Cal State Bakersfield hosted its 38th annual Charles W. Kegley Memorial Lecture on April 8 featuring Paola Ramos, award winning journalist and author of Defectors, a book that sparks conversation about “The rise of Latino far right and what it means for America.”
Inspired by the increasing support of Latinos voters for Donald Trump, Ramos wrote a book about her research on how phycological, cultural and historic forces have influenced the way Latinos vote in the United States.
Ramos said that she has met countless Black Latinos that see themselves as white, Mexicans that see themselves as Spainiards and first generation immigrants that see themselves as Americans first and don’t want to be named immigrants.
“It was really interesting to see Ramos’ perspectives and the insight that she had to provide for us was really important I feel especially right now that our community is facing a lot of challenging issues and controversial ideas,” said Gisell Landeros, CSUB sophomore majoring in psychology.
The book Defectors is based on the term ‘to defect’ which means the abandonment of a presumed loyalty. Ramos noticed that voting patterns showed that Latinos and immigrants were defecting from a specific set of ideals and a version of the ‘American Dream’ that it was assumed they were loyal to.
Ramos divided the book into three main parts to try to explain Latino voting patterns. In part one she focused on understanding the root of internalized racism, explaining sentiments such as those of anti-immigrant and anti-blackness. In the second part she explored the idea of traditionalism and how colonialism impacted our moral compass. The third part of the book focuses on political trauma Latinos have endured, such as communism and violence.
During her reporting, she relied a lot on historians and psychologists to help her make sense of people’s behaviors.
“She [Ramos] is one that… listens to others, learns from others and then becomes the voice of all those people,” said Norma Gaspar, executive producer of Telemundo Bakersfield.
Ramos first noticed Latinos’ voting patterns in 2016 while working the Hilary Clincton campaign against Trump and it was believed that Latinos would show up in huge numbers to vote against Trump. However, during that election less than 50% of Latinos showed up to vote.
During the 2020 elections between Trump and Joe Biden, a higher percentage of Latinos voted for Trump despite his border policies and anti-immigrant rhetoric.
While Kamala Harris received the majority of Latinos’ votes during the 2024 elections, Trump was able to get 45% of the Latino vote and the majority of the Latino male vote. The amount of immigrant supporters for Trump also increased during this election.
Ramos said that she finds the loud anti-immigrant sentiment shocking. She also finds it shocking that many Latinos today are comfortable using the same language Trump is using to talk about immigrants.
“That’s something I never really get used to,” said Ramos.
Despite Latino votes that seem to contradict with their self-interest, Ramos believes that there is an origin story that unites Latinos and that they have the power to guide the country into what’s morally right and wrong.
“I do feel that if we remind people of that origin story, that I believe still unites us, which is still this idea that someone in our families regardless of the generation, came to this country for the very same reason which is to find a little bit more liberty and freedom and justice here than what we left behind,” said Ramos.
She believes that if people are reminded of that origin story, they will support that vision.
