Hispanic
Advisors, Authors A-H, Race & Ethnicity

Mr. and Mrs. President, tear down those border walls – by Terry Howard

In case you didn’t know, September 12 is the start of HHM (Hispanic Heritage Month). And I’ll be completely honest with you, readers – I missed writing something uniquely significant and celebratory about HHM and other heritage months over the past few years. To be clear, I’m not Hispanic by birth, although that doesn’t matter, nevertheless I still regret missing that annual opportunity. 

Although this may come across as a flimsy excuse, the ever-changing socio/political terrain in America – arguably the most egregious of which are the recent asinine attempts by the current administration to wipe out anything reeking of today’s boogeyman, “DEI” – a reality that’s been a distraction that’s almost impossible for me to overcome. Case in point, my starts and stops on African American, Women’s, Asian American, LGBTQ heritage months got derailed at every turn with late breaking news about Taylor Swift, our current president, Elon Musk, a dude named Putin, or those mysterious names in the “Epstein Files” that’s got us all guessing.  

But this year, as fate would have it, a diminutive Claudia Sheinbaum, a less known yet hugely popular and powerful President of Mexico, provided me with an unexpected angle to take in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. That angle? Well, she’s an exemplary example of leadership and courage by a woman that should be featured beyond a one and done heritage month, but taught in leadership seminars and business schools (Harvard, Wharton, Stanford, et al, are you listening?)   

So today, the object of this, eh, “business school” lecture is “walls” as in those mental and physical structures constructed to keep some in and some – let’s call them “undesirables” – out. So class, pull out your notebooks (or laptops) and let’s get started. 

Inarguably, walls allow us to “otherize” people and remain in the fragile safety of our echo chambers and comfort zones, sealed off from “those people,” be they people who aren’t “real Americans” like us, especially those horrible border invading “illegals.”

But first to President Claudia Sheinbaum, given the unlikely possibility that you’ll read this, I have an embarrassing confession to make; the first time I read what you said about the wall on our southern border (I’ll get to it in my next paragraph), I thought, oh, no, you really didn’t say that. Surely this had to be someone’s idea of a joke or had to be AI (Artificial Intelligence) created. Well, I was dead wrong and, like the title of the classic song by David Ruffin of the Temptations, “I ain’t too proud beg” for your forgiveness. 

So, Madam president Sheinbaum, here’s your brilliant – absolutely brilliant – clap back to President Trump, a response that left millions high-fiving in an “its’s about damn time” furor of glee and adulation.  

“You thought about building a wall but remember—on the other side of that wall stand 7 billion people. These people can drop their iPhones and pick up Samsung or Huawei instead. They can switch from Ford and Chevrolet to Toyota, Kia, or Honda. They can watch Latin American films instead of Disney and wear Mexican Panam shoes instead of Nike. If these 7 billion consumers stop buying American products, your economy will collapse inside that very wall you built. Then you yourself will come and say, ‘Please, take down this wall.’ We don’t want that—but you asked for a wall, so now a wall is what you’ll get. Just remember, the world is vast, and America is not everything. The power of self-will is a mighty weapon. India should give a similar response too.”

Now if one were to cut and paste Sheinbaum’s message into daily briefings for profit driven leaders of the companies she cited or their stockholders, imagine the thoughts that would race through their minds.

So for further context on this narrative about walls, allow me to take you back with a memory freshener on what a former U.S. president said about a particular wall, namely the famous – or infamous – Berlin Wall. This shouldn’t take long.

On June 12, 1987, at the Brandenburg Gate, then-United States president Ronald Reagan delivered a speech commonly known by a key line from the middle part: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Reagan called for Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to open the Berlin Wall, which had encircled West Berlin since 1961. 

The following day, The New York Times carried Reagan’s picture on the front page, below the title “Reagan Calls on Gorbachev to Tear Down the Berlin Wall”. Its impact on the Kremlin became widely known after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In the post-Cold War era, it was often seen as one of the most memorable performances of an American president. 

Back to you, President Sheinbaum, the way you, at 5 foot, 4 inches, 106 pounds stood up to a 6 ft. 3 inches, 236 pound president of the United States reminded me of how my niece, no more than 120 pounds soaking wet, got into the face of a 250+ pound behemoth park ranger who tried to bully and intimate our entourage to leave a park in Florida years ago, while her chiseled, weight lifting uncle (uh, uh, not yours truly) rushed to the exit like many spineless politicians do today to escape the wrath of you know who. 

Now before I go, I’ll share something else about President Sheinbaum’s background that should make you rethink about those “undesirables” you want to close the border to and follow that with a piece of advice for my male brethren at the end.  

First, President Sheinbaum holds a degree in Physics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico; a doctorate degree in Energy Engineering and (humm, crossed the southern border) to complete a 4-year academic stay in doctoral research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. So America, it seems to me that if there’s anyone we should welcome to this side of the wall and, ahem, roll out a red carpet in Alaska for, shouldn’t Claudia Sheinbaum (and others like her) be one such person? Just asking! 

So, men, I’ll say something to you in four words about some valuable lessons we all could cull from the courageous experiences of my niece and President Sheinbaum: Leadership, Courage, Moxy and Gumption. 

Put differently fellas, rather than engaging in hypocrisy, kowtowing, spewing the line, or kissing the ring, try – I’ll say this while clearing my throat – “growing a pair.”   

Happy Hispanic Heritage Month….and tear down those walls….. folks! 

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

Terry Howard
Latest posts by Terry Howard (see all)