Defectors: The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What It Means for America

In this revealing account, Emmy-winning journalist Ramos (Finding Latinx) draws on more than a decade of reporting for Vice News and MSNBC to examine the growing presence of Latinos in America’s far-right movement. She identifies three major influences that push Latinos rightward—tribalism, traditionalism, and trauma. In the section on tribalism, she profiles Anthony, a onetime Beto O’Rourke volunteer who is now a vigilante border patrolman and member of the militia group United Constitutional Patriots, and who was among those who stormed the Capitol on January 6. A first-generation American, Anthony strives to be seen as a patriot, going to extremes, according to Ramos, to differentiate himself from other Latinos arriving in the country as migrants. Elsewhere, Ramos explores the rapidly growing number of Latino evangelicals, including church leaders, who invoke Christian nationalism, and argues that Latinos who arrive traumatized from places of civil distress are particularly susceptible to political strongmen and misinformation. Ramos’s probing interview style generates many eye-opening moments, as when she asks Anthony whether he gets lonely and he replies that “a lot of people tell me: ‘You’re weird.’ I travel with the music off a lot of the time.” It’s a nuanced view of what motivates far-right extremism in America. (Sept.)