Mexican Flags Have Become Republican Fodder, but Protesters Keep Waving Them

[AStern]

Images of Los Angeles protesters waving Mexican flags have gone viral in conservative circles this week. Many protesters say they are aware of the political reaction but won’t put their flags away.

To many Americans, including those on the left, it might seem a bad strategy to fight deportations of undocumented immigrants by waving the flag of another country.

But protesters said this week that they see the Mexican flag as a symbol of defiance against Mr. Trump’s immigration policies or of solidarity with other Mexican Americans. The flag has become so ubiquitous in recent decades that it is a part of the Southern California landscape, adorning pickup trucks and flapping from bridges. Few mass gatherings occur in the region without a Mexican flag or two, from weekend soccer matches to Los Angeles Dodgers championship parades.

This week, those who kept waving them said that it was important to honor their heritage and not acquiesce to Mr. Trump, even while they recognized the potential political cost. They said that the flag to them was not un-American, that it represented their Chicano roots rather than a national allegiance.

:snip:

Bonnie Garcia, 32, a U.S.-born citizen from Los Angeles, said she had briefly considered stopping to buy an American flag before attending a rally on Monday that denounced the deployment of National Guard troops in the city. But she stuck with her original plan to bring two small flags representing the countries her parents came from, Guatemala and Mexico.

“I’m proud to be American, but in these times, being Californian is what makes me proud, and seeing the diversity here, seeing that a lot of people haven’t forgotten the roots,” she said. “I feel like that’s why Trump fears diversity and fears representation in people’s faces because he doesn’t want people to remember, he wants to erase us, and I’m not going to stand for that.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/us/mexican-flags-have-become-republican-fodder-but-protesters-keep-waving-them.html

[displacedvermoter]

1. Nobody seems to be too worked up by Irish flags at St Patrick's Day parades

Columbus Day parades always featured Italian flags. Go to your local Greek Orthodox church for the annual festivities there and you will see Greek flags with your stuffed grape leaves.

What do you want think the big difference here is? Hmmm...racism, no it can't be, can it?

[Wingus Dingus]

17. Wait...was this a parade, with clowns passing out lollipops and colorful floats and

family fun for everyone?

[AStern]

18. You seem rather concerned

Please share your personal how-to-protest rule book.

[Wingus Dingus]

19. I'd leave out the violence and the flags, for sure.

There ya go.

[AStern]

21. LOL

You're sad.

[Wingus Dingus]

22. Aww, someone wasn't actually looking for a straight answer, but got one anyway.

That's annoying, isn't it?

[AStern]

23. Cry more

[Wingus Dingus]

28. I'm doing fine, thanks.

It's the exploited and threatened workers, visa holders, students, asylum seekers, tourists, of any nationality who are being harassed, kidnapped, deported without due process who aren't doing so well.

[displacedvermoter]

44. These parades and festivals are important cultural and in some places religious events in

which people celebrate their heritage, including groups that in previous generations faced their own levels of oppression and calls for an end to their immigration. Most parades and cultural festivals celebrate historic moments and past achievements. This is a historic moment we are living in, pride in cultural identity is and always has been a part of the American tradition.

Fly all these flags with pride. At event last night I saw Canadian, Ukrainian, Palestinian, Mexican and Haitian flags flying, along with the Stars & Stripes. It all felt good, and looked great as the parade went up Church Street (WPTZ news,
Plattsburgh/Burlington)

[Wingus Dingus]

46. There's a time and place for peacocking and strutting one's ethnic pride.

Not sure these particular protests are that time or place. But this is why protests of all kinds sometimes are ineffective or backfire, I guess--no focus, no message discipline, no behavioral discipline, just freewheeling it. A stage and a camera to draw attention to oneself and one's own agenda, regardless of public perception. Irresistible social media gold for the participants, but more savvy powers are smiling and licking their chops.

[muriel_volestrangler]

47. I don't think the people from communities not at risk of arbitrary arrest can disparage them as "peacocking"

Lack of "behavioral discipline" should be a criticism of LAPD, ICE, the National Guard and the Marines - and of course their rapist commander, not of the victims. No matter how "savvy" those groups and individuals are in your eyes.

[Wingus Dingus]

49. Things aren't fair. We're in a whole new world now, where

our institutions aren't holding up but are instead corrupted by Project 2025/MAGA--law firms, media companies, military--all folding, deserting us, and some people are really suffering--I wish we had a better response than "hey man, express yourself however you want out there! It's all good!" without acknowledging how it scares and turns off the mushy middle. A guy in a mask shirtless standing theatrically in smoking ruins waving a foreign flag, or riding donuts with his motorcycle for the cameras is indeed peacocking for the cameras. Actual immigrants or foreigners at risk of deportation probably aren't doing that, and their closest American-citizen allies aren't doing that. If the protests aren't going to be about the unconstitutional and immoral methods being used to harass, seize and deport people, then I can't control that... but I can certainly predict that they're going to fail and/or backfire.

[muriel_volestrangler]

50. You could control your praise of the fascists as "savvy", however (nt)

[Wingus Dingus]

51. Savvy is a fair word. They know what they're trying to achieve--

do we?

[muriel_volestrangler]

54. Do not obey in advance.

Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.

Anticipatory obedience is a political tragedy. Perhaps rulers did not initially know that citizens were willing to compromise this value or that principle. Perhaps a new regime did not at first have the direct means of influencing citizens one way or another. After the German elections of 1932, which brought Nazis into government, or the Czechoslovak elections of 1946, where communists were victorious, the next crucial step was anticipatory obedience. Because enough people in both cases voluntarily extended their services to the new leaders, Nazis and communists alike realized that they could move quickly toward a full regime change. The first heedless acts of conformity could not then be reversed.

https://timothysnyder.org/on-tyranny

When people tell protesters they shouldn't fly the flag of a friendly country that they, and millions of others, have ancestral links to, and disparage it as "peacocking and strutting", while praising fascists as savvy, that's anticipatory obedience.

[Wingus Dingus]

55. Anticipatory obedience in this case would be to advise everyone to just accept

the situation and make the best of it and lay down. I'm not doing that at all. Describing fascists as savvy...well, some of them are smart, tactically speaking. They made sure to do this in LA for a reason. They knew they were going to get some useful images out of it, although they did NOT get as much violence as they were certainly hoping for--credit to the protestors. MAGA/Trump/Miller know how to press white America's fear and hate buttons, that's not an admiring statement, just a fact. That's been the secret to their success since "build the wall".

[displacedvermoter]

48. Ok, glad we have some savvy folks here on DU

[newdeal2]

2. Fuck those Roman saluting bastards

They desecrate the American flag every day they support this authoritarian regime.

[William769]

3. What isn't fodder for the republican shit heads?

[MustLoveBeagles]

42. Exactly

[B.See]

53. Well, for starters

Nazi flags, Confederate flags, upside down American flags and bastardized versions bearing Trump's name, face etc.

All the above, fine with maga.

[Prairie Gates]

4. Good for the protestors: don't let fascist GOPers and cowardly Dems frame the issue

[yorkster]

25. Just because some of us would like to see

some American flags in with the Mexican flags doesn't mean we are "cowardly Dems".
Sometimes an American flag represents what you aspire to for your country, even in a very dark time.

Let's not cede the flag to the dark side.

[LuvLoogie]

30. Join them in the streets and wave an American flag.

[yorkster]

36. If I were there I would probably have both flags. US and Mexican.

On Saturday I'll have US and Canadian flags for 2 separate Maine events. Maybe Ukrainian if I can find one.

Or was there a bit of snark I missed?
🤔

[AStern]

38. Interesting that you mentioned that, because there are plenty of US and Mexican flags - if only the news would show you

I wonder why they don't?

[yorkster]

41. Agree that media is focusing on the burning

car/Mexican flag theme, as though that is the case all over the city.

[AStern]

43. The area involve is less than a square mile

I think it's actually a lot smaller than that.

[yorkster]

45. Yes, of course just like Trump's idiotic comment

that LA would be "burning to the ground" if he hadn't deployed the National Guard, etc.

[cadoman]

5. we wave a lot of flags in this country

Ukraine, Irish, Palestinian, Israeli, Mexican, Canadian, etc. We come from a lot of places and even some of the native people have their own flags and symbols.

They're all great flags that mean great things. I encourage the protests to exercise their first amendment rights and enjoy flying the flag they want to.

🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽🇲🇽

Fascists will make anything non-white out to be bad. Don't adopt their cultural framework.

[Jirel]

6. Nobody's business to tell them how to protest.

It’s especially rich coming from thugs who wave confederate and fascist flags.

[Mariana]

7. Do you really think they wouldn't get just as worked up by US flags?

"How dare these America-haters wave American flags! They aren't even Americans!"

[Torchlight]

8. I tend to think the Optics argument has also turned into conservative fodder.

[AStern]

13. I think the argument was sourced from the same entities that brought us "Genocide Joe"

As with the let's secede memes.

[Ms. Toad]

9. Too bad. So sad.

What's next - a review committee for signs people can carry? Dress police?

The coalition of people who oppose what ICE is doing is broad - and we need to learn to welcome voices who don't say things exactly the same way we would, rather than attempting to silence them.

Short of initiating violence, or engaging in destruction of third party property, I welcome the expression of that opposition in whatever form that expression takes.

[Reader Rabbit]

10. In El Pueblo de Nuestra Seora la Reina de los Angeles?

In land that was once Mexican Territory? I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. It wasn't just Republicans who were mad about it lol

[AStern]

14. That is mentioned in the article

nt

[Ping Tung]

12. "Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's minds &

“Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people’s minds & then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.”

― Arundhati Roy

[Wingus Dingus]

15. Thought the protests were to draw negative attention to ICE's tactics.

I didn't know it was a Mexican/Latino pride parade. There are non-Latinos being hauled away, too, BTW. But way to make it about you instead of the actual problem.

[AStern]

20. Why would a group of people tagged as criminals and rapists show pride in their community?

You tell us.

[Wingus Dingus]

24. From the article:

“I’m proud to be American, but in these times, being Californian is what makes me proud"

You should read your own stuff first.

[AStern]

26. I hope to see more flags from Mexicans, Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Hondurans, Panamanians

and every other Latin American ethnic group targeted.

[Wingus Dingus]

33. Well, OK, you do you.

[ms liberty]

37. Yet none of them are carrying California flags either.

I think if we want to win a propaganda war, we should be carrying California flags and American flags. It's our country and state we're trying to stop them from destroying. The sight of American troops going against a bunch of American people carrying American and California flags would be a very powerful one.
I get celebrating your heritage, but I'm not going to a protest America by carrying a Union Jack (because I have the most boring DNA results ever) and my husband isn't going to carry the flags of France and Scotland, either.

[Wingus Dingus]

39. Yep. Actually, flags in general are a bad idea because you just know

some jackass, planted or otherwise, is going to burn an American flag in front of a looted burning store for looped Fox footage. That moment is coming, I'm sure.

[Silent Type]

16. White Wingers would complain if "Mexicans" were carrying American flags.

[DSandra]

27. Republicans don't let truth get in their way. They will even fabricate things for their own propaganda

I don't blame anyone for saying "Fuck that, I will do my own thing and I don't care what stupid bumpkins thousands of miles away think."

[Basso8vb]

29. Down with gatekeeping

The J6 rioters BEAT THE CAPITOL POLICE WITH AMERICAN FLAGS.

[ck4829]

31. The fact that they're complaining about flags means they aren't able to complain about violence

[LuvLoogie]

35. If you look at the live feeds.

Last edited Wed Jun 11, 2025, 02:45 PM - Edit history (1)

Mexican flags, El Salvadoran flags, Venezuelan flags, etc--and American flags are all being flown.

But they like to show Mexican Flags juxtaposed with flaming teslas to get on the fascists' good side.

Of course the objection is racist. You can damn well be sure if there were a mass roundup of Polish and Irish immigrants, those flags would be flying too.

People are being abused because of their ethnicities. The flags from countries of those origins are an act of pride and defiance, the privileged sympathies of those concerned with optics notwithstanding.

Flags will keep waving, shit will keep getting trashed, and immigrants abused because - - America.

[Cirsium]

40. I think I'll fly the Mexican flag

I suggest that all white Democrats do the same, rather than meekly cowering to the racist right wing propaganda about this.

[GenThePerservering]

52. NYT is ass

with that headline. Everything is 'fodder' for the GOP. Fuck 'em, we won't dance to their tune.

Dem leadership are too worried about 'what that will look like to the GOP', let's not do the same. Fly all the flags.