There has been a lot of dragging "Latinos" for their Tr*mp voting uptick by white people who think that we are some sort of monolith in terms of racial experience and political interests. Here is what these critiques fail to understand.

First: "Latinos" are not a race. "Hispanic" more or less just says that we speak Spanish, but not all Latinx speak Spanish! Some of us are indigenous, some European, some African, some mixed. This is why the census is so fucking impossible for us. (¡Si lo sabes, lo sabes!)

Many Latinx are POC. But many Latinx are not. I remember living with an Argentinian girl once who lamented to me: "Living here I'm supposed to accept being a minority, but at home I'm white!" The truth? She is white! White Latinx are a thing and her experience is not mine.

Which is to say that all Latinx folk do not share race, nationality, experience, or even skin color. We do not experience the world the same way; how can we be expected to vote the same way? And how did we get lumped into a singular category, in which our differences are erased?

First: White colonizers knew that turning indigenous Mexicans into one group would consolidate and facilitate total control. It grew from there. Here is the origin of the idea of "Latin-ness." (More here: https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2019/11/22/latinx-indigenous-history-heritage/)

Second: We know that uniting as a bloc is our only chance for political power in the U.S. That said, there are 33 countries in Latin America and over 800 different kinds of indigenous people. Again: We are not a single group of people with a single way of experiencing the world.

So the pundits keep talking like the Latinx vote was the problem. But guess what? According to NYT:

White men voted 58% in favor of Trump
White women voted 55% in favor of Trump
Latinos voted 61% in favor of Biden
Latinas voted 70% in favor of Biden

I see a different problem.

Questions: Why aren't you all dragging yourselves? Why aren't white folk held to a monolithic standard subject to the same kind of derision & scrutiny? Why can white people vote for Tr*mp without the patronizing chastisement of the pundit class? Look harder. The answer is there.

Which is to say, finally, that despite all our differences, the majority of Latinx people in America made the sane choice. Take our names out your mouth. /end