The Mexican flag has become a defining symbol of the LA protests
By: Lex Harvey (CNN)
We have to hire Mexicans to do the riots Americans refuse to do.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Mexico’s green, white and red flag has become a defining symbol of the protests in Los Angeles.
Demonstrators have waved flags from Mexico and other Latin American countries, as well as US flags, to express solidarity with immigrants and denounce the Trump administration’s raids, provoking the ire of the president’s supporters.
Los Angeles has been roiled in protests since Friday, when ICE officers raided several workplaces in the city’s garment district. While the protests began peacefully, they have since led to dozens of arrests and some violent clashes. President Donald Trump deployed thousands of National Guard troops and Marines, outraging Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who in a complaint defined the mobilization of the California guardsmen as an “illegal takeover” and on social media called the potential use of the Marines “a blatant abuse of power.”
The Mexican flag has long been a mainstay at immigration-related demonstrations, particularly in LA, which has deep cultural and economic ties to Mexico and is seen as the capital of the Mexican diaspora in the US. More than 3.4 million people of Mexican heritage or born in Mexico live in Los Angeles County, according to Census data, more than any other county in the US.
But images and video showing flag-waving protesters facing off with police have drawn anger from Republican officials.
Republicans, on the other side of the issue
“They were literally out there protesting, carrying a foreign flag. That is absolutely insane. They’re not just peaceful protesters. These are illegals,” Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin told CNN’s Dana Bash, while defending Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to LA.
“Insurrectionists carrying foreign flags are attacking immigration enforcement officers,” Vice President JD Vance posted on X Saturday.
The Department of Homeland Security has shared on social media several photos and videos of the protests where, amid chaotic scenes, the Mexican flag is featured prominently.
Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller described the protesters on social media as “foreign nationals, waving foreign flags, rioting and obstructing federal law enforcement attempting to expel illegal foreign invaders.”
Waving a foreign flag – or even destroying an American one – is legal under freedom of expression rights protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment.
Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda, associate professor of Chicana, Chicano and Central American Studies at UCLA, said invoking flags to demonize protesters is a “well-documented move on the part of the Trump administration, knowing that every single demonstration of this type brings out the Mexican flag.”
Former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger told CNN’s Erin Burnett he thinks protesters are waving the wrong flag.
The visual of the Mexican flag at protests “are terrible, honestly, and this is feeding right into Donald Trump’s narrative,” Kinzinger said. “People can carry whatever flag they want. They have a right to do it. I just think that it would be much stronger if they were carrying American flags only.”
A long-time magnet for controversy
The current Mexican flag was officially adopted by the country in 1968, though variations have been used since Mexico’s war of independence from Spain in the early 1800s.
It is illegal in Mexico to use the Mexican flag for anything other than patriotic festivities, official or sporting events, and school and government ceremonies and under very specific circumstances.
The brandishing of it and other Latin American flags to defend the rights of immigrants in the US has a long and complex history.
The Mexican flag was a lightning rod during the 1994 movement against California’s Proposition 187, which sought to bar undocumented immigrants from accessing education, health care and social services. The flags, waved by protesters to show pride, were seen by many as symbols of anti-American defiance.
“This is something that goes back, actually, to the 1990s, when many people protested against Proposition 187 at the time,” Jorge Castañeda, former Mexican foreign minister, told CNN on Tuesday. “And then also the early 2000s when demonstrations all over the United States took place against several laws that were being implemented then on immigration.”
Castañeda suspects this time around “practically all of the demonstrators, all of the protesters, are American citizens.”
“You would have to be quite reckless and foolish to be a Mexican citizen without papers, or even as a legal permanent resident, to go out and demonstrate today in these protests because you would most likely be arrested and deported, even if you’re a legal permanent resident and certainly if you have no papers,” said Castañeda, who was foreign minister from 2000 to 2003.
In LA, some have argued waving the Mexican flag risks undermining the protesters’ cause by alienating people and shifting attention away from immigration policy.
Waving the Mexican flag “transforms what should be a debate about American constitutional rights and due process into a conversation about foreign loyalty and cultural assimilation,” Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist focused on Latino voting trends wrote in the Sacramento Bee.
But the waving of foreign flags speaks to the generations of people from Mexico and other Latin American countries who have called the US, and particularly California, home, Hinojosa-Ojeda, the UCLA professor, said.
“The flags mean their families. The flags mean their communities. It’s not about having an international invasion,” he added.
The flags are a “mechanism of pride and identity that is under attack,” Hinojosa-Ojeda added.
Antonio Rodriguez, an organizer with the Brown Berets immigration advocacy group, said the Mexican flag at the protests is a symbol of unity, not division.
“I don’t necessarily think just because somebody has pride in their culture that they’re un-American,” Rodriguez said.
“Waving a Mexican flag, for us, is showing pride in our culture and our family.”
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Oddly enough, this would be illegal in Mexico.
I recall one Canadian wag flying the Canadian flag at the J-6 debacle, obviously we didn't let him return ... @!@
So what's wrong with flying that flag in America Mexicana? As long as the Gulf of Mexico is called the Gulf of America I see nothing wrong with calling the USA "America Mexicana".
LINK -> Mexican President Claps Back At Trump's Intention To Rename The Gulf Of Mexico: 'We'll Call The U.S. America Mexicana'
Just like i see nothing wrong with calling mainland china , West Taiwan ....
OMG Mark, I apologize if you took my ON TOPIC comment to be such a personal insult aimed specifically at you that you found it necessay to try to insult me about China, even though China ISN'T on topic, eh? First of all, I'm not Chinese, and in order to hurt me maybe you should have aimed your taunt at Canada, but then there are more Canadians on this site so you wouldn't be firing your vitriol at the only one person here that you could have meant to fire at PERSONALLY. But don't worry, I didn't flag your personal taunt because I preferred to post this reply instead.
It appears someone has lost their sense of humor with playful jabs that is exactly how i take the mexicxana , america bit . playful though attempting to be insulting as well, but failing . . i shall file that you are rather thin skinned about the great china ...
and if i wanted to have been insulting to china i would have called it west japan .
as for the mexican flag? looks like basically any other european flag it was influenced by , except.... the mexican flag has a big brown spot in the middle where it looks like some one wiped their ass with it . and according to our laws one is free to fly what ever flag they wish , as well as say whatever they want about anything ..
It appears that someone who has been taunted enough times with OFF TOPIC whataboutism replies disparaging the country he just happens to be the only NT member living in, although he is not its citizen, with the obvious intention of embarrassing him, has unfortunately caused him to respond negatively whether or not the taunts are meant to be humourous, in particular when the disparaging comment is a reply to a proper "Speak Your Mind" ON TOPIC comment.
However, Mark, please know that other than that I respect and appreciate whatever you post on NT. I apologize for being sensitive.
No apology needed , but not everything is meant to be personally insulting all the time , be it direct or backhanded .
says who?
Lex Harvey of CNN
Ahhhh, anyone one with eyes.
It's good when people show what they are fighting for. The sponsors of the LA riots tried handing out American flags to the rioters to at least create the pretense they supported America.
I think most of the American flags were burned.
Then that must be the case ... @!@
You really can't make up this level of stupidity.
These mouth breathing clowns are flying the flag of the shithole they fled from and burning the flag of the country they want to stay in. And on top of it, they expect everybody to take them seriously and treat them like they children they are acting like.