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Americans Nationwide Eagerly Await Taco Takeover

by Gabe Ortiz on

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Nevada Taco Truck

Last week, one of the few remaining Latino Trump supporters warned that America was on the brink of a delicious takeover.

“My culture is a very dominant culture, and it’s imposing and it’s causing problems,” said Marco Gutierrez, a Mexican immigrant and founder of something called “Latinos For Trump”, during an MSNBC appearance.

“If you don’t do something about it, you’re going to have taco trucks on every corner.”

But rather than build a wall, Americans got ready to order.

They lined up outside the Nevada office of Republican Congressman and Senate candidate Joe Heck, who has yet to disavow Donald Trump’s disgusting rhetoric despite the state’s booming Latino and immigrant population.

They also lined up in Phoenix, where Donald Trump firmly put to rest any rumors that he was in any way softening up on immigration:

The Arizona Democratic Party put the phrase up on the marquee of its building in mid-town Phoenix. Party officials also said there would be a taco truck on the property Saturday.

With several predominantly Latino neighborhoods, Phoenix is a city used to seeing taco trucks on the corner. In the wake of Gutierrez’s comments, Arizona Congressman Ruben Gallego decided to patronize one of them.

The Democrat posted a photo to his personal Twitter account of him ordering three carne asada tacos from his favorite taco truck for lunch Friday. The picture was accompanied by the tweet “about to assert my cultural dominance.” It has garnered hundreds of likes.

“I was just trying to bring some levity to it,” Gallego said. “Good food is good food and it will unite people whether they are Democrats or Republicans.”

They were in Colorado — this time parked right in front of Trump’s Denver office and registering voters.

“In Colorado, immigrant-owned businesses are a vital piece of our state economy — creating jobs and generating livelihoods for countless numbers of immigrant families,” said the Colorado Democrats in a statement.

“To highlight this salient fact and underscore the Trump campaign’s offensiveness, Colorado Democrats will be taking a taco truck…right next to Trump’s Denver office Denver City Councilman Paul Lopez will be there to eat lunch, talk with passer-bys about the stakes in this election, and register people to vote.”

In Wisconsin, where groups also used the opportunity to register voters:

A taco truck on every corner #blessed

A photo posted by Allison Geyer (@allisongeyer) on

According to a Pew Research Center survey, “Hispanic Voters and the 2016 Election,” there are about 27.3 million adult Latino U.S. citizens eligible to vote. They are projected to make up 12 percent of all eligible voters. Given that the poll found Hillary Clinton holds a 66 percent to 24 percent lead over Donald Trump among Latino registered voters, the Latino vote could be a deciding factor in the election. Concern arises, however, from the fact that “voter turnout among Hispanics has long lagged that of other groups,” according to the Pew report.

That lag may be in the process of being reversed. A majority of Latino voters (63 percent) said in the Pew Research Center survey that “they are more interested in politics than they were in 2012.” The work of the volunteers at Voces de la Frontera Action is designed to raise interest and continue this trend. If the unexpected gift of a national joke about taco trucks also helps stimulate interest in the election and voter turnout, we’ll have Marco Gutierrez to thank.

On the beautiful Saturday morning of the last weekend of summer, I had Christine Neumann Ortiz to thank. She recommended the taco al pastor. It was delicious. I plan to seek out El Cabrito again since its truck doesn’t appear on my corner. Not yet. And I’d welcome a vendor of paletas, those flavorful fruit-based frozen treats, in my neighborhood as well.

They even lined up in Detroit, just steps from the man himself:

Donald Trump’s visit to an African American church in Detroit brought both cheers and protests Saturday — but one of the star attractions was a taco truck. One of the humble vehicles, which now straddle the worlds of political symbol and internet meme, was parked outside.

The Tacos El Caballo truck set up near Great Faith Ministries International to provide a counterpoint to critics of U.S. immigration policy, its owners told Michigan Public Radio’s Rick Pluta.

Nancy Paz, who immigrated from Mexico, tells Pluta that she parked her family’s taco truck near the church Trump visited on Detroit’s west side Saturday in the hope that the Republican presidential candidate might glimpse it on his way in.

“Because Donald say the Mexican people, they doesn’t work,” Paz told Pluta. “We come here to say, yes, we work hard, for the family.”

Bought a taco

A photo posted by Rick Pluta (@rick.pluta) on