By Barrett White
Remember when Donald Trump and Ted Cruz were bitter enemies? When Trump suggested that Cruz’s father played a role in the Kennedy assassination, or when Trump poked fun at Heidi Cruz’s appearance? How about when Trump coined the term “Lyin’ Ted”?
Well, out political activist Antonio Arellano remembers.
But as the midterm elections quickly approach, “Lyin’ Ted” has now been replaced by a much more tender moniker, one that Trump created at a MAGA rally in Houston—“Beautiful Ted.” The irony isn’t lost on Arellano, who has been politically savvy much of his life. He explains that this lack of political morality is unsurprising, that it’s based in political expediency—Cruz knows that the Republican base doesn’t want him to buck the president, and that an alliance will help him at the polls. After all, Trump and Cruz do have many of the same goals—approving tax cuts, crippling the healthcare system, and approving conservative judicial nominees. Cruz knows that, despite their vast differences, his relationship with the president works on a transactional level.
Trump Tweet Truck creator and out political activist Antonio Arellano.
Arellano and his family emigrated from Guanajuato, Mexico when he was three, fleeing violence in the region (Michoacán, the state in which Guanajuato is located, is among the most tumultuous in the country). Arellano considers himself to be both proudly Mexican and assertively American. He has a deep understanding of the political workings of the United States where he was predominantly raised, but also embraces the culture of his ancestral home of Mexico—one that he asserts cannot be smeared by conservative accusations of rapist immigrants and rampant cartel violence. Within the pockets where upset does exist, families like Arellano’s leave for better opportunity, only to be met with xenophobia when they reach the United States.
Arellano emphasizes the dangerous tightrope that conservatives have immigrants walking: You come from a “shithole” country. Oh, it isn’t, you say? Then why are you here? We may have destabilized your government by meddling in Central American affairs, but we don’t like asylum seekers. This disdain for immigrants (specifically those coming from south of our border) helped prompt Arellano to take a stand.
After graduating high school in Dalton, Georgia in 2009, he made his way to Houston. Texas, he says, is “ground zero” for many social justice issues. “I am passionate about my human rights advocacy and wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,” Arellano says. “The work I am doing here has the potential to not just impact our local community, but the nation. I’ve been working tirelessly to amplify the voices of our most vulnerable—specifically the undocumented community, women, children, and LGBTQI people of color.”
“Regardless of who sits in the oval office or what political party is in control, my community has always suffered,” he adds. “We have been overlooked and underrepresented for far too long. My mission is to amplify our voices and fight for authentic representation at every level of government.” By day, Arellano serves as the communications director for Jolt Texas, a nonpartisan organization dedicated to securing a seat at the table for the Latinx immigrant community. Arellano catches eyes on social media, too, where he uses his large following to regularly call out politicians and promote a fair agenda for a community that has been marginalized for far too long. In addition to Jolt Texas, he founded USA Latinx, a national political group that seeks to impact civic engagement by empowering the Latinx community to organize and mobilize. The group currently has chapters in California, Texas, and New York.
It was through social media that Arellano set up his latest trending lambast of the Republican Party: The Trump Tweet Truck.
The idea for the truck started, appropriately, on Twitter. Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor and outspoken political activist David Hogg and Arellano had recently shared the same tweet—a tweet of Trump’s from 2016 that called Ted Cruz an “all talk, no action politician.” Arellano knew between his and Hogg’s large Twitter followings, he could seize this opportunity for good. “The power of social media played a pivotal role,” Arellano shares. “Shortly after Trump endorsed Cruz and tweeted that he was looking for the largest stadium in Texas to hold a rally [in support of Cruz], I begin my search for a billboard outside of the largest stadium in Texas. I was determined to post Trump’s own words and perception of Cruz on display so that Texans would remember how he once expressed himself about the senator. I had started fundraising to put the billboard up and asked David [Hogg] to amplify and he quickly agreed.”
“You know, Texans—we like to take people at their word. We like to believe people when they show us who they are the first time,” Arellano told Houston Public Media. “President Trump made it very clear where he stood when he first talked about our senator and we want to remind all Texans of that and to allow themselves to not be fooled by this new ‘romance,’ if you will, between the senator and the president.”
Arellano’s fundraising goal was $6,000. In under 24 hours, they hit $10,000 (“A true testament of how many people despise Ted Cruz,” he says). His original static billboard idea transformed into a billboard truck, with the tweet printed prominently on both sides—mobile and ready to tour the state, appearing at political rallies, senate debates between Cruz and Democratic opponent Beto O’Rourke, and eventually, the infamous Houston MAGA rally Trump planned to endorse Cruz.
The current dangerous political climate has engaged many who otherwise were never interested in politics. To these political newcomers, Arellano says this: “Be bold. Be fearless. Do not allow yourself to be paralyzed by external forces. Stay focused against all odds.”
The Trump Tweet Truck will be on Texas roads through Election Day, November 6, 2018.
Early voting in Texas runs from now until November 2, 2018. Election Day is November 6, 2018. To find your polling location, visit www.votetexas.gov.
