How are Texas’ Latinos Responding to Trump’s Victory?

One Latina journalist says “all bets are off.”
 

By Joy DiazNovember 9, 2016 1:13 pm

By the year 2020, Hispanics will outnumber whites in Texas. Our state is already one of just five majority minority states. Against that backdrop are remarks about rapists, murderers, the wall and the mainstream predictions that Latinos and Hispanics would rise up in record numbers.

On the day after the election: what sort of conversations are Texas’ 10 million Latinos and Hispanics having?

Mariana Pineda, a Texas-based freelance journalist and former host for the Spanish language Univision station in Houston, says there’s shock, disbelief and sadness.  “There’s even fear among the Latino voters here, at least in Houston,” Pineda says.

Pineda says her viewers expressed concerns about families that could face deportation.

“There’s also that side of – We’re here to say, we’ve been working strong  in this country and we’ll work stronger,” she says.

Angela Kocherga, director of the Borderlands bureau of Cronkite News at Arizona PBS, says she saw uncertainty along the border. “It’s a wait-and-see attitude,” Kocherga says.

Last month, Mexico saw the largest number of remittances ever in one month, some speculated people were getting ready to leave the U.S. and relocate to Mexico.

“All bets are off,” Kocherga says. “It’s hard to just pick up and go. People have family ties, people have business ties, jobs, children in schools.”

Post by Betsy Joles.