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I truly think the scale of how horrified the Latino community is right now is not being understood, which is why the reporting about this moment is so important. So a quick story. I was chatting w/ a friend I met through the course of my work and she told me she had been crying.
Her husband was at the community pool and a group of white men said they thought the killing went too far but they agreed with some of the stuff the shooter stood for, like making sure whites aren’t wiped out and Hispanics take over. This was in the ruby red city of...Los Angeles
“I mean he openly was discussing this like it was sports talk,” she told me exasperated. “After 20 people are dead. Disgusting.”
It is incumbent upon us to include Latino and immigrant and Mexican voices in our reporting, and to have Latino reporters included in the reporting and listened to in the decision-making, and to not minimize this as business as usual.
Many reporters get to go home after talking to suffering people or writing a heavy story and everything is fine. They get to dip into this world and then quickly evacuate.
If we want to do our best job now we have to truly listen and understand this isn’t just a sad moment that will pass, but the culmination of an anti-immigrant four decades in politics, that has only become louder, emboldened, and unchecked by American leaders.
Now Hispanic Americans have been targeted, some who are immigrants, and all who have limited political power. That’s what’s going on. And people are terrified.
A story I’m sharing with permission from a young Latina 
Obviously, I shared this all because I want folks to know what’s going on. But I would also add, the level of community, of people checking in on each other, and sharing how they’re feeling has been really incredible. People are scared but resolute things will get better.
Another story I’m sharing with permission, from a Latina health care provider in another largely-Hispanic border city on what she should do if someone hateful targets her workplace.
Making sure this tweet shows up in the original thread and also feel free to DM any story of how you are dealing with this moment that you would rather share anonymously and, with your permission, I will post it here.
From a young man in Los Angeles, which makes me think of all the kind Uber and Lyft drivers I have met who are Latino and the grief they may receive.
From a white man in Austin about his Latino family and their fear of taking his children to public spaces and that his legal citizen mother and father in law could be targeted nonetheless.
From a Latina woman in America on her husband’s US nationality being called “fake news” in a Home Depot light bulb aisle.
How the shooting looks like from the Mexican side of the border.
A man in the Boston area scared for his 70-year-old mom being reported as in the country illegally even though she came to the country legally decades ago.
A naturalized citizen and immigration activist worried for her family in a border state and that she could face retribution for her advocacy
A young man “from the same town as the El Paso shooter. Same graduating class, but rival high schools.”
A community organizer and immigration activist doing this work to honor his family’s sacrifice. “I don’t think my heart has been whole for a while.”
Her husband is a manager at a grocery chain in Southern California and gets told to go back to Mexico weekly. “I fear for his safety and the safety of our kids.”
This one hit me because he says he’s not good with words and then writes this thoughtful comment. “It’s as though my memories and relationships are diminished because of viewpoints and ideology that I would never have guessed were in their hearts.”
She has family members that escaped that shooting at the garlic festival. They’re mixed but her sister looks more “Latina.”
“I’m so much more scared for her because her brown skin makes her a target for violence than me.”
“I’m so much more scared for her because her brown skin makes her a target for violence than me.”
Heartbreaking: “I am proud of my Latinidad but after the Pulse shootings and now El Paso, I feel so scared because I look very Hispanic.”
From a journalist at a major newspaper. “I’m terrified in a way maybe only one or two other people in my newsroom are. For the rest of them, what’s happening is only abstractly horrifying.”
This broke my heart, from an “American that happens to have brown skin.”
“It is really the last few months that I feel not wanted by my fellow Americans and it hurts. It hurts because we contribute to the economy, to the food and the culture.”
“It is really the last few months that I feel not wanted by my fellow Americans and it hurts. It hurts because we contribute to the economy, to the food and the culture.”
“I have thought for a while I would be doing this work until I retire, but increasingly I wonder if I will do this work until a fellow countryman kills me instead.”
This thread is heavy. A moment of levity: I talked to my small mom today, an immigrant who’s lived in NYC for 50 years. She’s feisty so I asked what she would say if someone told her not to speak Spanish?
“I’m Hispanic and I’m proud of it, what are you going to do about it?” 🤦🏽♂️
“I’m Hispanic and I’m proud of it, what are you going to do about it?” 🤦🏽♂️
“Who’s to say this won’t inspire something worse?”
From a Texan in the Rio Grande Valley:
“It could have been us...we’re not fine.”
“It could have been us...we’re not fine.”
I wrote about this for @POLITICOMag: politico.com/magazine/story…
