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Alexis Uscanga:  We are all different in our own manners, right? Mexican Americans are going to be so much more different than Cuban-Americans. And that’s something that the media, I think, still quite doesn’t understand. 

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Maria Hinojosa: From Futuro Media and PRX, it’s Latino USA. I’m Maria Hinojosa. Today, episode two of our new series, “Hombre, Understanding Latino Men.”

Maria Hinojosa: We sit down with two young Latino voters with very similar backgrounds but opposite political views. (MAIN THEME FADES OUT) 

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Maria Hinojosa: Dear listener, last month we launched a new series, it’s called ‘Hombre, Understanding Latino Men,’ and we did this after seeing conversations happening about Latino men, who essentially shifted right in the last presidential election, but without having a lot of Latino men participating in those conversations.

Maria Hinojosa: We here at Latino USA want to understand what motivated Latino men to vote more Republican this time around. We also want to understand what informed the Latino men who stayed with the Democratic party. 

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Maria Hinojosa: Today, we’re going to hear from two hombres latinos, Alejandro Flores and Alexis Uscanga. They’re both Mexican-American, both from Texas, and both from similar socioeconomic backgrounds.

Maria Hinojosa: Alexis is 21 years old, from Harlingen, Texas. He’s a student at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley. And he’s also a first-time voter, and he chose to vote for Donald Trump. 

Alexis Uscanga: “Thank you for having me.” 

Maria Hinojosa: Alejandro is 31 years old, from Dallas, and he works in IT. In 2024, as he’s done since he was old enough to vote, Alejandro voted blue, this time for presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Alejandro Flores: “Thank you for having me as well.” 

Maria Hinojosa: So as we have said multiple times on this show, Latinos are not a monolith. And within the Latino community, there are complexities. For example, Mexican Americans still lean more left than all other Latino groups. But even among this Democratic stronghold group, Republicans did make wins in this election.

Maria Hinojosa: So we’re going to unpack all of this in our conversation of Hombre, Understanding Latino Men. Let’s get to it. 

Maria Hinojosa: So we’re going to start with you, Alexis. Just tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up and how you identify politically. 

Alexis Uscanga: Yeah, of course. My name is Alexis Uscanga. I am from Harlingen, Texas, down here in the Rio Grande Valley, the border of the United States and Mexico.

Alexis Uscanga: I’ve grown up here in a very Hispanic household. When I was little, I used to sell tamales door to door. I used to help my parents out. 

Maria Hinojosa: Okay, that’s adorable. That’s just adorable. And Alexis, just so we’re clear, you ended up voting for the first time in this election and you voted for Donald Trump. 

Alexis Uscanga: Yes, I did. 

Maria Hinojosa: And Alejandro, tell us a little bit about yourself. 

Alejandro Flores: I grew up in the city of Dallas. Um, I’ve been politically active since the first Obama administration. My family, well, we didn’t really embrace much of our culture. Being a family of immigrants, we tried to assimilate. We spoke Spanish very little, only with like a few members of our family, but at the house, we spoke English, but we still observed some of the traditions, mostly the religious stuff.

Alejandro Flores: But I feel like I’ve recently taken the opportunity to get to know my, my characters more after having a feeling it’s been surpassed for a long time. 

Maria Hinojosa: And Alejandro, you voted for Kamala Harris in 2024. So now let’s get into the politics of it. Can you just tell me about a moment in your life that you remember that kind of shaped your political beliefs.

Alejandro Flores: Yeah, I guess I could harken back to, I think it was 2005 or 2006 when I first noticed a pro-immigration protest against the Bush administration. It was the first time I had heard of any outspoken reaction that was widespread. From people of my culture, because we felt like we were being attacked for who we are or for trying to make a difference in our lives and just making our voices heard and making sure that people understood that we were here, we’re not criminals, despite having allegedly broken any laws that pertain to people looking for safety and migrating to a place where there’s opportunity and shelter and economic prosperity. 

Maria Hinojosa: That is so interesting because that was a real moment in American history, right? It’s 2006. It was a pro-immigration moment in the United States where demonstrations happened across the country.

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Maria Hinojosa: So, can you tell us about a moment, Alexis, that you remember that kind of shaped you politically as a Latino man in Texas? 

Alexis Uscanga: Well, there’s been several times. I would say, of course, President Trump’s first appearance as a political candidate was something that really shaped my political beliefs, because at the very first time I used to be very against him.

Alexis Uscanga: I didn’t like the way he spoke about immigrants. The moment that I would say that I switched was when I disagreed with a friend. He was very pro Trump. I just didn’t understand why he would like such a person, right? So I just began to be curious and I watched my first Trump rally on YouTube and that was a real game changer for me.

Donald Trump: “And now I’m saying, the hell with it, I’m doing it myself. We’re gonna do it, okay? We’re going to do it!” 

Maria Hinojosa: So that’s really interesting. You were like, “I can’t stand Trump. I don’t understand why this Latino friend of mine is going to vote for him.” But you said, “but let me go check out one of his rallies.” And so what happened when you watched that pro-Trump rally for the first time?

Speaker: I was very surprised, right? Of course, I’ve always been led to believe that Trump is a racist, that he’s very misogynistic. So I really wanted to look into it myself. So watching the rally, of course he has his own rhetoric. He’s a showman. He tries to keep the people entertained and I think there was one specific part. I can’t remember exactly what he said, but I just remember how I, I agreed with a lot of stuff he said, but the following day I watched the news and I saw how the message was just twisted, right? I was like, I heard what he said directly myself. And I think that’s what slowly but surely made me like Trump more.

Maria Hinojosa: So I want to really understand very specifically, how your Mexican culture and growing up as a Mexican-American Latino boy and then becoming a man, how that shaped your political leanings. And we’re going to start with you, Alejandro. Do you remember something when you were growing up that you experienced, whether home, school, work, that you were like, Oh, this is what a Latino man is.

Maria Hinojosa: Is there a moment or a story that you can share? 

Alejandro Flores: The concept of a Latino man was mostly shaped by my father. He’s, he worked construction, he didn’t really show emotions, didn’t really speak his mind except for whenever people asked for it. He was a big man who moved around heavy stuff, used tools, and it was kind of a shock for me when I realized not everyone’s dad was like that.

Alejandro Flores: In middle school, I realized that, oh no, other Latino fathers were businessmen or entrepreneurs or lawyers, so that kind of through revenge and my whole belief of like, oh no, it’s they’re not just this strong, silent archetype that are protectors. I mean, in a way, they’re all protectors, but that’s not something that I now know isn’t endemic to being a Latino man.

Maria Hinojosa: Alexis, what about you? Like, is there a moment, a person, a thing where you were like, yeah, that’s, that’s like a great moment of Latino manhood. 

Alexis Uscanga: I would also agree that with just like my dad, he’s also keeps a lot to himself. He’s very hardworking, very dedicated growing up. I just watched him as he built his car dealership business, seeing him work and seeing him do a lot of mechanic work and sell and start little by little going up the ranks, right?

Alexis Uscanga: That’s something that really inspired me because he would always teach us lessons about work hard for everything you want in life. I would see that my friends, their parents would always get them everything, but it was not like that for me and my, my siblings. If we wanted a new phone, we’d have to work for it. If we want a new backpack, we’d have to work for it. If we want new clothes, we’d have to work for it. 

Maria Hinojosa: That’s so Mexican. (LAUGHS)

Maria Hinojosa: A trabajar. Lo quieres a trabajar. 

Alexis Uscanga: Yeah, yeah!

Maria Hinojosa: Okay. So Alejandro, what were the issues that were most kind of personal to you that made you decide, I’m going to vote for Kamala Harris? 

Alejandro Flores: Since I first started voting at age 19, I’ve always voted Democratic. So it was mostly the fact that she was part of the party I’ve supported since I’ve had a political voice. But the fact that she was also a daughter of immigrants, like myself, I really identified with that. 

Maria Hinojosa: Can you tell me your top three issues that were like, this is why I’m going to vote blue? 

Alejandro Flores: So, first of all, healthcare. During the last few months of the Biden administration, they had a huge push for making prescription drugs more affordable for people, and that’s aligned to my needs as a person who’s hard of hearing.

Alejandro Flores: And as someone who grew up with not a lot of health care, because our parents didn’t really have access to that. So, therefore, I wasn’t given much access to it either. But as far as the Democratic Party’s stance on immigration, that kind of goes back to the Obama years with the DACA program. A couple folks in my family went through that route and now they’re, they’re educators or they work for a university and they’re able to help shape the minds of the next generation because they can now work and have that opportunity and workers rights, the ability to work, the ability to have a safety net for folks who have fallen on hard times.

Alejandro Flores: I mean, I’ve lived through that with parents who were ineligible to reap any of those benefits. But I was so in support of having that for folks who needed it anyway, because if they could get it, then eventually we could too. 

Maria Hinojosa: Alexis, same question. So what were the specific issues that motivated you to vote for Trump? And why did you believe that he would be the better option? 

Alexis Uscanga: Yeah, so one of the main issues has been for me and my family, the economy. Ever since 2021, once Biden took office, it just, every, we saw everything rise in price. From gasoline, groceries, and everything. It just made it harder, especially for my, my dad, who’s a small business owner.

Alexis Uscanga: He could not hire as many people as he wanted to, as he had before. And he also had to focus on other things, other than selling cars because making money was just harder. He did feel the struggle and then I did see the change, not only within our own household, but within the community. There were so many people that were impacted, especially living here in such a low socioeconomic region. That’s one of the main reasons why I, especially my family, who voted Democrat here and there, but they weren’t really interested and they didn’t like Republicans beforehand, but now they just felt the need to. So it’s the economy.

Alexis Uscanga: Immigration is another one. We were personally impacted because we tried to bring my, my grandpa from Mexico over here legally and unfortunately, due to mass migration, due to the broken border policies, the wait time went from months to years, and it wasn’t enough for him to hold out. So unfortunately he passed away in Mexico.

Alexis Uscanga: And it was a really hard time for us because we saw how so many people came illegally and we tried to bring my own grandpa here legally. And it was just, it just wasn’t possible. 

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Maria Hinojosa: Coming up on Latino USA, we get into how the issue of immigration played a role in both Alexis and Alejandro’s vote. That’s when “Hombre” continues. Stay with us. ¡No te vayas! 

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Maria Hinojosa: Hey, we’re back with “Hombre, Understanding Latino Men.” We’re speaking with two voters, Alexis Uscanga and Alejandro Flores. Both of them are Mexican American, both of them grew up in Texas. But in 2024, Alexis voted for Donald Trump, while Alejando voted for Kamala Harris. We’re chatting with them to understand what informed their votes. 

Maria Hinojosa: All right, so right after the election, there was a lot of talk, talking about how Latino men voted for Donald Trump in higher numbers compared to in 2020. And obviously, I’m going to state what we all know, right, Latinos and Latinas we are not a monolith. For example, a majority of Mexican Americans still continue to vote heavily Democrat. Cubans, overwhelmingly, have historically voted Republican. So we understand that when we’re talking about Latino men, there’s a lot of nuance.

Maria Hinojosa: But among Mexican Americans, one of the most democratic Latino groups in the United States, there was a shift, right? Notably in Texas, the state where you’re both from, and particularly, Alexis, in the RGV, in the Rio Grande Valley, which you are based, right? All four counties of the RGV flipped red. And Alexis, your family really is kind of indicative of this change because, as you said, you grew up in a traditional South Texas Democrat family. But in 2024, your whole family voted for Donald Trump. 

Alexis Uscanga: Yeah. 

Maria Hinojosa: So, what were some of the key moments that made your  family switched. Like, do you remember that moment? That conversation where it was like, yeah, we’re definitely doing this. Cause that’s a big, that’s a big shift. 

Alexis Uscanga: Yeah, I actually do. And the first time hearing from it from my dad, I was just like, I felt it like the RGV was going to go that way because we’re generations; it’s a whole family has always voted Democrat. He has family members that have ran Democrat on local elections. So we were at a cookout and he didn’t buy a fajita.

Alexis Uscanga: My older brother was asking for it. He’s like, “where’s the fajita?” And he was just like, “it’s too expensive.” And then it started delving a little bit more political. And he was like, “yeah, everything’s going up in price. Everything is becoming so unaffordable. And I’m probably going to vote for Trump.” And me and my brother just kind of looked at him in disbelief, hearing him, him (LAUGHS) say that.

Maria Hinojosa: Were you like, “Oh my God, dad, you, you’re seeing the world through my eyes or papi estas loco, or now we’re in agreement.”

Alexis Uscanga: I was just like very surprised. Right but then I also started saying, why now? And he just said the economy. That’s the number one issue that impacted the valley, the economy. 

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Maria Hinojosa: So actually I want to ask the both of you and we’ll ask you, Alexis, first, are you religious? 

Alexis Uscanga: Yes, I am. I’m a Christian. 

Maria Hinojosa: So how do those religious values of a Christian household impact your understanding of politics? 

Alexis Uscanga: I think that impacted my mom first, right? Like, for example, the Democratic Party’s constant message towards abortion, like being very pro abortion. She heavily disagreed with that. 

Maria Hinojosa: So when you look at Donald Trump and you see everything that he’s done, the convictions around sexual issues with women, the fact that he’s had multiple divorces, how do you square that with your traditional Christian values as a Latino man? 

Alexis Uscanga: That’s one of the big things why I, especially my, uh, parents were very against him in the start. Right. But then we kind of looked past that and the party in general is very pro life, uh, very conservative. They embrace a lot of the Christian values that we support and yeah, we know that Trump is not perfect. He has a lot of flaws, a ton, but we just look at the overall policies, how we lived in 2017 through 2020 and that’s one of the big reasons we started supporting him. 

Maria Hinojosa: And what about you, Alejandro? Does your spiritual or religious perspective, does that inform how you’re a voter? 

Alejandro Flores: I did grow up following the Roman Catholic faith. I kind of fell off of religion sometime around high school. I kind of just arrived at the point to where I would say my religion or lack thereof at this point should have no bearings on my political beliefs.

Alejandro Flores: Because we’re all different. This country is made up of different faiths and different backgrounds and there was some itching of abortion between you and Alexis. My family, well my mom specifically, she’s anti abortion, but she wouldn’t go as far as preventing other folks access if they desperately needed to. You know, that decision between a pregnant person and their doctor and having that enshrined in our laws, just facilitates that. 

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Maria Hinojosa: We’re going to talk for a moment now about the issue of immigration because the both of you come from Mexican immigrant families, and all immigrant families right now have been hit pretty hard by these first executive orders coming from now President Donald Trump. We’ve seen reports of U.S. citizens who were speaking Spanish and they got detained by ICE. We’ve seen Native peoples from the Navajo Nation saying that they were being racially profiled and also detained by ICE. And we’ve heard that in Mississippi, there is a proposed law that would make being undocumented a crime in and of itself. And then, Donald Trump announced that he was going to send 30,000 immigrants to a detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, which of course is infamous as a site for extreme torture.

Maria Hinojosa: Alexis, do you support these orders? 

Alexis Uscanga: I agree with him going after criminals, that that’s the number one priority that should be set. And of course, strengthening our borders. I mean, that’s why I voted for President Trump, because we just have a very broken immigration system. 

Maria Hinojosa: You do know, right, that people are being picked up who are not violent criminals. So you’re okay with people being separated from their children. You’re okay with Donald Trump saying for Venezuelans, many of whom supported him, ‘Hey, no more TPS for Venezuelans.’ You too are going to be set to be deported. You’re okay with this?

Alexis Uscanga: Well, of course, I’m not going to agree with a lot of it, but an overall sense of deporting the people that have committed crimes that have committed very heinous crimes. I do support that. 

Maria Hinojosa: Violent crime has decreased by about 50 percent over the past 30 years. And in the RGV, the data shows that actually your communities are among the safest and that immigrants are responsible for less crime, not more crime. How do you put those two things together? 

Alexis Uscanga: Well, I will talk about one of my experiences going down to the southern border and doing a border clean up there, because there was a lot of people that came into Brownsville and it exceeded a lot of resources. So in the cleanup, we saw a lot of very horrific stuff.

Alexis Uscanga: There was a lot of drugs on the floor. There was so much trash everywhere. And that’s where I supported Trump even more. 

Maria Hinojosa: Alejandro, what’s going on for you as you watch these executive orders on the issue of immigration? 

Alejandro Flores: Well, I’ll say this, my family, this time around for the Trump presidency, they’re a little more prepared than they were during his first administration. Since then, my parents have gotten their legal residency status. My two older sisters have completed their DACA process, so they’re now American citizens who voted for the first time last year at that. But it’s so scary for a lot of people out there who are just here trying to find an opportunity to have a better life.

Alejandro Flores: And we really do feel for them because we relive those fears ourselves. These executive orders of sending people who speak Spanish, and that makes folks here suspicious of them of being criminals or just being here without any documentation whatsoever. We understand that that’s unfair. 

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Maria Hinojosa: I want to bring this again to Latino men. Like, what is the thing that you would like to shout from the mountaintops about Latino men when you hear journalists or analysts talking about Latino men? And we’ll start with you, Alexis. 

Alexis Uscanga: I guess just not all the same. We are all different in our own manners, right? Of course, Mexican-Americans are going to be so much more different than Cuban-Americans. And that’s something that the media, I think, still quite doesn’t understand, or the different issues that matter to us the most. A lot of Latinos are going to be very focused on immigration, while others are just going to be focused on other things like the economy.

Maria Hinojosa: Alejandro, what do you think that we need to know and understand about Latino men in our country? 

Alejandro Flores: Yeah, I think, similar to what Alexis said, I would say that the state of being a Latino man in this country is a spectrum. It’s not just, oh, we all speak the same language. And, of course, Latino men whose heritage hails from Mexico is different from that of a Latino man whose heritage hails from Venezuela or Colombia.

Alejandro Flores: Their histories of authoritarian leadership, of course, will color their political beliefs. And as far as Mexico’s like political revolutions of the struggle between their conservatives and their liberals will also shape a view on politics as well. And just getting to know the historical background of all these nations that shape the Latino men that are here today, that’s something that that should be understood when it comes to talking about Latino men and their political beliefs.

Maria Hinojosa: All right. Final question. So, We’ll start with you, Alejandro, what do you hope to see in the next four years for your community, for our country, and yeah, very specifically for Latino men? 

Alejandro Flores: Well, first and foremost, I would say that no matter who won the election, my biggest hope was that whatever the outcome was that our country as a whole, doesn’t falter, that it continues to prosper and it continues to open doors for folks all over the country, all over the political spectrum, no matter which background you come from.

Alejandro Flores: So to that, I do wish that this second Trump presidency will be helpful for more people. However, at the time of this recording, I do not see that being the possibility. I see doors being closed for folks who just want to have a better life. 

Maria Hinojosa: Alexis, take us out. What do you hope to see in the next four years?

Alexis Uscanga: I hope that he follows through in all of his promises that he campaigned on from border security to the economy, because that was his main message and hopefully he does a great job, hopefully a lot of Americans prosper and hopefully our economy does good enough that people get better opportunities moving forward. 

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Maria Hinojosa: Alexis and Alejandro, thank you so much for joining me on Latino USA for this episode of Hombre, Understanding Latino Men. So muchas gracias, Alexis. 

Alexis Uscanga: Yes, of course. And thank you. Muchas gracias. 

Maria Hinojosa: And you, Alejandro. Thank you very much. 

Alejandro Flores: Ah, de nada, muchísimas gracias por tenerme aquí. 

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Maria Hinojosa: This episode was produced by Nour Saudi and edited by Andrea López-Cruzado. It was mixed by Julia Caruso with engineering support from JJ Querubin. The Latino USA team also includes Roxana Aguirre, Fernanda Echavarri, Jessica Ellis, Victoria Estrada, Dominique Hinestrosa, Reynaldo Leaños Jr., Stephanie Lebow, Luis Luna, Marta Martínez, Tasha Sandoval, and Nancy Trujillo. Peniley Ramírez, Marlon Bishop, Maria Garcia, and myself, our co-executive producers, and I’m your host, María Hinojosa. Join us again on our next episode. In the meantime, I’ll see you on social media as always and remember ¡No te vayas! 

Maria Hinojosa: Ciao!

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