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I have some personal experience with this story so I want to share it with you. I first heard about all this on an Arizona radio station. The woman, whose name is Betty Rivas, her husband, children, and restaurant are targets because she attended a political rally. The wrong political rally, apparently - because she's a Mexican immigrant. "You don't think and act the way WE want you to, so you must be destroyed." This is the definition of fascism in 21st-century America.
Some friends and I drove to the Rivas' restaurant to have a meal and show our support. A reporter from Univision (a Spanish-language tv station) was leaving the restaurant as we pulled in. After an excellent meal we had a chance to sit down and chat with Mrs. Rivas. This is what she told to us.
She and her husband started their business with a food truck. They parked it on a corner and sold tamales and other homemade Mexican goodies out of it on Friday afternoons. Word got around and they started selling daily. Then they added catering. The business grew even more. They purchased a small plot of land and built a restaurant on it. The restaurant flourished. Competition for Mexican restaurants is harsh in Arizona. You have to have a good product and good business sense to succeed, and they have both.
Their oldest child is now in college and the younger ones are on their way there. This is a family that personifies entrepreneurship and the American success story. I didn't ask any personal questions but if I had to hazard a guess I'd say it's a good bet that no one in this family has ever been welfare nor ever will be. I know what kind of people these are. They are the same kind that sit next to me in church on Sundays, the kind that volunteer alongside me when I give back to my community. They are the kind of immigrant we welcome in this country.
Along come the 2016 elections. One of the Rivas' children was interested in attending the Sanders rally and since Mrs. Rivas hadn't yet decided who to vote for, she wanted to hear what the candidate had to say. She and her kid took along a hand-made tag board sign supporting Sanders. She has photos on her phone of her at the Sanders rally, with her kid, and the sign. I haven't seen a single photo of her at the Sanders rally in any of the news coverage of this story. I don't know if she put any photos from the Sanders rally on her Facebook page; the page has been removed so I couldn't check (there is a Facebook page for someone with the same name in Tucson but that's a different woman). The restaurant's Facebook page is still there but their web site is gone.
A few days later she attended the Trump rally. Again: undecided voter, wanted to hear the candidate speak. Again: she took along a hand-made tag board sign supporting the candidate. The sign said, "Latinos Support D. Trump,” the same thing the other sign had said for Sanders. This time the candidate took notice and invited her up on stage. She went up, they took photos, she left the stage, the rally continued, and when it was over she went home. She put the photo on her Facebook page and went to bed. A few hours later the photo went viral. Some time after that the Trump people got a copy of it and tweeted it, making it even more widely known.
Then all hell broke loose.
The Rivases had no idea the photo had gone viral. When Mr. Rivas went to their restaurant the next morning their voice mail was full of the most vile, disgusting garbage you have ever had the misfortune to hear. It included threats to blow up the restaurant, threats to burn down the restaurant, and death threats to her and her family. All for attending a political rally. Death threats for attending the wrong political rally. Let that sink in for a moment.
Mr. Rivas quickly called his wife to come to the restaurant because something bad was happening. When she got there he told her she needed to stay inside. She listened to the voice mail. You should have seen this woman's face as she related all this: she was profoundly shocked. It's inconceivable this would happen. We don't live in some volatile banana republic where you put your life in danger if you endorse the wrong person... do we?
The Rivases notified the sheriff's department who launched an investigation and increased their patrols around the restaurant. I don't know who told the news media; maybe they picked it up from the Trump campaign.
The second significant onslaught has come via social media and online review sites like Yelp and Google. People are posting from far and wide completely rude, disgusting things about Mrs. Rivas being at the Trump rally, about her hair, weight, age, intelligence - you name it. Anything is fair game when you can hide behind a wall of anonymity. Here are some verbatim examples of the more polite, thoughtful things being posted, including typos:
the restaurant has a racist owner just don't go their
ordered some tacos and they asked me my country of origin, after I I said I was from mexico, the employee asked me to leave.
i hope this wanna be white person dose a better job at making a sandwich
One star for this racist NON Mexican place
Has for my review!!!!! I don't have one about the food the owner ate my order before I got it
The owner raped me and said that i deserved it while feeding me a burrito
they discriminate anyone that is not white looking
Wanted to eat here but they said I couldn't because I looked like a terrorist
It looks like she eats most of the orders her self judging by the pics on her Facebook
This restaurant is operated for a non brained Mexican person
with that [light colored] hair you [Mrs. Rivas] want to be a gringa
eeeew i threw up on the racist owner.
didn't go because don't want to be asked if I'm a citizen at the door
owner supports segregation and hate against hispanic community
The Owner Is Mexican And She Called The Immigration On Her Clients!!!!
there was roaches walking up and down the walls, flies all over the food, definitely not going there ever
place had scorpions and a bunch of insets
the owner is a racist pig too! She supports trump!!
(in Spanish) Boycott this place Latinos do not buy food in this place that sells to the gringos and the followers of the racist trump
(in Spanish) That lady so ignorant , such a gringa
(in Spanish) Fascist!!! hypocritical , ignorant .
I've spared you the disturbing ones, trust me (although I have learned a lot of new words in Spanish). The attackers are simply overwhelming the web sites and admins by flooding them with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of these "reviews" and driving down the average rating for the restaurant. They've reported the business as closed to Google maps and other search engines. It's a coordinated effort. I won't even speculate by whom.
The upside is the outpouring they've gotten from the locals patronizing their restaurant in a community buycott (the opposite of a boycott). Mr. Rivas said they've tripled their typical income over the last few days. They even ran out of food for several hours one afternoon.
The phone messages and threats continue. The kids are being harassed at school although they seem to be taking it in stride. All that failed to keep us away, and I hope other customers continue to make long lines at their counter.
Here's video of the story on their local tv news:
Trump haters & the family business they're trying to destroy
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