Where Were the Brown People?

Dear DNC & Hillary Clinton Campaign Staff,

I don’t mean to point fingers, but where were the brown people?

I first asked myself this question when I saw a post on your campaign website entitled, “7 things Hillary Clinton has in common with your Abuela.”

WTF?

Twitter went off. And the hashtag #NotMyAbuela surfaced. Latinos online accused Hillary and the campaign of pandering and being out of touch. I agreed.

Number four on the list was, “She reads to you before bedtime.”

First of all, I don’t even call my grandmothers “abuela” — I call them “Nana.” But that’s beside the point.

Most importantly, why was the campaign trying to draw a correlation between Hillary and my grandma?

My paternal grandmother is Puerto Rican, born in New York City, and raised five sons, including my father, who would go on to be elected to the Arizona state legislature.

My maternal grandmother was born in Mexico, became a United States citizen, and started her own small business. Both of my “abuelas” proudly voted for Hillary Clinton.

But if you compare their lives, and the challenges they faced, Hillary Clinton falls short. Why? Because Hillary Clinton is a white woman — who has never experienced racial discrimination. Plus, she captured Osama Bin Laden, so we’re talking about two vastly different worlds.

Still bothered, I did some research, because I’m thinking: Don’t they have a Latino on staff? A smart, culturally conscious, brown person, that can advise them on Latino outreach.

And you did. You had Amanda Renteria, a Stanford graduate, former Congressional candidate, and the first Latina Chief of Staff in the history of the U.S. Senate. Badass, right?

Reading the Podesta emails, I learned that Renteria interviewed for the job. So she was new to the Clinton inner circle that she eventually became a part of. Perhaps she wasn’t trusted?

Eventually, the “abuela” post died down. (Though it was never removed) After all, it wasn’t like Hillary was caught on tape talking about grabbing women “by the pussy.”

So I soldiered on, and like a good Democrat (technically Independent), I continued to support Clinton.

Then came time to pick a Vice Presidential candidate.

Congressman Xavier Becerra, Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez, and Housing Secretary Julián Castro, were all names circulating in the press for some time.

As a Latino, it gave me hope. The same hope African-Americans saw in Barack Obama — who became the first black person to serve in the Oval Office.

Instead, Hillary Clinton chose Tim Kaine — a polite, white Senator from Virginia.

(Yes, I know he speaks Spanish. I don’t.)

This was a hard pill to swallow. But I forgave Hillary. I assumed you did polling that suggested it may be too risky to have a woman AND a minority on the ticket.

But like a good Democrat, I soldiered on, and supported Hillary.

Though, I was still puzzled as to why she didn’t pick Bernie as her VP. Why not galvanize all that energy into one unified campaign? If not a person or color, why not the most popular and energetic Democratic candidate who is filling stadiums? Bernie and Hillary are stronger together. She sure is.

But like a good Democrat, I soldiered on, and supported Hillary.

Throughout the campaign, I became fascinated with Trump’s campaign team— his “advisors” that spoke on his behalf on the cable news show. They had the job of normalizing Donald Trump to the media and to the American voters. Eventually, the mainstream media did that.

Trump’s team included: the very slick (and smart) Kellyanne Conway, Latina and Harvard-educated lawyer A.J. Delgado, and reality TV villain and proud African-American, Omarosa.

I asked myself, “Where is Clinton’s team?”

“Where are the brown people?”

I saw brown celebrities (America Ferrera, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Lopez) stumping for Hillary. But Hillary needed more than brown celebrities. She needed brown advisors. Someone who could pull Hilary aside and politely say, “You can’t put out this abuela b.s. on your website.”

Instead, we got the whitest Democratic ticket and the whitest campaign.

As you know, the Democratic Party is a coalition — a big tent — of ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, and genders. That’s what makes me proud to vote for Democrats. And that’s what makes it strong.

But you can’t just say “Stronger Together” — you need to show it.

The majority of Latinos voted for Hillary Clinton. You and Hillary ran a campaign with integrity and intelligence. And according to the Hispanic-run polling company, Latino Decisions, Hispanics voted for Hillary in MUCH larger numbers than the initial exit polls claim.

But Latinos just weren’t excited. She thought she was like our abuela.