Election day ended in a landslide victory for Donald Trump. I’m not old enough to vote in this election and I’ve always been interested in politics and like to vote in my head. This election is different, though I wouldn’t know who to vote for. I grew up in a Mexican household, where we only spoke Spanish, and most of my family leaned liberal. But it’s not even that I’m too Liberal or too Conservative; I would have voted for Mitt Romney in 2012, and for Al Gore in 2008. It’s just that on one side, I vote for someone whose beliefs are similar to mine but make me look bad within my community. Conversely, I vote for someone who goes against my beliefs, but I’d be helping my “people.” It is a dilemma that many Latino people face. If you look at the vote percentage per demographic, you can see that the Latino vote is so close.  It all comes down to simplifying it as “selfishness.”

I would label it as selfishness because it’s a consensus that voting for Trump as a Latino will get you labeled as a traitor. Trump plans on mass deporting as many illegal Latinos as possible. I’m not saying that deportation should not be a thing, as I agree we should have some form of preventing people from just walking into this country for protection purposes. The issue, though, is that many Latinos who did vote for Trump came here illegally, originally or know people who came here illegally, so they know the struggle that many of the people who came illegally came here went through that made them leave and seek a better life in the United States. That’s why the quote “No one hates an immigrant like an immigrant that just got papers exists.” Again I’m not totally against deportation, but I think there should be more forgiveness towards certain people. People say, “Why can’t they just become citizens?” It’s not as easy as you think; many people try so hard and usually get scammed by lawyers, are asked to leave the country for almost 20+ years, or are rejected instantly. The process of coming to the U.S.A. legally is also rigorous and usually not an option for people desperate to give their kids and themselves a better life.

Trump is also known for his constant disrespect of Latinos. He’s said things like “They are not our friend, believe me,” and “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Many people claim that it’s a dishonor to the Latino community to vote for someone who speaks so ill about you and your community. I’m not claiming that he hates Latinos; I’m just showing one side of how the Latino population sees this election.

Kamala Harris is also unpopular with others in the Latino community. The economy played a role in why the Latino vote was so close. Many of us were tired of the inflation, for everyday items like food and gas prices played a factor. Immigration also impacted this. Many agree that why should illegals get to benefit from all these benefits when they go through the struggle to come to the United States legally, and that it’s unfair.

Religion is the main reason why many Latinos vote red. Latin America is very Catholic, so many of the people from these countries hold the same ideology. Abortion, gay marriage, transgenderism, and other issues go strictly against the church’s teachings, which makes a lot of us disagree with many of Kamala’s policies.

These are the reasons that the Latino vote was so tight between the two candidates. As you can see, many of us have difficulty knowing who to vote for. If we go based on just policies, we’d be “betraying our people” and hurting them, but if we go based on what benefits our community, we’d be doing a dishonor to ourselves and our belief. Which is worse? I don’t know.