via YouTube
El Trumpo, the special guest of honor at this year's Mexican Independence Day on Cherokee Street.
The blown-away comb-over. The snarling grin. The raised fist with one finger extended, as though to fire someone. Even in piñata form, it’s easy to recognize Donald Trump.
A piñata of the presidential candidate and real estate mogul, dubbed El Trumpo, was a guest of honor at this weekend’s Mexican Independence Day celebrations on Cherokee Street, one of St. Louis’ most Hispanic neighborhoods. Yaquis on Cherokee owner Francis Rodriguez built the larger-than-life monstrosity and hung it outside his restaurant for a scheduled bashing at sundown.
The real Trump has earned the ire of Hispanics in America after criticizing Mexican immigrants in a speech last summer.
“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best,” Trump said. “They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
Before the first child took a swing at at El Trumpo’s legs, Rodrigo Romero, a DJ at La Tremeda 880 AM, put Trump on blast for his assumptions about Mexican immigrants.
“We are really mad that this guy is saying that all the Spanish people, they’re rapists and criminals,” Romero told the crowd. “That’s stupid, my friend. You cannot say that, right?”
Another La Tremeda DJ tried an informal poll to test Trump’s hypothesis. In English and Spanish, he asked Hispanic people in the crowd to raise their hands if they are drug dealers or criminals.
“No? No?” he asked when no one raised their hands. “So there you go, proof positive.”
Contact Lindsay Toler by an email at LToler@stlmag.com or on Twitter @StLouisLindsay. For more from St. Louis Magazine, subscribe or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
