During the recent demonstrations decrying ICE arrests in Los Angeles, one of the many signs waved read, “No one is illegal on stolen land.” In addition, hundreds of Mexican flags were featured among the protesters, a fact singled out repeatedly by President Donald Trump as justification for his exaggerated response in commandeering California National Guard troops in furtherance of his “America First” deportation policies.
Recognizing what he clearly considered an easy political opening, Trump declared the presence of Mexican flags, as well as those of other Latin American nations, were symbols of a “foreign invasion.” The protesters were “rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion,” he insisted.
Stan Hastey
On his social media outlet Truth Social, he posted that “foreign flags will not win out,” that “the Only Flag that Will Wave Triumphant over the streets of Los Angeles is the American Flag.”
An alternative view, of course, is that the presence of all those flags represented local pride. After all, nearly half of Los Angeles County residents are of Latino heritage. Of these, nearly three-quarters are of Mexican descent.
While some Trump-friendly commentators wrote that the flags of other nations flying over the demonstrations amounted to a political gift to president, I’m not so sure. For one thing, the president’s scapegoating of those of Latino heritage could easily backfire at the ballot box, potentially reversing gains by Republicans in recent election cycles, not only in Los Angeles but across the nation. As mass immigration arrests spread to other major cities, as is already happening, this prospect is more likely to be borne out.
On a personal level, the Los Angeles demonstrations with all those flags and signs were jarring reminders of hard lessons learned in childhood.
As a missionary kid growing up in Mexico, hardly ever did I feel unwelcome. One such time, though, permanently seared into memory, came during the study in junior high school of what in the United States is known as the Mexican-American War. In Mexico, that conflict is more commonly referred to as the United States intervention into Mexico.
“The Los Angeles demonstrations with all those flags and signs were jarring reminders of hard lessons learned in childhood.”
Lasting nearly two years from April 1846 to February 1848, the bloody war between the closest of neighbors was a direct product of the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. As the name itself indicates, this was a conviction propounded by this country’s leaders that the United States was entitled — many said by divine right — to expand the still-young nation’s geography from East to West all the way to the Pacific Ocean. One manifestation of this mindset was the brutal, relentless extermination of Native American nations in the great western migration, one of the starkest demonstrations of that ominously named doctrine.
Another was the aforementioned war between the United States and Mexico, begun with the invasion of our southern neighbor by the U.S. Army, an incursion that ultimately included the capture of Mexico City itself. The end result of the conflict was the ceding of nearly half of Mexico’s territory to the northern invaders.
To put this more specifically, the conquered land mass included present-day Texas, California, Nevada and Utah, plus parts of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming.
The human toll of the 22-month war was high. On the U.S. side, 1,733 soldiers were killed in battle; 4,152 were wounded. Another 11,550 died from various diseases. On the Mexican side, an estimated 5,000 combatants were killed, with another 20,000 wounded. The total death toll, including civilians, numbered an estimated 25,000 Mexicans and 13,283 U.S. citizens.
What schoolkids on one side of the border were being taught about the conflict was that their country had won a glorious victory in the righteous cause of national expansion. At the same time, those on the other side were learning about an ignominious defeat suffered at the hands of an expanding empire. My vivid memory is that my middle school classmates made it clear to the young gringo in their classroom what they thought of his country’s violence against their own.
All these years later, I recognize it as such and more, indeed as an instance of misguided power misused by a nation whose incumbent president seeks to erase from our collective memory.
In Los Angeles last week, the historical awareness of the descendants of those on the losing side of that now long-ago war of intervention was on full display in the waving of the Stars and Stripes upside down, while Mexico’s red, white and green standard was waved high and proud. This, along with the terse reminder in signage that no one is illegal on stolen land.
Stan Hastey served as Baptist Press Washington bureau chief during the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan and covered the three inaugurations of the 39th and 40th presidents.