Categories
We Became Mexican American, a book

Prisons in America, a book review (an undercover report on a private prison).

Bauer, Shane. American Prison. A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment (New York: Penguin 2018), 351 pp.  What I learned from this book is that prisons in America, especially in the South, have been centers of unmerciful torture, and that private prisons today, especially those run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), do a worse incarceration job than they claim.

Bauer gives the reader a double perspective on prisons in America in this volume. One is a survey of the rise of prisons in the U.S. alongside the argument that penitentiaries, as we know them today, arose as a unique vision of our young democracy. Before this time, someone who committed a crime would receive capital punishment in the form of hanging or the cutting of a hand or nose, and such. Afterward, it meant going to prison and, ideally, getting the opportunity to become a new person, rehabilitating.

The author advances his review of prisons in America by focusing on the South in the 1870’s, specifically, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. It may have been a response to Reconstruction policies (an argument he does not make but I surmise it) but in any case, these states practiced convict leasing. This means that the respective governors rented the convicts under their responsibility, Blacks mostly, to plantations, railroad companies, mining companies, and so on. The prisoners would work 12 hours a day with minimal food and negligible medical services and the state governments would get paid by the lessees about 25% of the prevailing wages. The state budgets would thus benefit and so would the lessees because they were getting labor at the cheapest price, while the prisoners would be worked to death, practically. The author claims a death loss rate of 16% to 25%, greater than the death rates associated with Stalin’s gulags in the 1920’s. This was worse than slavery because the prisoners no longer represented an investment to be protected, so they could be abused to death or near death and no one would ask any questions. The author further asserts with withering detail that today’s private prison system arose from the convict leasing experience.

The other perspective, serving as the book’s main contribution, is a personal and comprehensive report on the author’s undercover experience investigating a prison, a private prison in the south.

The author became a prison guard at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana in 2014 and secretly videotaped and recorded the training he received and the work he had to perform as a CO (corrections officer). “Winn” was operated by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), one of the largest private companies that manages many prisons and detention centers. Today it is known as CoreCivic.

The main argument in Bauer’s book is that because the CCA was a for-profit enterprise, the welfare needs of the prisoners were chronically disregarded to save money on facilities, food, medical services, and so on. “Winn” did not run better because it was administered with the efficiency of a business. In fact, CCA lost its contract months after Bauer ended his undercover study because it was mismanaging the prison to squeeze out every penny possible. For example, a Louisiana Department of Corrections report accused CCA of charging prisoners for the toilet paper and the toothpaste they used.

Another lesson for me is the impact that guarding prisoners had on Bauer, a good-hearted, liberal-minded reporter. His prison work began to darken his view of the prisoners he sought to understand at the start. Toward the end of his undercover work he found himself looking for opportunities to punish them and otherwise belittle their situation. It was a downhill slope for him and he recognized it.

I admire Bauer’s overall efforts including his careful rendering of the sources that helped him understand private prisons in America today. His bibliography is valuable and exceptional at the same time. These two approaches to prisons in America, and a clear and casual writing style, like a novel, made me read with great interest.

Categories
History of Mexico u.s.-mexico border

WHICH PRESIDENT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT? TAKE A LOOK AT THESE WORDS.

“The president decapitates everything he doesn’t understand, condemns that architects charge for their knowledge when “anyone” can build a house, reproaches the many years engineers study because, according to him, wise people know how to make better roads, he affirms that the economy is not a complex thing, and that doctors should not charge for their specialized knowledge. The president hates technology, dislikes science and detests verifiable knowledge; he prefers the lyrical, the improvised, the visceral.”

“El presidente decapita todo lo que no entiende, condena que los arquitectos cobren por su conocimiento cuando “cualquiera” puede construir una casa, reprocha los anos de estudio de los ingenieros porque, según el, el pueblo sabio sabe hacer mejores caminos, considera que la economía no es algo complejo y que los médicos no deberían de cobrar lo que cobran por sus especialidades. El presidente aborrece la técnica y aborrece la ciencia y aborrece el conocimiento comprobable, lo suyo es mas bien lo lirico, lo improvisado, lo visceral.”

ANSWER: These are the words and thoughts attributed to President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (a.k.a. AMLO) by Luis Cardenas, an opinion writer in El Universal, June 11, 2020, a Mexico City newspaper. I’ve been saying there are a lot of parallels between President Donald Trump and AMLO. Here’s someone else saying the same thing.

Categories
Book Reviews Central America Latin America World Affairs

“Mamita Yunai” is about the United Fruit Company

Fallas, Carlos Luis. Mamita Yunai (San José, C.R.: Editorial Costa Rica, 1941, 2019), pp. 267. [See Spanish below] The author was a unionized banana plantation worker in Costa Rica in the 1930s who learned to read and write despite conditions to the contrary. Mamita became his best known work. It is an excellent piece of literature, on its own, yet it also accomplishes what the author most wanted: to unveil the unquestionably villainous working conditions that made it possible for Americans to consume their bananas in those years. Have these conditions changed today?

Mamita Yunai is the ironic nickname that Spanish speaking workers used to refer to the company that employed them and which dominated the banana industry: The United Fruit Company. Yunai was the closest they could come to saying “united,” and they regarded the American firm as a wicked mother, which she apparently was. Apt title.

This is Fallas’ fictionalized memoir of the years he worked in the banana fields of Costa Rica, on the Caribbean coast, first as a liniero or line man and later as a labor union representative. In the novel he calls himself Sibajitas and describes himself as a member of a squad of laborers opening the dense jungle to install the narrow-gage rail lines that would help extract the elongated perishable fruit. Sweating from insufferable humidity and heat, swamps, snakes and swarming mosquitos, the author convinced me of the improbability of human survival especially with little or no medical services. He writes that countless men died as a result, most of them left to rot in the muddy morass, as in the case of a close friend. Local government officials are described as enablers of this situation because they were in the company pay.

The north coast of Central America is the home of many African-origin folks who appear here as United Fruit workers, alongside their Hispanic-origin co-workers. They speak pidgin English and Spanish and reside in Costa Rica or are passing through from Honduras headed to Panama looking for canal jobs there. Aboriginals from Talamanca also appear in the story because the banana fields intruded into their long-guarded territory. They’re regarded as proud enemies of Spanish conquerors but their condition, in the 1930’s, had been reduced to wretched survival.

By the way, the Prologue’s author scorns Fallas’ many critiques for suppressing this book because of his membership in the local Communist Party, crushed long ago.  The book has been translated into English.

El autor fue un trabajador sindicalizado en las plantaciones bananeras de Costa Rica en la década de los 1930’s y aprendió a leer y escribir a pesar de tener todas las condiciones a su contra. Mamita Yunai es su obra mayor y la más conocida. La considero un trabajo literario excelente y pienso también que el autor logró lo que más quería: dejar ver las condiciones de trabajo incuestionablemente desgraciadas, que hicieron posible que los estadounidenses pudieran disfrutar de sus bananas en esos años. Han cambiado las condiciones en estos días?

“Mamita Yunai” es el apodo mordaz que los trabajadores de habla hispana usaban para referirse a la United Fruit Company, la empresa que los empleaba y que dominaba la industria bananera. “Yunai” era lo más cerca que podían llegar a decir “united,” y consideraban a la empresa norteamericana como una madre malvada, lo que aparentemente era. Título apto.

Esta es una memoria novelizada del propio Fallas cuando trabajó en los campos bananeros de Costa Rica, en la costa del Caribe, primero como “liniero” y luego como representante de un sindicato. En la novela se auto llama Sibajitas y nos dice que fue miembro de un pelotón de obreros que abría la espesa jungla para instalar las líneas ferroviarias que ayudarían a extraer la fruta amarilla y perecedera. Sudar a chorros a causa de la humedad y el calor insufrible, caminar en pantanos, aguantar serpientes y enjambres de mosquitos, el autor me convenció de la improbabilidad de la supervivencia humana, especialmente con poco o ningún servicio médico. Escribe que incontables hombres murieron como resultado, la mayoría de ellos pudriéndose en el fango, como en el caso de un amigo cercano. Describe a los oficiales de gobierno como achichinques por estar al pago de la empresa.

Gente de origen africano reside en la costa norte de Centro América y por eso aparecen aquí muchos de ellos como trabajadores de la United Fruit, al lado de sus compañeros hispanos. Hablan inglés pidgin y español y residen en Costa Rica o los describe el autor como emigrantes de Honduras dirigiéndose a Panamá en busca de trabajo. Los aborígenes de Talamanca también aparecen en esta historia porque los campos bananeros invadieron en su territorio, el que habían protegido durante la época colonial. Se les considera orgullosos enemigos de los conquistadores españoles, pero su condición en los 1930’s se había reducido a una resistencia miserable.

Por cierto, el autor del Prólogo rechaza a los críticos de Fallas porque suprimieron este libro debido a su membresía en el Partido Comunista, desbaratado ya hace mucho tiempo.

Categories
Uncategorized World Affairs

THE ‘GIL’ SURNAME AND THE NAZI HOLOCAUST

Our Mexican-origin surname, Gil, appears in the Holocaust archives! Yikes!

I had the occasion recently to learn of the Arolsen Archives, in Germany, the largest repository of documents concerning the millions of Jews and other people who were killed by Hitler’s Nazi government  just for being who they were.  Remember the gas ovens? Most were burned to get rid of their bodies.

Apparently, all these documents (see the types of documents below), were scooped up by our soldiers at the end of World War II, after we bombed the Nazi’s into oblivion. Our GI’s gathered the papers and they were stored and placed into this archive and research organization.

Since I like archives, I went into the online collection, just to check it out, and decided to put in our surname, doubting I’d find anything, because it’s not a name normally associated with the Hitler era.

In just a few minutes of searching, up came the name, Antonio Accolti Gil. It seems he was an Italian with our surname (I don’t know whether the Gil is patronymic or matronymic). See a registration document about him below. He was picked up for whatever reason on February 5, 1944, and imprisoned at the Mauthhausen Camp, one of many built to hold these unfortunate people. He may have survived because the Germans were losing the war by 1944.

Prisoner’s Personal Card for Antonio Accolti Gil

I also searched with the word “Mexico,” and it produced about 50 results, to my surprise! These poor folks were Spaniards or Mexicans who had fought against the Nazis in Spain during its bloody and brutal civil war (about the time I was born) and the Germans picked them up and put them in the concentration camps, alongside the Jewish prisoners.

What does all this mean? 1) That the Holocaust (the genocidal elimination of millions of people by the German Nazis) was real, contrary to people who deny it today, unbelievably. The truth is hard to take, sometimes, and people can deny things all their lives. And, 2) it included many who were not Jews, like our Antonio Gil and the Mexicans and Spaniards mentioned.

Types of documents in the Arolsen Archive includes prisoner files of various sorts, documents about medical experiments on humans, testimonies from camp personnel and former prisoners, death registers, execution lists, deaths after liberation, Red Cross reports, and so on. Germans are expert record keepers, to this day.

 

Categories
Book Reviews Humanities Washington Talks Uncategorized

EL CAMINO, A BOOK REVIEW (Life in a Spanish village in the 1940s)

[See Spanish below]

El Camino (Barcelona, Austral/Destino, 2009).  Delibes received several awards in his native land and, based on this novel, considered his best work, these honors, I think, are totally fitting. I discovered him to be an excellent writer and an authority of his fellow Spaniards (he died in 2010).

This 285-page book, edited by Marisa Sotelo, is divided into three parts. The first offers an introduction written by Sotelo concerning the author’s work, she an expert in Spanish literature. The novel itself occupies the second section, and the third takes the form of a curious “Reading Guide” alluding to Delibes’ work, conceived and written by Fernando de Miguel.

El Camino is about the life of three boys living in a northern Spanish village in the 1940s (I discovered a passage that refers to the Spanish Civil War of the late 1930s). It unfolded so serenely that I began to judge it as a string of trivial though colorful portraits. Soon, I noticed, however, the way in which the lives of the young characters mirrored more profound reflections about small town life. I found that Delibes handled his written work with impressive mastery revealing both detailed knowledge and amusing portraits of the villagers, like the blacksmith, the priest, the cheesemaker, the godless man, the train station manager, and others.

Delibes did this by following the lives of the three little friends, Daniel, the Owl, Roque the Stooge, and Germán, the Scab, looking especially at their mischief and tomfoolery. This device allows the author to unveil the relations between the adults of the town. For this reason I place  El Camino inside the literary genre that owns the Hardy Boys in the world of English literature, but showing greater literary complexity. His style is simple but solid. It was a delicious read.

Delibes ha sido galardonado con varios premios españoles y, basado en esta novela considerada como su mejor trabajo, pienso que dichos reconocimientos están en lo correcto. Leyendo su libro descubrí que Delibes fue un excelente escritor y conocedor de su país (murió en 2010).

Este libro, de 285 páginas, editado por Marisa Sotelo, contiene tres partes. La primera ofrece una introducción que Sotelo escribe concerniente a la obra del autor. La novela ocupa la segunda sección, y la tercera toma la forma de un curioso “Guía de Lectura” alusivo al trabajo de Delibes, concebido y escrito por Fernando de Miguel.

El Camino trata de la vida de tres chicos, naturales de a una aldea española en los años cuarenta del siglo veinte (descubrí un fragmento que hace alusión a la guerra civil). Esta se desenvuelve tan plácidamente que me pareció, al principio, como un hilo de retratos pueblerinos triviales. Pero pronto me di cuenta de la forma en que dichas efemérides encerraban reflexiones profundas. Es más, hallé que Delibes manejó su trabajo escrito con una maestría impresionante revelando un detallado conocimiento de la vida de los vecinos, tales como el herrero, el señor cura, el quesero, el sin dios, las “guindillas” y las “lepóridas,” y otros.

Pero mas que nada, Delibe protagoniza a los tres amiguitos, Daniel, el Mochuelo, Roque el Moñigo, Germán el Tiñoso, y sigue sus picardías y pillerías, las que corren el velo a las relaciones entre los adultos del pueblo. El Camino pertenece al género de cuentos protagonizados en el mundo de literatura inglés por los Hardy Boys, pero ostentando mayor profundidad literaria. Su estilo es sencillo pero firme. Fue una grata lectura.  [October 2019]

 

Categories
We Became Mexican American, a book

THERE’S A GOOD REASON WHY NOBODY STUDIES HISTORY…

…IT JUST TEACHES YOU TOO MUCH!

This truism is attributed to Noam Chomsky, one of the most celebrated and controversial American intellectuals ever (the quote appears on his FaceBook page, as you can see!). He has been a rabble-rousing thinker and speaker for many years. People with a lot of power (including billionaires, of course) stay away from him, if they know anything about him.

He speaks for the rest of us who live by what we think  and teach–the kind of person dictators hate; I think it’s fair to say that Donald Trump abhors thinkers of any kind.

If this were Germany in the 1940s, Russia in the 1950s, Cuba in the 1960s, or Chile in the 1970s, Chomsky (an intellectual Jew, of course!) would have been thrown out of the U.S. (he’s too famous for anything worse). But guys like me would be on the list to disappear. I say this because this has happened before in the countries cited and many others.

So, beware! Don’t learn too much!

P.S. I thank Dr. Jesus Perez of Cascadia College for directing me to this quote by Chomsky.

Categories
We Became Mexican American, a book

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS BY ANAMARIA GIL

 

Día DE LOS MUERTOS

October 31– November 2

By Anamaria Gil (and with a lovely contribution by Leslie Birnbaum)

My family and I have been to Mexico several times to visit cities and small towns which celebrate Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).  To some North Americans, El Día de los Muertos sounds macabre.  On the contrary, Día de los Muertos celebrates the circle of life, family, ancestry and tradition.  It is a fusion of Christian and pre-hispanic traditions, which commemorates the transitory return to earth of deceased relatives and loved ones.  During this special time, souls are said to return to earth to enjoy the pleasures that they once had in life.  Day of the Dead celebrations provide an opportunity for remembrance and solemnity, and also, for a bit of irreverence and fun.

The Day of the Dead has gained recognition and popularity in the U.S. over the last few years.   Recall the 2017 Disney animated movie “Coco”, where a little boy is transported to the Land of the Dead.  In this Land of the Dead, the deceased are only permitted to visit the Land of the Living if they are still remembered.  This movie was widely celebrated in the U.S. and Mexico.  It was Disney’s first movie with an all Latino principle cast, and won two Academy awards.

Also, don’t forget the opening scene of the 2015 James Bond film, “Spectre”, where Daniel Craig strolls through a Día de los Muertos parade in Mexico City wearing a skeleton costume, complete with skull mask and top hat.  (Ironically, Mexico City did not have a Día de los Muertos parade until after that movie was filmed.)

This year, even Mattel got into the fray and launched a Day of the Dead Barbie (for $75).

  History & Observance

El Día de Los Muertos originated in Mexico, before the Spanish conquest, possibly as much as 3,000 years ago.  The original Aztec festival was held in July.  It was believed to have been presided over by the Aztec goddess Mictecacihuatl, or Lady of the Dead.  Following the Spanish conquest of Mexico during the 16th century, there was a strong effort to convert the indigenous population to Catholicism.  Ultimately, however, the indigenous population was disinclined to give up old customs, and a compromise of sorts was reached where old customs were blended with the new religion.  All Saints’ Day and All Hallows Eve (Halloween) roughly coincided with the preexisting Día de Los Muertos, resulting in the present day event which draws from both traditions.

Día de Los Muertos is observed at home and also in the public square.  Families create altars in their homes to honor their loved ones.  These alters can be quite elaborate with marigolds, food, alcohol, bread, candles, incense and sugar skulls in an effort to help guide and welcome the souls of the deceased for their brief visit home.   Families also visit and decorate grave sites of loved ones.  In some places, the entire town will be at the cemetery at midnight decorating grave sites, visiting, and telling stories.  These events can feel like street fairs with vendors selling food, drink and decorations, mariachis playing, and plenty of beer and tequila.  Strange as it sounds, it is very special.

One of the traditions for Día de los Muertos is to make “tapetes”, the Spanish word for “rug”.  Tapetes are large, colorful pieces of art made on the ground.  They are made of colored sand, sawdust, or other organic material.

The Spanish brought this tradition to the Americas during conquest and colonialization. Tapetes can depict religious imagery, or playful images of death and skeletons.

Skulls are a popular symbol that make their appearance at Day of the Dead celebrations.  Sugar skulls are a tradition and are made with granulated and powdered sugar, meringue powder, food coloring and water.  They are often decorated with icing, sequins, feathers, beads, glitter and colored tin foil.  Want to take a bite?  Some are edible, but many are decorative. Sugar skulls are not typically for eating and are viewed as folk art.

Sugar skull making dates back to the 1630s.  Want to create one?  They take time.  Sugar skull makers start four to six months in advance to accumulate enough sugar for the season.  The process involves boiling a granulated white sugar mixture, getting the mixture to the right temperature to get a translucent (bone-like) color, pouring/pressing it into a mold, and decorating it.  A sugar skull can last for five years.  Fantástico!

Día de los Muertos is not celebrated everywhere in Mexico.  It is best known in the southern part of Mexico, and in areas with larger indigenous populations.  Some of the best places to attend this ancient and wondrous festival is in Oaxaca, Patzcuaro, Guadalajara and Chiapas.

 

 

 

 

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Book Reviews Uncategorized

AMERICAN LIBERATOR: SIMON BOLIVAR, A BOOK REVIEW

Arana, Marie. Bolivar: American Liberator (NY: Simon & Schuster, 2013). Arana took on a major job in writing this one-volume biography of Simón Bolivar, a truly amazing man. He unyoked northern South America (Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador) from Spain in the early 1800s, bringing the kind of independence to these countries that we celebrate in the United States on July 4th. It is a shame that Americans know little about him. By the way, the people of Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina, also call themselves “Americans.” They began doing so in the late 1700s, like we did in the United States. (They chafe at our appropriating the word as we do).

Arana tells us that Bolivar was indefatigable in convincing a rabble of peasants and slaves to fight for their “freedom” and “liberty.” He persuaded them that this merited their being uprooted, leaving their families and, in many cases, dying or being killed. This is the biggest lesson to be gained from Bolivar’s life and from this biography: his unrelenting pursuit of independence and republicanism in the face of astonishing odds. Along these lines, too, Arana skillfully describes the astounding trek that he and his bedraggled warriors underwent in crossing the Andes mountains from east to west in order to surprise Spanish troops in Bogotá, and later Lima, and thus guarantee their expulsion from the continent, better than Hannibal and Alexander the Great. George Washington’s exploits, heroic as they might have been, don’t compare given the distances and geographic challenges.

Bolivar’s overwhelming disillusionment over the inability of his compatriots to adopt democratic republicanism is handled quite well by the author. She knowingly deals with the ironic triumph of caudillismo (strong man politics) and cites Bolivar’s own ironic recognition that he was the best example of caudillo rule. His famous phrase, “I plowed the sea,” refers to his failure to establish democratic republics; it fits in Arana’s narrative perfectly along with his famous “Letter from Panama” in which he sees into Latin America’s political future.

The details of Bolivar’s struggles are based on the voluminous letters and speeches he left behind, plus the ample history books written about his life and times. He is, of course, the George Washington of the countries mentioned. It is an easy to read book, for history buffs and scholars as well.

Categories
Humanities Washington Talks United States

MR. TRUMP IS TOXIC TO AMERICA AS WE KNOW IT

I’ve been saying in the past that Mr. Trump is UNFIT as our president. With the headlines of the past few weeks, his UNFITNESS has become more visible than ever, and more dangerous.

Today’s New York Times (see below) includes an opinion piece by a former COMMANDER OF THE UNITED STATES SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND, William H. McRaven, who says what I’ve been saying, but in an eloquent but frightening way. Read the key parts of his column below.

Think about what you read! It’s pretty damned important for us Americans!

“…As I stood on the parade field at Fort Bragg, one retired four-star general, grabbed my arm, shook me and shouted, “I don’t like the Democrats, but Trump is destroying the Republic!”

“Those words echoed with me throughout the week. It is easy to destroy an organization if you have no appreciation for what makes that organization great. We are not the most powerful nation in the world because of our aircraft carriers, our economy, or our seat at the United Nations Security Council. We are the most powerful nation in the world because we try to be the good guys. We are the most powerful nation in the world because our ideals of universal freedom and equality have been backed up by our belief that we were champions of justice, the protectors of the less fortunate.

“But, if we don’t care about our values, if we don’t care about duty and honor, if we don’t help the weak and stand up against oppression and injustice — what will happen to the Kurds, the Iraqis, the Afghans, the Syrians, the Rohingyas, the South Sudanese and the millions of people under the boot of tyranny or left abandoned by their failing states?

“If our promises are meaningless, how will our allies ever trust us? If we can’t have faith in our nation’s principles, why would the men and women of this nation join the military? And if they don’t join, who will protect us? If we are not the champions of the good and the right, then who will follow us? And if no one follows us — where will the world end up?

“President Trump seems to believe that these qualities are unimportant or show weakness. He is wrong. These are the virtues that have sustained this nation for the past 243 years. If we hope to continue to lead the world and inspire a new generation of young men and women to our cause, then we must embrace these values now more than ever.

“And if this president doesn’t understand their importance, if this president doesn’t demonstrate the leadership that America needs, both domestically and abroad, then it is time for a new person in the Oval Office — Republican, Democrat or independent — the sooner, the better. The fate of our Republic depends upon it.”

Categories
u.s.-mexico border United States

HISPANICS “INVADING” TEXAS?!?

It was the other way around!         Consider the following:

  • El Paso, Texas, was founded by Spanish Fray Garcia de San Francisco in 1680 when it became a preliminary base for governing the territory of New Mexico; Spaniards traveled traveled back and forth from what is now Santa Fe to El Paso for many years.
  • San Antonio, Texas, rose from a Spanish mission founded in 1718 by Fray Antonio de Olivares and from a Spanish military fort names the Presidio San Antonio de Bexar, founded the same year. The mission later became known as “The Alamo.”
  • The Vice President of the Republic of Texas, before Texas joined the Union, was a Mexican by the name of Lorenzo de Zavala who fought for the independence of Texas from Mexico in 1836. He stands in for the many Mexicans who also fought for Texas independence, many of whom died at the Alamo alongside the better known American heroes, like Davey Crocket.

So, what can we say about President Trump’s insistence that “Hispanics are invading Texas?” 

He’s an ignoramus (I’ve said it before).

Worse, still, the El Paso shooter seems to have picked up on Trump’s dogged claims of “invasion” and took it upon himself to kill “invading” “Hispanics” or Mexicans.

It looks like to me that Trump is guilty of inciting terrorism in El Paso and the deaths of thirty one people. That’s the man we have in the White House.