Puerto Ricans on the Lower East Side say they’ll show their unity with Mexican-Americans by voting against Donald Trump and his anti-immigration rhetoric.
“I think every Latino now is fired up and ready for Nov. 8,” said Enrique Cruz, 41. “I believe that this election and this campaign that the Republicans ran is going to harden the Latino vote for the Democrats for generations.”
The latest census data shows there are 38,000 Latinos – 23,000 of them Puerto Ricans – in the community, making up 23 percent of the neighborhood population. In 2012, 78 percent of Lower East Side voters sided with the Democrats.
But this election, Puerto Rican residents say, is more personal because of Donald Trump’s anti-immigration and anti-Mexican talk. As citizens of the United States, they wouldn’t be affected by Trump’s deportation policies, but immigration is still an issue that informs their vote.
“There always existed a solidarity with Latino immigrants,” said Libertad Guerra, 40, a Puerto Rican resident of the Lower East Side. “We were one of the first Latinos to migrate to the United States.”
This solidarity of mobility, as Guerra called it, makes Puerto Ricans empathetic to Mexican immigrants.
“If anybody is sensitive to immigration it’s Puerto Ricans,” said Elizabeth Colón, who was part of the largest wave of migration to New York City in the 1950s. “There’s an empathy about being classified as not a U.S. citizen.”
A History of Immigration Advocacy
In New York especially, Puerto Ricans were always on the front line of immigration reform, she said.
“In the Lower East Side, there were many Puerto Rican organizations that were sanctuaries for the undocumented,” said Colón.
One of those organizations is Good Old Lower East Side, or GOLES, which serves community needs from public housing to education. Lilah Mejia, 38, works with GOLES and has encouraged residents to vote, via initiatives like Youth Vote NYC.
“We know that Trump is not so loving towards Mexicans and we stand in solidarity with Mexicans,” said Mejia. “So we’ve been telling folks ‘Go out and vote. Just go out and vote.’”
The stereotyping of Latinos this election cycle as immigrants and criminals also plays a role in how residents of the community will vote, activists said.
“I guarantee you, if in 2012 some Latinos stayed home, they’re going to go out, and they’re going to bring people out to vote in this community,” said Cruz. “I consider this to be the most activist community, so I know they’re going to go out.”
“Trump is a clown,” said Mejia. “People just don’t want him in office.”
