Abstract
This essay seeks to systematically dismantle Trump’s narrative on trade with and migration from Mexico and explain how his racialized policy approach distorts ethno-demographic complementarities and cross-border interdependencies between the United States and Mesoamerica. The origin of the Trump narrative in white supremacy discourses is contrasted with the evolution of the Chicanx studies paradigm, which is uniquely positioned to dismantle this narrative and reconstruct a counternarrative in the post-Trump era. The “Trump Paradox” is uncovered through a geographic analysis of Trump voting and anti-trade and anti-immigrant attitudes, which are shown to be negatively correlated with actual local exposure to Mexican trade and immigration. The California Chicanx experience of Proposition 187 provides lessons for a post-Trump unraveling of the Trump Paradox. A Chicanx “praxis of decolonization” can excavate the root causes of racialized inequalities within and between the United States and Mesoamerica and reconstruct an inclusive future of more equitable and sustainable transnational approaches to trade, migration, and remittance restructuring.
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