Many Latinos in the Mission woke up on Wednesday morning feeling a combination of fear and anxiety as they grappled with the reality that Donald Trump will once again be president. But some also said they are optimistic about Trump’s impact on the economy.
While most declined to say whether they voted in the elections — or whether they could — they had followed the results closely.
“I feel so much sadness right now. I had to close the store early yesterday,” said Diana Medina, a Mexican native and owner of Diju Jewelry at 3214 24th St. “What saddens me most is that he’s woken racism again.”
For months, the newly elected leader has promised mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, and has accused immigrant communities of depleting social services and contributing to the housing shortage.
That message resonated with many voters across the country and Trump swept all seven battleground states, flipping six of them.
Most Latinos Mission Local spoke to for this story shared Medina’s fears and anxieties. However, at least half saw something positive in the new president: The economy.
“I hope we can do much better, economically, with him,” said Petra Luna, a Mexican native. “I think he’s a good president in that regard, but I do fear deportations and the separations of families.”
And Luna is not alone.
Ernesto Solis, a Peruvian native who has lived in the country for 15 years, said he’s been unsuccessfully looking for a union job since 2020, when Joe Biden won.
“He’s racist, for sure,” said Solis referring to Trump. “But when he was president, I had options, and that’s what’s important to me. I came to this country to work.”
On a similar note, Angelo Galiani, another Peruvian native in this country for 25 years, said Trump’s victory will most likely have a positive impact on the economy.
“The economy was really good when he was president. A lot of people remember that,” said Galiani, who added he also shares the fear of deportation many other Latinos feel. For him, however, it comes down to economic survival, and to other immigrants respecting the rules of this country.
“We Latinos have to come here and respect this country. Unfortunately, some come and don’t, so I think you’re going to see a clean-up of those who give the rest of us a bad name,” said Galiani.
The unemployment rate went from 4.7 percent to 3.6 percent under Trump, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while Biden quickly faced a post-pandemic high of 14.8 percent, which came down to 4.1 percent as of October. GDP increased at similar rates under both administrations.
Latinos supported Trump in high numbers: 45 percent, compared to 32 percent in 2020. Other minority groups also increased their support for the newly elected leader. Asian voters, for example, increased their support to 38 percent, compared to 34 percent in 2020.
And locally, too, at least four out the five neighborhoods in San Francisco that had the highest Trump support are majority Asian: Chinatown, Outer Mission, Portola and Visitation Valley.
While Luna, Solis and Galiani have lived in this country for many years, others, like Margarita Flores, are living the anxiety of a Trump presidency for the first time.
Flores, a Mexican native, moved to this country eight months ago looking for better opportunities. “I feel a little anxious and worried because I’ve heard bad things about him,” said Flores, as she handed out flyers on Mission Street.
Flores added that many of her friends are also feeling the same emotions and that social media is adding to their fears. She said that she will try to stay calm and positive by keeping a low profile and by staying to herself.
“I’m not breaking the law here. I’m just working,” said Flores.
Flores’ case is one of many across the country that will need support and strength from the community, said Medina.
“Right now, what we need is to be strong. San Franciscans are happy, hard workers and we have a big heart, so we will make it together.”
A better economy for whom? After Trump guts labor laws, abolishes unions and a minimum wage, slaps 20-60% tariffs on imports, slashes social spending, eliminates the Affordable Healthcare Act, privatizes healthcare, loots Social Security, raises taxes on all but the rich, and deports millions of tax-paying workers that will kill our agriculture system, who will benefit? Not you, me, or Señora Medina.
It’s amazing how people focus on the price of eggs and ignore the millions of preventable deaths that Trump presided over due to ignoring Covid. And yeah, the guy who wants a union job voting for a guy who congratulated Elon Musk on air for destroying his union.
They will deserve everything coming to them in the next 4 years.
Oh boy. We’re not getting the pre-pandemic economy back. And looking back, what has Trump done for the economy the first go around? Set it up for failure by kicking off a trade war with China. Though of course, it was the pandemic that gave us the current spin.
So now we have a party in charge that used to be categorically anti union with every last member fall over themselves telling people like Ernesto Solis to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. And what with health care, you don’t need that.
“Better economy?” LOL
Just wait until those tariffs kick in — it’s effectively a massive sales tax — the most regressive form of taxation. But hey, screw the lower and middle class, right?
and on another note,54% of latinos men voted for him.When ICEcome to arrest and deport their parents, their cousins ,should we shed a tear? trump hates chinese, they voted for him in chinatown, he hates latinos, especially mexicans and portoricans, he hates jews, black people, he make fun of handicapped people, of veterans and some of those people voted for him? that is telling the level of education in this country.
Children rejoicing after trump victory should look at how he left the books when exiting office: a total disaster. He is inheriting a booming economy, an inflation under control. It will take him exactly 2 years to put the books back into the red. The only people benefiting would be the higher ups. Let’s keep an eye on the price of a dozen of eggs since it seems to be the major concerns of voters. In January the dozen magically back to 1.20$, right? And good luck to get health insurance at the end of next year.
Demographics is not progressive political destiny, not for migrants, not for ethnicities.
The neoliberal identity class is going to need to background identity politics and center class if they expect to survive and then beat back the right wing tsunami.
Economic equity can be legislated. Social justice cannot be legislated, as ending structural oppression requires a social revolution that durably reconfigures social norms and that mostly takes place in person to person interaction outside of one’s comfort zone.
You had me until: “Economic equity can be legislated”
Buyer’s remorse will hit sooner rather than later. When people were interviewed, universally, it was he wasn’t speaking about ME since I am not a criminal. People are living in a big fantasy created by Trump in his media sphere. Propaganda works as we watch the economy and our soul go down the drain. It will affect whites, blacks, Latinos’ and Asian Americans who will see rising food and grocery prices and goods and services when he implements tarriffs. The question is: will we resist and when we actually wake up to the fact we still have some power. Low income voters were not part of Harris’s voting block.
“some look forward to better economy”
When did we ever get a some look forward to better economy from a GOP President?
NEVER
As President Bill Clinton pointed out, during the past decades we got 50 million jobs under Dem Presidents and ONE million under Republicans.
So, it’s this kind of presumptive attitude that puts Vance in the driver’s seat in ’28. When will progressive leaning media folks learn? Exit polls show that 46 percent of Latinos voted for Trump, and among Latino men, he won 55 percent of the votes—a huge increase from 36 percent in 2020. Servicing a narrative has a good visceral feel, but until a real effort at understanding what really happened occurs, the progressives are dooming themselves to another GOP victory.
Voters rejoicing after trump victory should look at how he left the books when exiting office: a total disaster. He is inheriting a booming economy, an inflation under control. It will take him exactly 2 years to put the books back into the red. The only people benefiting would be the higher ups. Let’s keep an eye on the price of a dozen of eggs since it seems to be the major concerns of voters. In January the dozen magically back to 1.20$, right? And good luck to get health insurance at the end of next year.
People rejoicing after trump victory should look at how he left the books when exiting office: a total disaster. He is inheriting a booming economy, an inflation under control. It will take him exactly 2 years to put the books back into the red. The only people benefiting would be the higher ups. Let’s keep an eye on the price of a dozen of eggs since it seems to be the major concerns of voters. In January the dozen magically back to 1.20$, right? And good luck to get health insurance at the end of next year.
Latinx is not a thing. Even the folks you quoted didn’t use the term. I believe the acceptance rate of the term is 4% among the Latino population. My family is from the Mission and we routinely cringe when people use the term. Its okay to retire the term, nobody is going to miss it.
You’re right, but you’re going to get voted down by a bunch of self-righteous, white progressives, who lack any and all self-awareness.
Latinos across the country voted Republican move than ever. Can’t you figure out that they want all illegal immigrants deported. They want high tariffs on South American (and all other) imports. They want to eliminate corporate tax. After all, that’s what they voted for.
Great reporting! The Left has to do some major soul-searching. Why did Trump win 45% of Latinos (54% for Latino men), 38% of Asians and 20% of black voters?
Personally, I feel it is for the same reason why Daniel Lurie won the Mayoral race in SF. Go to big cities like Philadelphia and NY, and the erosion along non-white voters is very real. New Jersey came down to under 5% margin!
People feel very strongly that since 2020, progressives have abandoned the working class to pursue identity-driven adventures and ignore the social decay in our cities. On X and YouTube, the situation in the TL and places like Kensington in Philly became the greatest advertisement for the Right ever created.
Is public safety not a human right?
Why do white people (and Obama) call out blacks for voting 80/20? Unreal.
Look. It’s clear from your stats that the voting bloc that needs real assessment is whites. In particular, working class, lower and middle income whites. Trump cleaned house within that demographic.
It’s fairly straightforward to understand the zero-sum thinking the white working class has adopted: pay for the working class white demographic has seen the most precipitous decline, and those demographics who are on the rise are to blame.
To understand who is truly responsible for said 40+ year decline, it’s not as simple as blaming Republicans or Reaganomics. Clinton was surely in on the fun as he signed NAFTA into law. Obama passed ACA for the poor … good times … but he didn’t talk about uplifting the lower/middle class until he was a lame-duck.
Working class whites probably don’t much consider NAFTA and congressional majorities. So why did they vote for Trump? I don’t know, and it’s not my problem to figure out. It’s the Democratic Party’s problem to figure out.
But I’ll take a shot at it: working class whites see Dems as looking to uplift every demographic but their own. They see voting for Trump as a ‘fuck you” to those they *know* have left them behind.
People talking about *feels* need to wise up. ✌️
My comments are not being posted>Did trump already seized control of the moderation on this site?
Hi Ali —
These comments are monitored in real-time and nobody is hovering over the keyboard awaiting any single submission. I think the world will continue onward with comments being approved when human beings get to the office and deal with it.
Yours,
JE