--- title: Donald Trump Makes Me Proud To Be Mexican description: I’m proud of my heritage. But I shouldn’t have to explain why I have brown skin. Or that I’m fourth-generation Mexican-American in the U.S. canonical: https://time.com/4362819/donald-trump-mexican-comments/ author: Teresa Puente article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-09T16:31:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:38:17.455Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Donald Trump Makes Me Proud To Be Mexican og:description: "My heritage doesn’t make me less American" og:url: https://time.com/4362819/donald-trump-mexican-comments/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68c38f4958d895d4/6988971cf887dc9ef3e96335/unknown2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3872 og:image:height: 2178 og:image:alt: unknown2.jpeg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Makes Me Proud To Be Mexican twitter:description: "My heritage doesn’t make me less American" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68c38f4958d895d4/6988971cf887dc9ef3e96335/unknown2.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Makes Me Proud To Be Mexican > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=ecfd34be-1b0f-446d-8d1f-dfa7cb3c020b&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: A More "Presidentially Correct" Trump? [Watch (HLS stream): A More "Presidentially Correct" Trump?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Jq72wMzX.m3u8) (1:38)  _Published 2016-05-05. We're tracking Trump statements with Time's Presidential-o-Meter to see how "Presidentially Correct" he can sound._ by [Teresa Puente](https://time.com/author/teresa-puente/) ## Teresa Puente Jun 9, 2016 4:31 PM UTC  Mark Butkus by [Teresa Puente](https://time.com/author/teresa-puente/) ## Teresa Puente Jun 9, 2016 4:31 PM UTC I was recently waiting to board a plane in Chicago when a fellow passenger asked me: “Are you Muslim?” I was taken aback. “No,” I said. “I’m Mexican.” I felt her glare. Apparently, all I’d done was move from one group Donald Trump reviles to another. I’m proud of my heritage. But I shouldn’t have to explain why I have brown skin. Or that I’m fourth-generation Mexican-American in the U.S. Or that I was born in Chicago. My father, who is also Mexican-American, was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. When he was growing up, in the 1940s and 1950s, there were restaurants in San Antonio that displayed signs that read: “No Dogs or Mexicans allowed.” Trump [began](http://time.com/3923128/donald-trump-announcement-speech/) his presidential campaign with gross and inaccurate stereotypes of Mexican immigrants, calling them criminals and rapists. Now he is attacking U.S. District Judge [Gonzalo Curiel](http://www.npr.org/2016/06/07/481140881/who-is-judge-gonzalo-curiel-the-man-trump-attacked-for-his-mexican-ancestry), saying his Mexican heritage makes him biased. He has repeatedly called him “the Mexican” even though Curiel was born in Indiana. These statements were enough for Republican House Speaker [Paul Ryan](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/us/politics/paul-ryan-donald-trump-gonzalo-curiel.html?%5Fr=0) to finally call out Trump’s comments as “the textbook definition of a racist comment.” Yet Ryan and most other Republicans still support him for President. Trump is now walking back his attacks on the judge, saying his comments were misconstrued. But the damage of Trump wielding the word “Mexican” as a racial slur has been done. He is fomenting hatred of Mexicans in the U.S. From [Iowa to Indiana](http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/01/us/midwest-trump-school-chants/), Latino students at basketball games have been taunted by chants of “Build a wall!!” or “USA!!!”Latino teens were [attacked by white supremacists](http://www.salon.com/2016/02/29/white%5Fsupremacists%5Fyelling%5Fheil%5Fhitler%5Fwaving%5Fconfederate%5Fflag%5Fwallet%5Fattack%5Flatino%5Fteens%5Fat%5Fla%5Fpark%5Flocal%5Fmedia/) at a park in Los Angeles in February. And this month at a [school in North Carolina ](http://fusion.net/story/310087/trump-wall-north-carolina-high-school/)students inspired by Trump built a wall of cardboard boxes. They claimed it was a prank, but this is an act of racial intimidation against Latino students that should be punished. Of course, there were hate crimes against Mexicans and Mexican-Americans before Trump’s rise. People of Mexican heritage have faced a long, dark history in the U.S.—of discrimination, segregation and [lynching](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/20/opinion/when-americans-lynched-mexicans.html). And even before Trump became a candidate, people questioned my identity and whether I was really from the U.S. But to have a presidential candidate make racist comments on the national stage puts all of us who don’t fit the stereotype of what an American looks or sounds like in danger. Non-whites in the U.S. often have their objectivity or their allegiance to the U.S. questioned for no reason except for their name or the color of their skin. When my [great-grandfather](http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/commentary/article/Candelario-Ortiz-s-legacy-still-felt-today-4846955.php) rode a horse from Mexico into Texas in 1890, you didn’t need a green card. He just paid a nickel to cross. He later became a deputy sheriff and was killed in the line of duty in 1913. There are countless Mexicans and Mexican-Americans who have served the U.S. and died protecting it like my great-grandfather. And we can’t ignore the economic contributions of the undocumented and how they enrich the U.S. by [paying billions](https://news.vice.com/article/unauthorized-immigrants-paid-100-billion-into-social-security-over-last-decade) each year into Social Security. Perhaps the woman I met at the airport didn’t know this. But she didn’t get her fear and hatred of Muslims and Mexicans from nowhere. She was reminded of them by Trump. My heritage doesn’t make me less American. So, now, when people ask me what I am, I answer simply: “I’m American.” And I hope that when people hear Trump’s demonizing people based on their race, religion, ethnicity or heritage, they will recognize it for what it is: un-American. ## Transcript So there have been reports that you've been getting pressure from your staff to act more presidential, is that the case? Do you need to act more presidential? No, no, not at all. We have had no pressure to act more presidential. The Trump administration will lead a free world. Sir, with all due respect, that's the argument of a five year old. I didn't start it. That is properly armed and funded. Every parent knows a kid who says he- That's not a five year old. Excuse me, when I become president, the days of treating Israel like a second class citizen will end. Now I have a lot of friends, by the way, Mitt Romney is not one of them. Did he choke? I would like to talk today about how to develop a new foreign policy direction for our country. We can't continue to allow. To rape our country. One that replaces randomness with purpose. Ideology with strategy and chaos with peace. Here's a guy, throwing punches, nasty as hell, screaming at everything else. I'd like to punch him in the face. The countries we are defending must pay For the cost of this defense. We're gonna knock the **** out of ISIS. [ APPLAUSE ] Gonna knock the **** out of them. Governor Kasich and Senator Cruz have really, really hurt themselves. Somebody has to be where the belt's going in because the belt moves this way. It moves this way. [ LAUGH ] It moves that way. We have won millions of more votes than Senator Cruz, a lying Ted, lying. He's a lying guy! I felt that I had to hit back very hard, but at the right time I will be so presidential you will be so bored. 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