Republicans should expel Trump from the GOP

As a former resident of Mexico City, I cannot be quiet after hearing the vicious and racist statement by billionaire gringo Donald Trump about the Mexican people. His comments, many believed designed to create publicity for his TV career and his laughable presidential campaign, are despicable and sickening. 

The GOP congressional leadership should make it clear to America and the Mexican people, Trump does not speak for the Republican Party. Then, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus should tell The Donald to find another political party to embarrass and expel him from the GOP.

While I lived in Mexico, 1996-98, I worked, worshiped, socialized and traveled with Mexicans. One time, an elderly Mexican lady saved me from a savage beating in La Zna Rosa, the tourist popular Pink Zone near the Angel Statue in downtown Mexico City.

{mosads}One Saturday evening a male companion and I were walking in the early evening in La Zona Rosa. Perhaps we were walking a bit too close. Perhaps we appeared a bit too gay. Whichever it was, it provoked an attack from a sick-minded individual. A man as sick with hate for gays as Trump is sick with hate for Mexicans.

The Mexican man, dishelmed, filthy and frightening, looking struck me in the face. Based on the sting from the hit, I was sure he had slashed me with a razor or a piece of broken glass. Fortunately, it was neither. It must have been a sharp fingernail.

I fell to the street and my male companion, fearful for his safety, stepped back. As I was on the street, my attacker kicked me. I will never forget the violence in the sick man’s face and eyes.

Nearby an elderly Mexican woman was attending a food cart on the sidewalk. The dear old lady, slightly hobbled with age, came to my defense and scared the attacker away with a broom. At this show of courage, several Mexican men, considerably younger, came forward to chase the attacker away. I gave the elderly lady my sincere thanks, a hug, and a handful of pesos.

The Mexican police arrived but did very little. I reported the attack to the U.S. Embassy without mentioning my sexuality. One of the security officers saw the attack as anti-American assault. With blond hair, blue eyes and milk white skin, I suppose my European ancestry might have been cause for a vicious attack.

When the embassy security interviewed the ornately uniformed Mexican police officer about my attack, the response confirmed the distrust my Mexican friends told me they had in their police. The Mexican police official, apparently unclear of the approximate time of my attack, told the embassy security officer his men had arrested my attacker hours before my attack occurred on the sidewalk in La Zona Rosa.

I suppose what the Mexican police official had said was his men had foresight to know I would be attacked and they arrested the man before he could actually attack me. How then could he explain the attack by the same man he had already arrested and placed in jail?

The Mexican police official proudly told me though the guy escaped police custody, his men had the guy under arrest again at that very moment in another part of town. Amazing!

My experience with the Mexican police and the attacker that long ago summer evening in Mexico City did not make me dislike the Mexican people. Instead, it made me deeply respect the elderly and frail Mexican lady who bravely took her broom and came to my defense to scare away my attacker at no regard as to what the much younger attacker might have done to her.

I do not intend to imply that anti-gay or other violence was commonplace while I was in Mexico City. I had also been assaulted in New York and smaller U.S. cities. Violence against LGBT people is everywhere and we must all be on guard. 

Aside from my elderly defender, I am also grateful to the Mexican, and a few Cuban, men, all professionals, who shared their time with me while I was in Mexico City. We had some great times listening to music (most of them were Barry Manilow fans), drinking tequila and sharing life stories. They gave me an informal Mexican education for which I am grateful.

Donald Trump might have a different view of Mexicans and Mexico if he had similar experiences in Mexico. Meantime, Macy’s and other corporations are freeing themselves from Donald Trump. The Republican National Committee should do the same, muy pronto!

Feliz orgullo amigos Mexicanos!

Patterson, who served as an economics officer at the U.S. Embassy at Mexico City, is a writer and speaker based in San Francisco. He blogs at www.HumanRightsIssues.com.