Dr. Cortez is Professor of Literacy, Leadership, and Development at Northeastern Illinois University.
After the 2019 El Paso TX Wal-Mart Massacre against Mexicans, Texas politician, Joaquin Castro, finally put into words, what many of us have felt and that is the absence of a national platform for Latinos in popular culture, education, politics, and the corporate world. The absence of seeing ourselves as major contributors to society is one of the main challenges that Latinos face on the national platform.
At the same press conference, Joaquin Castro shared preliminary findings of a report that found Latinos made up 8% of workers in the news-and-publishing industry – an unforgiving indictment in a nation where Latinos represent nearly 20% of the population. It is time for society, especially social justice activists, to help our suppressed narrative become alive and integrated into the wider discussion of liberation from white supremacy, patriarchy, and neo-liberalism.
According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the Latino population in the U.S. has grown to about 20% of the nation’s population (U.S. Census Bureau). Although we are now the 2nd largest racialized group, our stories and contributions to the U.S. grand narrative are absent from the public eye. For example, Latino lead actors represent either 7% or less in television & film (2022 LDC Latinos in Media Report), Latinos represent 4.7% of Fortune 500 board seats (Deloitte, 2023), and Latinos represent 9.9% of graduate students who earned their PhDs in 2020-21 (National Center for Education Statistics).
Here, I will highlight two contexts where the Latino community is either not seen or demonized, nor considered relevant, by the general society.
The first context is the live-action updates as we scroll through social media platforms of unidentified masked-men kidnapping Latino immigrants, mainly of Indigenous descent, with no due process nor accountability.
And the second is the struggle of Chicago’s City Council Latino Caucus to have influence on the mayor’s decisions that impact their constituents who comprise 29.8% of the city’s population.
I argue that the absence of Latino representation on several platforms makes our community vulnerable to xenophobic attitudes, policies, and actions that continue to dehumanize communities as “illegals,” “outsiders,” and/or “criminals.”
Social media abductions
It’s 2025 and on a daily basis I watch at least 1 kidnapping of Latino immigrants, many of whom are Indigenous, by masked men who refuse to identify themselves, which is a violation of our constitutional rights. The American public was promised that the immigrant removal policies will only arrest undocumented immigrants with criminal records. Since the inauguration, ICE has detained slightly over 56,000 immigrants; nearly 72% of all detainees have no criminal record.
Also, according to Newsweek, the top countries of citizenship among those arrested were overwhelmingly from Latin America, with Mexico leading by a wide margin at 11,586 arrests. This was followed by Guatemala (3,202), Honduras (3,167), El Salvador (1,230), and Nicaragua (1,141). Other notable countries included Venezuela (965), Ecuador (796), Colombia (419), Brazil (349), and Peru (298).
This is not a “new” strategy.
In the 1930s, the Los Angeles Welfare Department began deporting hospital patients of Mexican descent. One of the patients was a woman with leprosy who was driven just over the border and left in Mexicali, Mexico. Others had tuberculosis, paralysis, mental illness or problems related to old age. Orderlies carried them out of medical institutions and sent them out of the country.
In 1954, Mexican immigrants had been caught in the snare of Operation Wetback, the biggest mass deportation of undocumented workers in United States history. As many as 1.3 million people may have been swept up in the Eisenhower-era campaign with a racist name, which was designed to root out undocumented Mexicans from American society.
It needs to be noted that these practices are in accordance to Milton Friedman’s philosophy that stresses the importance to allow “illegal” immigrants into the country so they can be easily exploited and, eventually, disposed.
Chicago “Progressive” Politics is still Chicago Politics
In Chicago, the successful 2023 mayoral campaign for Mayor Brandon Johnson was endorsed by several north side Latino political leaders who were part of a multicultural coalition that included the Chicago Teachers Union. Illinois U.S. Congresswoman Delia Ramirez proudly remarked, “It was clear for us, Brandon has heard us, Brandon has showed up,” Ramirez said. “And we feel like this is an opportunity for Black and Latino leaders to stand together. For us, Brandon Johnson is it.”
Two years later, the Chicago City Council Latino Caucus addressed several concerns in a public statement. It spoke on issues of representation at the city leadership level. They called for an independent investigation on the handling of ICE agents’ presence in the city by the Chicago Police District in June of 2025. Being a sanctuary city, CPD officers are not allowed to cooperate with the federal agencies. The caucus demanded that the mayor’s office become transparent on his strategy and collaborate with members of the caucus, whose constituents are overwhelmingly impacted directly.
The statement also addressed the Latino Caucus’ request to collaborate with the mayor’s office to choose the new interim CEO for Chicago Public Schools. The mayor never responded to their request and has already made a decision without their input. Adding insult to injury, Latino students comprise 47% of Chicago Public Schools; yet, there is no representation, nor minimal discussion, in particular to the concerns and needs of Latino students in the CPS 5-year plan. You can’t get more invisible than that.
Conclusion
In 2019, Aspen Institute Latinos and Society warned us that Latinos are locked into one-dimensional narratives about immigration or neglected in our primary Black and white narrative of America. Latinos, like Native Americans and Asians, rarely see themselves represented at all (let alone accurately) in the American story.
They assert that we can fix this absence by creating institutional spaces to tell more complete stories that invest in the dynamic intersectionalities of Latino communities, and by integrating Latinos into all aspects of the fabric of America. If not, we will continue to have one-dimensional conversations that not only misconstrue the most important demographic influencing our country today but allow the xenophobic attacks and crimes towards our communities as acceptable. This can no longer be acceptable. Tell our stories and stop the raids.