Trump thinks Latinos, especially Latino Immigrants, are criminals. He thinks that we’re messed up people who bring things like rape and drugs to America. If you are silly enough to agree with Trump about this topic then please do us all a favor and sit down.

“We’re not a footnote in American history, we are actually helping write the history!” This quote comes from the speech Dolores Huerta gave at the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia.

In her speech, Huerta called out Donald Trump for treating Latinos like ‘newcomers’. “He insults Latinos like as if we’re second-class citizens – like we’re newcomers to this country,” she said. “Hey, I’ve got news for Donald Trump: We’ve been here all along. We helped build this country, and we are still continuing to build this country.”

Huerta could not be more right. America has always been Hispanic. Latinos were prominent, present, and on the US side in a number of military conflicts dating back to the early 1600’s, and we have continued to be contributors to the country since.

Throughout time, there have been an abundance of great Latino figures that have left their (positive) mark in the US.

This includes activists such as Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, and policy and lawmakers like Alberto Gonzales and Mel Martinez. In the US you will find important and influential Latinos who are singers, actors, political figures, and activists. You will also find that Latinos are kind, hard working, determined, and above all, proud.

So, although Trump’s comments are rude, degrading, ignorant, and deserve to be endlessly chastised, I am actually here to say thank you to Trump. What he and his anti-Latino supporters have managed to do is something that previous political figures and an abundance of rallies have failed to: They have managed to motivate a large number of Latinos to actively work towards change by getting us to the polls.

Before, Latinos along with those of other races, women, the lower class, and others alike were made feel insignificant. Sure we were told here and there that we were capable of creating change, but we didn’t really believe this to be true, and we had never really been showed otherwise.

I think that the underlying problem was that we as a large mass had never really been angered or made uncomfortable enough. Our energy from within hadn’t been ignited enough. It was about time. So, thank you Trump, for breaking the cycle.

You have motivated the largest, youngest, and fastest growing constituency in the United States.

We Latinos are not criminals, rapists, drug dealers, *insert every other derogatory term Trump has ever used to describe us here*. Whether Trump and his anti-Latino supporters like it or not, Latinos played a huge role in the past of the US, and we are its future.

One of my favorite lines from an article published on the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s ‘Journal of Hispanic Policy’s’ website says, “No other immigrant group in the history of our great nation has the potential to redefine America. Remember “we did not cross the border: the border crossed us.”