans (I believe mostly Conservatives and those who dislike
immigrants) are telling the immigrants to go back to their home country, where they belong. I
really dislike this statement, because arent Americans also immigrants? Werent the natives of
the United States Native Americans and Mexicans? Well then, lets all just go back to the
countries where our ancestors grew up, that would take us back to before the Spaniards and other
Europeans settled and discovered the New World. This reminds me of how in How to Tame a
Wild Tongue by Gloria Anzaldua, she states that I remember being caught speaking Spanish at
recess...I remember being sent to the corner of the classroom for talking back, to the Anglo
teacher when all I was trying to do was tell her how to pronounce my name. If you want to be
American, speak American. If you dont like it, go back to Mexico where you belong (Page

Mendoza 4
53). This shows that Gloria got in trouble in school, just because her teacher thought she was
talking back to her, since she didnt understand her, and how the teacher just assumed that shes
from Mexico instead of a different Spanish-speaking country. I really dislike ignorant people. I
didnt like how the teacher supposed that Gloria is from Mexico, as if Mexico is the
generalization term for all Hispanics/Latinos, and if its the only Spanish-speaking country,
maybe because more Mexican immigrants come to America than people from South and Latin
America, who knows what the reasoning was. I also didnt like how the teacher believed that
American is a language. Doesnt she know that its English, and also Mexican isnt a
language either, its Spanish (she didnt state Mexican, Im just giving another example).
Going back to when the teacher said that If you dont like [America/speaking English,] go back
to Mexico where you belong, this shows that the Anglo teacher possibly doesnt like diversity in
America, even though the diversity in America shaped the way that the American society looks
like, full of diverse peoples (Page 53). Another idea that I obtained from this statement is that it
seemed like the teacher sees English as the superior language in America, even though English or
any other language arent the official language(s) of the States; yet the school systems are taught
in English, the government governs in English, television and the news are given in English,
(even though there are some Spanish-speaking channels) this papers in English, and so much
more.
During Trumps rally in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2015, a Latina woman from Colombia, was
brought onstage to declare her love of Donald Trump, and how shell vote for him, since hes the
best candidate in her eyes (Daily Mail). I believe that it was in this rally where Donald Trump
stated that he loves his Hispanic/Latino supporters, (well of course he loves them, since they
have his vote) and that apparently he has a good relationship with them. According to Daily

Mendoza 5
Mail, after Trumps rally in Las Vegas, Trump put to Twitter Just leaving Las Vegas.
Unbelievable crowd! Many Hispanics who love me and I love them! (Daily Mail). So
apparently Trump loves the Hispanics, and if he really does love the Hispanic/Latino community,
how come he wants to build a wall to separate them from him, and expect Mexico to pay for
everything? He also wants to deport millions of undocumented immigrants back to their home
countries. I believe that he only loves those who love him and who are citizens and residents of
this country, because they sometimes dont care about their own ethnicity and race, so these
problems dont apply to them, especially if their family arent illegals. If Donald Trump really
does love the Hispanics and other minorities, how come he is using forces to remove them from
his public rallies, when its a public assembly? Supposedly Conservatives/Republicans memorize
and know the U.S. Constitution by heart, so shouldnt they know that the First Amendment states
that we have the right to assemble peacefully? From my knowledge about these rallies, I believe
that they werent doing anything wrong, they were just stating their opinions, which were in
contrast to what Trump supporters believed in, since many of these people were Trumps antisupporters. Well, it seems that they will only know the Constitution when its convenient and
applicable to them.
In conclusion, many of the claims that the Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump has
said, were harsh, uncivil, and insulting to the Mexican/Mexican American and Hispanic/Latino
communities. He made fellow Hispanics/Latinos feel ashamed of who they are, and even made
them feel some uncertainty about themselves. The claims and stereotypes that he put on these
communities, including myself, made us see our identities differently, especially since Trump is
giving us new identities, which are completely different than the ones that we represent. He
especially criticized the Mexican/Mexican American community, since he wants to build a giant

Mendoza 6
wall to separate the two countries, and because he called them derogatory names, such as drug
dealers, criminals, and rapists. Overall, Donald Trump created terrible stereotypes for the
Hispanics; he isnt credible, since the sources he used werent truthful/ he didnt use any; he is a
hypocrite, since he claims to love the Hispanics, yet he wants to take us away; and that if we (the
Hispanics/Latinos) dont comply or like the U.S. or the majority populations culture, then we
should move away.

Mendoza 7
Works Cited
Aamodt, M. G. Serial Killer Statistics. (n.d): n. Pag. 23 Nov. 2015. Web. July 2016.
<http://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/Serial%20Killer%20Information%20Center/Serial%20Kil
ler%20Statistics.pdf>.
Anzaldua, Gloria. How to Tame a Wild Tongue. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza.
San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute, 1987. 53-64
Lee, Michelle Ye Hee. Donald Trumps False Comments Connecting Mexican Immigrants and
Crime. Washington Post. The Washington Post, 8 July 2015. Web. July 2016.
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2015/07/08/donald-trumps-false-c
omments-connecting-mexican-immigrants-and-crime/>.
Moreno, Carolina. 9 Outrageous Things Donald Trump Has Said About Latinos. The Huffingto
n Post. The Huffington Post, 31 Aug. 2015. Web. July 2016. <http://www.huffingtonpost.co
m/entry/9-outrageous-things-donald-trump-has-said-about-latinos_us_55e483a1e0c818f6189
04b>.
Reporter, Dailymail.com. We Love You All the Way to the White House!: Trump Meets His
Most Enthusiastic Fan Yet, Who Just Happens to Be Hispanic...but He Swears It Isnt a Stunt
. Daily Mail. Associated Newspapers, 09 Oct. 2015. Web. July 2016. <http://www.dailymail
.co.uk/news/article-3265930/We-love-way-White-House-Introducing-Donald-Trump-s-bigge
st-fan-s-Hispanic.html>.
Which Country Has the Most Serial Killers? Quora. Quora, n.d. Web. July 2016.
https://www.quora.com/Which-country-has-the -most-serial-killers>.