Days before First Lady Dr. Jill Biden’s rhetorical flop comparing Latino voters to a variety of breakfast tacos, recently elected Rep. Mayra Flores criticized references to “tacos” as tired pandering during a wide-ranging interview with Breitbart News.
The Mexican-born congresswoman managed to flip a Democrat stronghold seat in South Texas and now argues that more Latinos began to realize their values were not represented in Washington. She especially criticized longstanding pandering about cuisine and music to score votes. Flores won her election in June to replace Rep. Filemon Vela (D) who quit his position for private sector work. Flores will have to compete in November against Congressman Vicente Gonzalez (D) due to redistricting.
Flores told Breitbart News:
They think that with just their little face, people will vote for them … They think that because they hand out tacos, people will vote for them. They think that because they play regional music, norteño music, the people will keep voting for them. But NO, they are going to have to do much more. People will no longer vote for them just because they hand out tacos or because they play music. No, now they are going to have to get to work and give results in order for people to vote for them. And I think that they will realize in November that they will no longer just be able to think that they own our vote. No More.
The interview took place days before First Lady Biden sparked criticism by claiming that Hispanics were as diverse as breakfast tacos. As Breitbart News reported, Biden’s staff was forced to apologize for the comment.
Flores later used Biden’s taco reference to make light of an editorial attack against her published by CNN, where an opinion writer tried to claim that Flores, along with Latina congressional candidates Monica de la Cruz and Cassandra Garcia, were not “the real deal” and held views outside the “Latino mainstream.” In response, Flores retweeted the story with the phrase “Maybe I’m not the right kind of taco.”
Contrary to claims that Latino viewpoints are changing or that her election was the result of a trend, Flores claimed that Latino families in South Texas have traditional values but have been misled into thinking that the Democratic Party truly favors Hispanics:
Well in reality the people have not changed, the people have always been people of God, family, hard-working, but sadly we did not have representatives who represented our values in Washington … These politicians of the Democratic Party have sadly taken advantage of the people here in the Valley … As I mentioned earlier, we are people of God, people of family, work- a lot of work, and I won representing those same values. The Valley of [South] Texas is conservative it has always been, that’s how we were raised, and I think that it is very important for people not to forget their values.
Politicians and media personalities in Washington and New York are out of touch with Latinos in Texas, Flores argues.
“The majority of the people here in The [Rio Grande] Valley immigrated to this country or our parents immigrated to this country,” Flores said. “Me, I was proudly born in Burgos, Tamaulipas, and I always say that with pride, because I am very proud of my people, where I come from, my culture … us immigrants love this county, sometimes I think that much more than the people that were born here because we value it. We value Freedom, we value being here, we value work.”
Flores says she walked away from the Democratic Party in 2010.