By Alejandra Arredondo |
Houston (EFE).- In an austere white building northeast of Houston (Texas), with concrete floors and no air conditioning, pastor Rubén Grijalva talks about Babylon and the hardships that exiled Jews experienced there in times before Christ .
From a pulpit flanked by the flag of the United States and that of Honduras, the 70-year-old man weaves the migrant experience with biblical texts and his faith with the political reality of the United States on the verge of tight presidential elections between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.
“Like Daniel (an Old Testament prophet in the Christian Bible), I arrived in the United States alone and little by little God began to open doors for me,” he told the small group of faithful who attended the service in the middle of week in this evangelical parish. That same God, he prophesies, will save the country “from the evil of the Democrats” and will make sure to deliver “victory” to Trump.
Pastor Rubén Grijalva gives a sermon on Wednesday, October 23, 2024 at the evangelical church he leads, northeast of Houston, Texas (USA). EFE/Alejandra Arredondo
Republicans have gained ground among Latinos in the last decade and Harris’ candidacy is the Democratic bid for president that has had the least support among this population since 2004.
Religion is important to understand this phenomenon. Hispanics are more religious than the rest of the population and increasingly identify as evangelicals, a movement within which conservative values are popular and with a strong connection to the Christian nationalism embedded in Trump’s political project.
The ‘miracle’ of the American dream
The promise of the United States permeates the story that Grijalva tells about his life: he arrived with his son in New Orleans in the 1980s looking for treatment for the child’s growth problems, who was nine years old at the time. By a “miracle”, they achieved it.
He decided to stay in the country, although he did not have permanent immigration status, and they moved to Texas, where he worked “in everything, even burying the dead.”
In 1997, a deportation order arrived at his house and, when he had already resigned himself to his fate, a judge summoned him “by a miracle” to tell him that he had been granted residency thanks to Ronald Reagan’s regularization.
“I look at all that has happened to me and I think, how should I behave with God?” says the religious at the end of the service. “This is a great nation, but it is going down because it is turning its back on the creator.”
Like Grijalva, 55% of evangelical Latinos agree with the notion that the US should have Christian values and that if they move away from them the country will not be the same, according to a report by the Public Religion Research Institute.
The pastor, a US citizen for several years, insists that migrants must “learn” the culture and language of the country. Laughing, he comments that he tells his friends and family not to call him Rubén but Ruben – as it is pronounced in English – because “it sounds nicer.”
Latinos pro Trump
All of his church services are in Spanish and most of his parishioners are Mexican or Central American. Among them is Ana, 58 years old, who asks to hide her last name because she does not have immigration status in the US.
Originally from Guanajuato, she has been in the country for 20 years and has started a family and – although she cannot vote – she would like Trump to win on November 5: “He is a God-knower, he is the one who is best for us.”
Harris’s defense of abortion and the LGTBQ community generates rejection for her – “she supports everything bad” – and she hopes that the Republican will improve the economic situation, since she feels that “everything is very expensive.”
Ana does not believe that Trump, if elected, will carry out his plan for mass deportations of migrants, which would include her as part of the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants. However, he agrees with expelling those with criminal records.
“They thought they had us”
The loss of support for the Democrats by Latinos in the US – of whom 36.2 million will be able to vote this year – is due in part to the fact that the party “took their support for granted,” Jorge tells EFE. Martínez, director for Texas of the LIBRE Initiative, an organization that promotes libertarian ideas.
“We Latinos are more about faith, family and freedom and if you don’t achieve those ideas you will lose the population,” he says.
Since Bill Clinton (1993-2001), Magda Saucero, 51, has not voted Democratic again because, for her, the politicians of that party are being “very liberal.”
Born in the border city of Ciudad Acuña (Mexico), she married an American of Bolivian origin and has established her life in Texas. “I am a practicing Catholic and I am not in favor of abortion or gender change,” she indicates.
Although he believes that “Trump is racist,” he thinks that his xenophobic speech seeks to “win over more Anglo-Saxon people” but he does not consider that he “hates immigrants.”
In Grijalva’s church, Trump, country and religion are words that go together. Daniel, son of a parishioner, enlisted in the navy and at 18 years old he will soon leave home to go to training.
“Danielito,” the Honduran says, squeezing his shoulders, “you’re going to go serve God and the United States.”
