Defectors: The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What it Means for America / Paola Ramos / 2024

Defectors would have been a more useful book if it was published a couple of years ago, but better late than never I guess. For those of us who are politically conscious and aware of the news, Defectors will hardly offer anything new. Ramos does, however, synthesize research, news, and observations about the Latino right in a useful and clarifying way, if only to let us know there’s likely not a weird unexpected factor we hadn’t considered yet. 

Briefly summarized, Ramos identifies the three elements fueling the Latino far right as traditionalism, trauma, and media spheres in the global south.  

This is a surprisingly white supremacist history of Utah Latinos.

Because Ramos is a journalist, however, and not a historian, she fails to trace the historical roots of some of these traditions. For example, Ramos rightly identifies the patriarchal, family values in most contemporary, traditional Latino households, as well as the white supremacist threads in the ideology of a Latino far right leader who defended the statues of Spanish colonizers and celebrated only his Spanish heritage. She failed to identify how common national racial myths, such as mestizaje, perpetuate racism. Defectors makes it seem like these people emerged out of the mists, when I’m sure racist Latinos were apart of nearly every major Latin American populace in the United States. In Utah, this includes figures like Danny Quintana, who celebrated his Latin connection to the Roman empire, one-upping backward white people who descend from less civilized white stock. This part of the book was by far the most annoying and untenable, because what Ramos failed to articulate is that some Latinos are just white, far-right, and fascists and have represented those factions historically in their homelands. Latinos are so far from ideologically, ethnically, or racially monolithic, and Defectors behaves as if we once were. 

When it comes to the historical traumas, Ramos sometimes does not articulate some of the deeper contexts behind the masses’ reactions either. For example, her prescient discussion of Salvadoran dictator Bukele failed to adequately describe the gang crisis in El Salvador and the factors that led up to it. For those unaware of the right wing movement in Latin America, from its evangelists to the Republican funders and the fascists eager to bootlick Bukele and Pinochet, this book is critical reading.

As someone who has lost confidence in the social integrity of the Latino label for a while now, considering its net just too damn wide to meaningfully organize around, I found some of Ramos’s appeals to Latino identity to be too romantic. That said, I am inspired by the works of groups like Mijente, who organize and fund Latinos nationwide. I read this book, as a part of Mijente’s book club although I wasn’t able to attend the in-person gatherings. Learn more about mijente here: https://mijente.net/

Overall, I give this book a 4 out of 5, as its info feels spot-on. I just wish it occasionally fleshed a topic out in greater depth. 

Why I'm Leaving Meta and You Should Too

I’m shutting down my Meta accounts and migrating everything to BlueSky soon. The level of censorship on Meta is atrocious, but more importantly, Meta makes money off of us staying on Instagram and Facebook, which means every second we spend on their apps we’re monetarily supporting fascism. For me, switching to BlueSky means losing a literary following I spent over a decade building and connection with loved ones. However, it doesn’t NEED to mean this.

Look, i know leaving isn’t easy or fun. each of us has sentimental, professional, familial, or health reasons for staying. I know friends who would be dead without gofundme campaigns on meta. i have dead friends whose profiles remind me of our love. the money i make from poetry makes a difference in my ability to maintain myself and take care of my family. below are my responses to the most common counter-arguments to leaving.

TO THE MISSIONARIES OF SANITY

I get it. you want to use your voice to convince the people close to you. you know you have trumpists in your followers. you think you can charm them or convince them with logic. here are the issues:

1) You'll be competing against the algorithm for meaningful dialogue and boosted if you're engaging in more toxic ways. the apps structurally reward polarization. people already have their guards up and engage with social media brain when they view content on these apps. most importantly, rational argument are being censored. i recently posted an NYT article in response to meta user asking for proof of trump’s racism. it was gone within minutes. Instagram literally censored #democrat for a day. even if you are successful, you likely will be censored out.

2) social media activism is not the same as community building in-person, where relationships of trust, solidarity, and mutual support are more effectively forged for allies and across the aisle. you have a much better likelihood of changing a heart and mind in person than online.

3) if you're putting a dollar in a fascist’s pocket, every time you engage on these apps, you better be a master propagandist with thousands of followers to justify your presence here with the algorithms stacked against you. i wish you luck, because you’re cutting each of us every second you spend here.

To the Mourners

I am sorry for your loss. No one but you know what it’s like to mourn your relationship with your loved one. Losing the profile of someone who meant a world and a dream to you is terrible. One of the most difficult parts of leaving is knowing i’m leaving behind the profiles of people who supported me at my lowest, when i came out, and more. Here’s what i’m doing now: i’m going to their profile and downloading my favorite screenshots and photos of them.I’m making plans to create a digital archive of our memorabilia and to create a physical altar to their memory in my home, whether its a scrapbook or a shoebox or a series of frames. I’m not sure yet. I just know none of my dead would want their memories to fund their enemies.

To the Professionals

Your livelihood depends on your content. You can’t survive, much less fight fascism without your meta or x accounts. that’s real.

if you care about stopping fascism, here’s what you can do:

1) diversify your social media presences. the tiktok ban and reversal prove what a volatile battleground social media will be in the upcoming years. prepare by by building your followers across platforms. Bluesky is the best option for now.

2) start an email subscription. your own personal database will give you more power to control your presence without being beholden to the algorithm. it’ll be harder for outsiders to troll you. this list will serve you no matter what social media drama goes down in the upcoming years.

3) start a patreon. you deserved to get paid more anyway.

4) begin transitioning off social media now. you don’t need to rush off like i am. let people know you are sunsetting your accounts. explain why. let them know how to re-engage with you. in this rushed 3-day effort, i’ve secured 63 email subscriptions and 51 followers on bluesky. these are real people who actually want to engage with my work, not just social media zombies who will just scroll past. you’re much cooler and savvier than me. with proper planning you can pull this off and emerge stronger.

“But family and friends!”

Our relationships (and mental health) have deteriorated across the globe because we have allowed social media be a stand-in for true in-person connection. the vast majority of us need to simply stop pretending social media does anything other than give us an illusion of a relationship with our loved ones. the folks who have forged deeper relationships already already know that the relationship will survive and even grow deeper without meta. for the rest of you (me included), be honest with yourself in deciding who you really ought to grow closer to and reach out. even my slipshod process of dm-ing folks has forced me to revive relationships and draw closer to people who i have interacted with in years. use this not as a severing, but a way to more meaningfully tether to the people who do matter. all of this is work, of course, but if you’re not willing to put in the work, at least stop pretending meta is doing the work for you.

For those of you leaving

DON’T GO AWAY QUIETLY. Be as loud as you can. People are inspired when they see others Lead. DM your followers and accounts you want to keep following letting them know where to find you and asking where you can find them. My efforts alone have convinced at least a couple dozen people to leave in a week.

For those still looking for a social media community, BlueSky and Mastadon are the best options right now. For the record, BlueSky isn’t perfect. It’s run by a tech oligarch Jay Graber. She is a cryptocurrency freak, which is troubling since bitcoin is great for scamming and money laundering and awful for the environment. A friend informed me that “Bluesky is funded by a company owned by Brock Pierce a venture capitalist, crypto bro, who was at the Trump inauguration and has been buying up a lot of land in Puerto Rico, trying to get Puerto Ricans to invest in his scams.” However, right now at least BlueSky one of the most viable options for those looking to still post on social media.

Friends don’t let friends post selfies that fund la migra. Friends don’t let friends fund fascism because of the funny memes.