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Writer's pictureThe San Juan Daily Star

Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia are angered by bigoted remarks at Trump rally



Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, speaks during a campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024. (Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times)

By Chris Cameron, Joel Wolfram and Mattathias Schwartz


Puerto Rican residents of Philadelphia reacted with shock and anger earlier this week at racist remarks against Puerto Rico and Latinos made by a speaker at former President Donald Trump’s rally on Sunday at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, joining a growing public backlash.


The electoral significance of the episode was less clear. In a city with one of the largest Puerto Rican communities in the country — and more than 230,000 residents who identify as Hispanic or Latino — some supporters of the former president appeared unmoved, even as they denounced the offensive remarks. And some voters who did not currently support either Trump or former Vice President Kamala Harris did not seem to be immediately swayed to make a decision.


Pennsylvania, perhaps the most crucial presidential battleground in the country, could tilt either way, with polls showing the race as dead even as the Trump and Harris campaigns vie for any advantage. Harris and her allies quickly moved, on social media and in a news conference in Philadelphia, to amplify and denounce the offensive remarks, including one by a comedian who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” The Trump campaign issued a rare statement distancing itself from the remarks.


Puerto Rican Trump supporters interviewed in Philadelphia did not directly blame the former president, arguing that he did not share those views about the island territory, although at least one wished that he would more forcefully denounce them. A Puerto Rican business owner in the Centro de Oro neighborhood, who did not wish to be identified to avoid a backlash against his store, said he trusted Trump more than Harris on the economy and on reducing immigration.


Another Puerto Rican Trump supporter said the remarks against his home island did not upset him because they were the words of a comedian and not the former president. The supporter, Max Izaguirre, 78, of North Philadelphia, added that he agreed with Trump’s view that immigration had made the United States “like a garbage can for the world.”


“The only problem with Trump is that he talks too much,” Izaguirre said. “We need somebody strong in there,” he said of the presidency. “Somebody who can deal with the Russians, with the Chinese, with the Iranians.”


Other Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia were shocked, but not surprised, by the offensive remarks, with many saying they matched a common disrespectful attitude against the island territory, which has more American citizens than many states do but has neither the rights of a state nor the autonomy of an independent country. Some said Trump’s response to Hurricane Maria, a storm that killed nearly 3,000 residents of Puerto Rico in 2017, had reflected that attitude.


“This is not the first time that he treats the Puerto Rican people like we’re nothing,” said Raúl Maldonado, a 68-year-old retired tailor. When he learned of the offensive rally remarks, he reacted with dismay. “This guy comes and treats us like we’re second-class citizens,” he said. “He’s wrong. It’s crazy.”


Carmen Ramos, 80, said the rally comments “made me feel really bad.” If someone says that Puerto Rico is full of garbage, she added, “you’re calling me garbage.” She and her husband, Hiram Montalvo, both Puerto Rican, cast ballots Monday for Harris at a polling location in Centro de Oro.


Other Puerto Ricans and Latinos in Philadelphia expressed disapproval of Trump after the rally, but said they were not yet willing to vote for Harris.


Victoria Aquino, 22, said that she didn’t usually vote, but that she planned to do so this year. She said she needed to do more research, but added, “I know it definitely ain’t going to be Trump.”


Claribel Nuñez, 36, walked out of a polling location with her ballot in hand, but said she had not yet filled it in. Expressing disapproval of the Biden administration’s handling of the conflict in the Middle East, which she described as a “genocide,” Nuñez said she had previously voted for Democratic candidates but was leaning toward voting for a third-party candidate this time.


“I don’t think either party represent me at this moment,” said Nuñez, whose family is from the Dominican Republic. “I’ve been feeling like that for a long time, but I kept voting Democratic, hoping that things would change eventually. And to me, things, instead of slowly progressing, have been slowly regressing.”


Michelle Martinez, 21, a teacher at a preschool for predominantly Puerto Rican children in Philadelphia, said she had supported Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate who dropped out and endorsed Trump, and was now leaning toward Harris or another third-party candidate. She added that her Puerto Rican family appeared equally split between Trump and Harris, adding that the remarks against Puerto Rico at Trump’s rally could still sway minds.


“That’s exactly what happens in my family,” Martinez said. “We have a decision, same day, we’re like, ‘Actually, we’re going to change it.’”

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