I cannot begin to describe the feelings of sheer joy, anger, vindication, and righteous judgment that swirled in a winding maelstrom as I watched this past Democratic Debate on Wednesday night. Normally, I'd prefer to comment with some more neutral takeaways, who "won" and "lost" and how the various talking points give us a look at the future of the Democratic primary, but you can find that elsewhere to greater effect with varying degrees of bias against the Senator from Vermont. As we've established before with my place in the Scene column, I'm not a pundit for a living (yet). Due to the unique nature of this debate taking place in Miami, Florida, and CNN's collaboration with Univision to provide local and national translation for Spanish-speaking peoples, this debate took on a whole new aspect of #Hispandering and appeals for Latino votes. I'd like to zero in on my impressions of how the former Madam Secretary and the Senator came off to me as a Latin voter.
As a second-generation Latino, son of a Guatemalan immigrant and grandson to Guatemalan activists, the issues of immigration and 20th-century American colonialism in Latin America are very sensitive for me. This past Wednesday night, I was heavily scrutinizing everything the candidates said, as many of you already know, I am for Mr. Sanders. All mistakes, gaffes, or grossly misworded statements resonated within me loudly and viscerally. To see one of my fellow citizens, mi hermana Lucia, stand up bravely in front of a national audience and tell her story to the leading candidates of the Democratic Party of America filled me at once with pride for my father's homeland and pure anger as I heard her lament how she has been separated from her family. We need immigration reform now, no empathetic American wants any more deportations. Although I acknowledge Mr. Obama's efforts have been complicated and frustrated throughout his terms, but the Secretary was right to follow Senator Sanders to the left to vow against "deporting children" (even if I think she's full of sh*t).
However, in addition to that emotional exchange with Lucia, Bernie said something that he's been saying for a while that still remains the key reason I endorse him for President and have voted for him in the Democratic Party, here's the transcript:
"... the United States was wrong to try to invade Cuba, that the United States was wrong trying to support people to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, that the United States was wrong trying to overthrow in 1954 the government—democratically elected government of Guatemala. Throughout the history of our relationship with Latin America, we’ve operated under the so-called Monroe Doctrine. And that said that the United States had the right do anything that they wanted to do in Latin America."
He's anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist. That f**king matters to me most especially as the product of neocolonialism. I want a President who sees the value of self-determination in the Americas, a Western Hemisphere characterized by collaboration, not domination. I want a person in the White House who knows that Guatemala exists and that we the United States as a nation are responsible for its lurch to the right.
Bernie isn't perfect, and I don't expect a Sanders administration to totally dismantle the Monroe Doctrine, but it would be an important step for Latinx peoples. I don't have the same trust or evidence that former Secretary Clinton wouldn't just continue American imperialism, as her toppling of the Qaddafi regime in Libya has had disturbing consequences (forget Benghazi, there are real fish to fry). There's too much hawkishness emanating from her record to take the Secretary at her word.
It's incredibly difficult to encapsulate how much I related to the debate topics, and there were structural problems with the format and the horrible acoustics, but overall, I am satisfied that Latin issues were addressed in this manner -- even if it sounded like nothing but #Hispandering at times.
