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

by Paola Ramos, Victoria Villarreal (Narrator)

An award-winning journalist's deeply reported exploration of how race, identity and political trauma have influenced the rise in far-right sentiment among Latinos, and how this group can shape American politics

Democrats have historically assumed they can rely on the Latino vote, but recent elections have called that loyalty into question. Despite his vociferous anti-immigrant rhetoric and disastrous border policies, Trump won a higher percentage of the Latino vote in 2020 than he did in 2016. Journalist Paola Ramos pulls back the curtain on these voters, traveling around the country to uncover what motivates them to vote for and support issues that seem so at odds with their self-interest.

From coast to coast, cities to rural towns, Defectors introduces readers to underdog GOP candidates, January 6 insurrectionists, Evangelical pastors, and culture war crusaders as it identifies the influences at the heart of this rightward shift. Through their stories, Ramos shows how tribalism, traditionalism, and political trauma within the Latino community has been weaponized to radicalize and convert voters who, like many of their white counterparts, are fearful of losing their place in American society.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Audiobook, Sociology, Race, Latinx

10 pages, Audible Audio

Published September 24, 2024

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Powerful and important book. Paola Ramos does a great job writing about the far-right radicalization of the Latino community. She weaves together several interviews, historical and political analysis, and a touch of her own life story. What I found most compelling about Defectors was how Ramos deftly communicated how the Latino community can internalize white supremacy and reenact the colonization inflicted upon them. As the US descends into fascism after the 2024 election, Ramos’s arguments for how many Latinos were swayed to support Trump, a rampant racist and xenophobe, are unfortunately prescient.

Overall, well-written and goes to show that you can’t assume someone’s political views or their commitment to social justice based on their phenotype or just their ethnic or racial identification. I’d recommend this one.

[Uriel Perez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not in the business of giving out star ratings anymore, but this is a book that actually feels *urgent*. And not in the casual way many blurbs make any number of books out to be. Paola Ramos’s journalism hits so close to home (literally) and feels alarmingly prophetic.

Am absolutely begging any Latine reader to give it a try and not buy the lies of whiteness and Christian nationalism.

“And this is what it got you?” Woof, when that line came, it really hit.

[Traci Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked a lot of the reporting and found the early sections really good. Toward the end the book lost it’s thesis and meanders for a bit before a very strong last chapter. She makes some really good points and generally this is a very solid book.

[Aly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m so grateful that Paola Ramos is focusing her voice and mind on shining a light on unique Latino perspectives and issues. This book is an accessible dissection of the shift many of us have seen and felt year-over-year but have struggled to understand. The chapter on disinformation in media was especially interesting to me—I just wish there were more grassroots strategies for how to combat this in our own communities. I will gladly recommend this book to anyone that will listen. (All that said, no matter how good the book is, alt-right Latinos will always baffle me.)

[Colin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just don’t think this issue can be appropriately addressed in the context of advocacy journalism, and thus this book struggles to argue that Latinos in America are not monolithic while simultaneously comparing the subjects of this book to a secret Latino majority that is described in utterly monolithic ways. Also, for Ramos to explain the reason for the rise of right-wing Latinos as the result of a “colonized mind” that does not engage with any material conditions is certainly a choice, and a poor one! Lastly, to cast the changes in immigration / asylum / detention policy as occurring in the vacuum of only Republican governance is false and unhelpful. Many of the policies Ramos attributes to Trump began under Obama’s administration and have continued (and, in the case of asylum, vastly worsened) under Biden’s administration.

It felt as though this was made to neatly answer the question for the brunch-loving liberal of why folks like Tarrio are emerging as a political force, and does not satisfactorily answer that question.

[laurel [the suspected bibliophile] · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Yet, I believe that, as Latinos, we have a particular predisposition to fantasize and romanticize the past because our complicated relationship with colonialism has not only distorted our perceptions of good and evil, but it has also allowed us to view ourselves as both the victors and the oppressed, as both the colonizers and the colonized. Both the beauty and the curse of our history as Latinos lie in the way our race and ethnicities are deeply mixed and intertwined.”

A solid and well-researched look at the radicalization of the Latino far right, and what it means to be adjacent to whiteness in America.

I can't say I enjoyed this, because the subject matter isn't enjoyable at all (and it fairly alarming), but Ramos reiterates that the concept of Latino is an umbrella term for an incredibly diverse group of cultures and communities. It is not a monolith and never has been.

Ramos seeks to answer the question: "Why are Latinos being drawn to the far right—a movement that openly hates them?"

“The image America has of us doesn't necessarily translate into the image many Latinos have of themselves.”

It's an us vs them dichotomy, mixed with generational trauma of communism/socialism and the allure of strong man politics—and, of course, white supremacy and Christian nationalism and a whole host of disinformation campaigns, in addition to brutal colonialism, genocide and anti-Blackness.

“Anti-immigrant sentiment is visceral. It is tribal. And it provokes a feeling that can transcend lines of race and ethnicity because it taps into one our most essential human traits, our core sense of identity and belonging.”

[Briseyda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book goes into the extreme side of what can happen when Latinos lean into their past traumas from the countries they left as they try to assimilate into the US.

It focuses on specific stories that show how fear can manifest in real lives. I enjoyed reading through Ramos interviews as she took an empathetic and human approach.

This was a very accessible read for a nonfiction book.

[Tomes And Textiles]

Read this in a post-November 5th world was eye-opening. Full review on Tik Tok.

[Antonio Emiliano Garcia Hernandez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very misinformed book that actively ignores immigrant and important regional perspectives.

Unsurprisingly the book falls in line with a very neoliberal point of view that seems more concerned with shifting the blame on Latinos in the US for their rightwards shift rather than any specific Party leadership decision. It felt very strange reading this book and seeing the author so close to recognizing an important aspect of how authoritarian ideas take hold in a population and not connect it to broader trends within American politics.

The book does a decent job of bringing attention to the Latino community’s proximity to whiteness and the dangers of hierarchical systems when you’re not the ones with power. It doesn’t bring anything particularly insightful to the table other than some interesting interviews and stories. While the interviews were interesting, I found it funny that she was initially skeptical to interview the Cuban white supremacist because of her worry of platforming someone like that but had no problems platforming a CIA agent responsible for various attempts at regime changes in Latin-America and even attempts to make us feel bad for him because of his trauma.

I had high hopes for the book but it really is just not a very well researched book and doesn’t really understand the Latine perspective in America.

[lexluvsb00ks, · Rating 1 out of 5]

it does a great disservice to your point to treat latinos as if they are a homogenous group who all have the same political opinions, and that anyone who disagrees with you is just an outlier. im of course extremely against the alt-right, and this is not a defense of them. the truth is latinos, just like everyone else, have a spectrum of beliefs. they weigh a variety of things that matter to them. and if you want to understand right wing latinos, you need to start by acknowledging this. the author spends the entire book talking about how latino = democrat, and the only reason any latino votes republican is because theyre being manipulated or have internalized racism and xenophobia. im not arguing against this, but what happens when you apply this logic to those further left than democrats? because liberal latinos, in fact do use this same argument against latinos who are socialists. it also seems the author doesnt understand that liberalism is a centrist ideology, even though she acknowledges that right wing politics have moved further right, she doesnt acknowledge that liberals have also moved further right.

if you think about this critically, it would take you about a second to realize that people "escaping communist regimes" and then become american right wingers were likely right wingers in their native homes. how you can ignore this in a book about the latino alt right in america amazes me. the author is clearly so passionate about her own anti communism that she isnt even acknowledging a huge, and honestly glaring reason why people would vote republican. maybe they vote that way because... they agree with republican ideology? she admits to being extremely ignorant of race and her position of power until she was in college. the final part of the book is about how communism is so traumatizing that it turns people into right wingers...instead of actually investigating how peoples class and ideology affect their understanding of the world around them, which would be more valuable because that also shows why they vote the way they do in america. there is hardly, if any acknowledgment of class in this which is a horrible miss.

[MM Suarez · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The inability to question the past puts us at risk of living like the fictional character Don Quixote, who, through the power of his own imagination, blurred the lines between reality and illusion and turned himself into a noble knight."

I don't even know how to start with giving my thoughts on this book and this topic, so I'll give you the over simplified answer: Latinos are shifting to the far right because of social media, apparently that's where they get their news, and fear of communism😣
Seriously though, while I think Ms. Ramos makes some good points explaining why Latinos are shifting to the far right, it is in my opinion a practically impossible task, specially because as noted in the book Latinos are not a monolithic group. I do believe there is validity to the author's point that things like tribalism and tradionalism may play a part in the shift to the right of Latinos, but I am less convinced that colonialism had anything to do with it. The author states that "Like white Americans, these Latinos now perceive that they have something to lose if immigration isn’t more aggressively regulated, but unlike white Americans they also have something to prove: their own belonging in America." I do believe there is a lot of truth to that statement, as I have seen that up close from my perch in Miami.
Personally, I don't believe there is any logical way to explain the phenomenon of a "Cuban American white supremacist, or a Mexican American who is not law enforcement hunting immigrants at the border.
I am glad I read the book and the author put in an admirable effort, but as the saying goes, it's complicated!

[CJ Alberts]

My freaking library loan ran out 50% in, ordered a copy and will finish later

[Alejandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tbh, I found myself regularly frustrated or disappointed with this book. I feel as if the author didn’t develop her arguments well and loosely connected topics to each other. I often had to connect the dots, which is fine because I feel comfortable talking about things like white supremacy, racism, patriarchy, etc., but wonder if someone less familiar with these topics would be able to understand the point she was trying to make. There were also so many missed opportunities to connect things like machismo and patriarchy to the rise of white supremacy amongst Latine folks.

Also, most of the people she discusses and interviews in the book are men, so it leaves me wondering how representative this is of Latinos as a whole…maybe everything the author has discussed represents the male Latino experience more.

As for something that she could have drawn on but didn’t, was the different way race is viewed in Latin America vs the US. In LATAM, the goal is to “better the race” and get closer to whiteness, but I feel like she didn’t really touch on this topic and how it may be influencing ppl to subscribe to white supremacist norms in the US. Also, I wished she talked more about the unnoticed privilege of being a white/light skinned Latino. I had high hopes for this since she started the book acknowledging her background as a white Latina, but she didn’t really discuss this further when talking about Latines in the US.

I also think that in the chapter discussing the desire for “strong man” leaders and the reoccurrence of this in LATAM politics, she failed to highlight the HUGE role the US played in establishing and supporting military dictatorships in the region. She even said there isn’t concrete proof to the CIA’s involvement in Pinochet’s regime….which like come ON. Not even mentioning the US’s influence in other countries like DR, Colombia, etc. was a huge miss. You can’t talk about the right wing politics of LATAM without talking about the US being the main driver of that.

And final thing I’ll say: she absolutely roasts the hell out of some of the people she talks with in the book, even going as far to say that one of the men looks like someone whose mom doesn’t love (context: man was thrown out of his house for coming out as gay and his mom no longer talks to him. He now works to censor LGBTQ content in schools.) Is this person she said this about not a good human? Yes. But that’s still an INSANE thing to say about someone and I think overall just inappropriate for a journalist to write and publish…like where were her editors?? If she wants to discuss how being abandoned by family can cause people to find belonging in right-wing groups, let’s talk about how coming from collectivist cultures influences our high drive for community. Or let’s talk about the role of sexism, machismo, and religion in ostracizing queer family members. I was done with her psychoanalyzing people throughout the entire book.

Overall, I think this book is meant for people who still believe in the US political institution (aka not me). I think it’s meant to shed light on how the Dems are currently not working to organize Latine folks. I think she misses the mark various times when talking about the history and culture of Latines in the US and I would not really recommend this book.

[Daniela Perez-Velasco · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book graciously as an e-ARC from the publisher and NetGalley. I didn’t know the author, but was intrigued by the summary.

For background: I grew up first generation in a Cuban-American family moving between NJ and South FL.

I have often wondered why Cuban immigrants support white supremacy and have been so intrigued by the psychological gymnastics needed for an Afro-Cuban to be the leader of a White Supremacy group. Can a Latino be a white supremacist?

After reading this book, I realized who the author is and it does remind one of a Vice News story. But I loved it.

In my opinion, the personal stories are powerful and moving.

I don’t understand how Latinos who came to the US would turn around and say “build the wall”. Then I remember a part of Ibram X. Kendi’s book (How to be an AntiRacist) about trying to differentiate yourself from “those people”. People want to believe they are exceptional and should be granted a seat at the table, but then are afraid to lose that seat and then want to slam the door shut. Fear and division are great psychologically motivating tools especially when our society is so segregated.

Highly recommend this book if you want to learn more how Latin American colonialism is still functioning today in US politics.

Edited to add: I ended up buying 2 copies for family members because I feel this book is so important.

[vanessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ultimately this was an accessible read with good vignettes of Latinos that lean right (some in the far right) and gives their reasons why. A lot of the people she interviews remind me of different kinds of Latinos I knew growing up and Latinos I know today. She sets up a thesis statement: that far-right Latinos have these beliefs due to tribalism, trauma, and traditionalism. While in general I agree with her and I agree that the experiences we have in the world shape our values and beliefs (like how she discusses her college experience), I still think it reads slightly like punditry. And reading punditry post-election didn't work for me. Maybe if the book focused more on her thesis statement with research or background information than just interviewing and following subjects, it would've felt more impactful and strong. And her conclusions about the people she interviewed is that hopefully they will "come to the right side" - it feels unrealistic and slightly delusional.

[Rick Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book with some fluff that could be cut.

Ramos explores a fascinating political shift: why many Latino men supported Trump in 2024. Rather than dismissing this as a fringe anomaly, she argues it’s the result of years of performative identity politics from Democrats, appealing to ethnicity without engaging with values, masculinity, or the nuances of cultural identity.

The most compelling insight isn’t the sensationalism around white supremacy or far-right outliers. Honestly those parts drag. The interesting part is the exploration of what mainstream political narratives miss: how economic disillusionment, cultural pride, and masculine-coded messaging can draw voters away from expected ideological camps.

Interesting implications moving forward across American politics.

[Josue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stark finishing this book post 2024 election. One marked with trump winning the election due to an upsurge of republican Latino voters.

[aubrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is a very difficult book to rate. on the one hand, this is an important book about a concerning shift and alignment with fascism in America by Latinos, and on the other hand this book is so shoddily written I once again have to ask what the fuck are we paying editors for.

I find it hard to believe no one told Ramos that she was engaging in very surface-level, English 101 examination of colonialism and internalized bigotry. it felt less of a complete book and more like an assortment of essays she wrote for various magazines and scripts/summaries of her own vice news documentaries. just a very odd lack of introspection, and a real concern with PROVING VERY VERY HARD that she does not align with these people's beliefs. girl you chose to write a book on an uncomfortable topic???? forgive me for expecting you to sit with your discomfort for more than five seconds????

[Fanchen Bao · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many years ago, I watched Dave Chappelle's Black White Supremacist, still considered one of, if not the best, skits in comedy history. Looking back at the skit now and seeing how multiracial white supremacists/nationalists have become, I applaud Mr. Chappelle's vision but feel extremely sad.

The right wing ideology has a pull like gravity, because it appeals to everyone's favorite moments in life: the good old days, the ways things were, and the most carefree and joyful time of your life -- childhood. It tickles everyone's mental string to a before where things seemed to always make sense (don't we all agree that things were a lot less complicated when we were children!), even though making sense to you had a huge cost on someone else. There is always a chance that you might also fall out of favor one day and taste the cost yourself. It takes constant efforts to swim against the pull, to stay away from the digital propaganda and the built-in addiction, and to see the bag of bones and grain of salt in the promises from a leader, your elders, and your own biases.

But I do not fault those who vote against their own best interests. Except from a small group with genuine bad intentions, I think the majority just want a way out of their current predicaments via the route of least resistance. Following a strongman and succumbing to a social hierarchy that does not rank you at the lowest rung provides such route. Democracy is hard. Doing things based on consideration of all voices is so much harder than based on the voice with the biggest fist. Yet instead of demanding that the misguided right wing voters (funny that I shall use the term "misguided", for I am pretty sure that is the same term they, the nicer ones at least, would describe me) to better themselves and learn to swim against the current, we should ask better questions: How can we offer an alternative route of low resistance so they do not give up (from my point of view, going conservative is a form of giving up; things there are less "messy" than the progressive side)? How can we prevent them from being stuck in their predicaments in the first place?

We are in the new gilded age with a new breed of oligarchs and politicians. Unfortunately, I don't think there is a chance for us to unite and fight against the new rulers. They have kept us so entertained, so dumbed down, and so ingrained in the meaningless cultural fight that we forget that it has never been our neighbors with a rainbow flag, a Trump sign, or a religious symbol that make our life suck. The culprits are right there, dressed in gold, receiving worship from us.

The future is bleak. I am pessimistic. I make donations to what I believe are good causes, but other than that, I feel more and more detached. I guess that is my coping mechanism.

Memorable quotes:

And the quest to fit in to this country could be increasingly driving some Latinos toward extreme nativism, for there is nothing more nationalistic than making immigrants, a sworn enemy of many white Americans, your enemy as well. Especially if the enemy forces others to question your belongs.

-- p25

Centuries later, it must resemble the same gaze a Border Patrol agent casts toward his detainee, the same stare Anthony Aguero gives to young migrant men, and the DACA recipient gives to newcomers. A look of disdain and rejection. At what point along their journey did the victims become the perpetrators?

-- p34

It almost felt like my identity made more sense as an abstract feeling of yearning rather than being rooted in a concrete place on a map. If there is anything I learned from that trip, it's that every fantasy is flawed and deserves to be interrogated.

-- p52 (do not trust blindly your elders. Your parents are regular people, too, with biases and flaws.)

For instance, by the eighteenth century, the Spanish kingdom institutionalized a policy known as Gracias al Sacar, which allowed certain mixed-race individuals with African blood to purchase their whiteness through the Spanish monarchs. People could pay to reclassify their documented race and attain perceived status and wealth. That culture of racial reclassification became pervasive in Puerto Rico.

-- p74

Many of us assume that people desire accuracy and are driven to find what's true. But that's not how human digest information...Instead, people want answers that are consistent with the stories they've already come to know and accept...it's virtually impossible to change humans' mental models. Rational arguments are no match for the values that humans cling to as evidence of their identities.

--p128

Generation of Latin Americans were forced into thinking that the strongman was the cure to all political woes and wounds...When democracy starts to feel slightly messy on an overcast morning, wounds can dehisce and traumas can reawaken...In their nightmares, the only way out of it is through strongman rule. In their nightmares, the promises of autocracy at times outweigh those of democracy.

-- p164

[Alejandro Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved this book. Very timely to read after the 2024 election. This book gave some words and phrases to feelings, thoughts, and narratives I have seen playing out with Latino individuals throughout this past election cycle. Left me with a lot of food for thought, as to how my story and the story of others I know relates to tribalism, traditionalism, and trauma. Definitely more of an introduction book to hopefully very pertinent research that exists or will exist in the future. Provides pretty good introductory lenses of which to look at the decisions we Latinos may make sometimes related to fear, mis/disinformation, and rhetoric.

[Rita Leile · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 — Un libro necesario para cualquiera que se pregunte qué está pasando con el voto latino.

It is very well-researched and I appreciate the education on far right voices that are informing our communities. I hadn’t heard of a single one. My only hesitation with giving a full 5 star review is that it ends on a hopeful note based on the antidote of a few Latinos who have changed their minds. Quite frankly, the religious stronghold in this country is so deeply concerning that being hopeful about the Latino perspective (and beyond) is too much of a reach right now.

[Isabelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This is my second book by Paola Ramos and I’m planning on seeking out much more of her content. She explains her thoughts so well and my mind was blown by this book. My husband is Latino and we’ve often talked about how we can’t believe any Latinos could be right-wing, but after reading these stories, I understand this much more than before. Everything she’s presented makes so much sense in the current political climate.

I did think the first two sections (Tribalism and Traditionalism) were written more strongly, but even the third section (Trauma) was very convincing. And the ending chapter sounded so empowering. She’s collected so many relevant stories and seemed to genuinely want to figure out why things are happening the way they are. I also appreciated her criticism for democrats that seem unable to understand that Latinos are just one group that always acts the same way rather than a diverse group of people that have a wide variety of feelings and affiliations. Hopefully they’ll do more in the future to account for that.

We’ve already discussed a ton of things from this book but my husband plans on reading it eventually as well. If he does, I’ll add his thoughts to my review as well.

[Juan Cuellar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible book. She basically labels all Latinos whether they have far-right views or not as being blinded by white supremacy. Paola goes out of her way to ignore the experiences sometimes traumatic from people escaping far left governments by Cuba and states that the only reason they are afraid of communism is due to FOX News or misinformation. You know it's bad when she is critical of a president like Bukkele who has completely turned around one of the most dangerous countries in the world without of the highest murder rates while on the other hand praising someone like Guevara or COMPLETELY ignoring the violence and oppresion from the Castros and communism from her own country.

The whole purpose of the book is essentially written to guilt Latinos into thinking that if they don't follow the democratic party blindly then they are not being true to their roots and that they are blinded by their colonial past.

I started the book with an open mind knowing her background and because I grew up with her dad in my television as a child but the blatantly biasness is too much to bear. If you are far left leaning you may love this book because it has no moderation or unbiased opinion at all but for someone really looking into understanding WHY Latinos have started to shift more right leaning when it comes to politics and the candidates that they vote for then this is not the book for you.

[Ashley Gravel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imperative in understanding how the far right has made inroads with the Latino community. Ramos does an excellent job explaining how the left can no longer just depend on the vote of the Latino community without truly listening to them, to their stories and to the issues that matter most to them.

[Juliana Alfonso · Rating 5 out of 5]

At a time when so many people are asking more about the Latino vote, Paola, a Latina, offers an answer. She sits down with Jan 6 insurrectionist, evangelical pastors turned aspiring politicians, the former chair of Miami’s Moms for Liberty, etc - all Latino. You could argue you shouldn’t give these people a platform-Paola’s defends a need to face our ugly truth in order to learn and move away from it.

“The path toward finding ourselves in this country has never been linear. In our quest to find belonging in America, many Latinos are quietly oscillating between identities, spaces, and stories that are often disconnected and at odds with each other. The most difficult challenge ahead of us is to acknowledge the warning signs and face how far some Latinos are willing to go in that quest for belonging.”

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incisive, frank, and clear-eyed analysis of the modern and historical factors driving Latino voters towards the far-right. Paola Ramos breaks down the idea of what it means to be Latino within the political, cultural, and historical context of the United States, recognizing that Latino voters are in no way a monolith and are each shaped by their own personal histories and lived experiences.

In particular, this is essential reading in light of the 2024 election results, crucial for understanding the complexity and fluidity of Latino racial and national identity. From white nationalist ideologues to moms drawn to alt-right politics, Ramos engages with them in a critical, yet compassionate way. Highly recommended.

[Aly · Rating 5 out of 5]

would highly highly recommend for anyone - Latinx or not - who has questions about why “Latinos for trump” exists. The book answers a lot of my own questions about why people in my own extended family think the way that they do Paola Ramos interviews people who have done awful things that seem to contradict their identity with so much nuance, that it was both horrifying and heartbreaking. Everyone read Defectors & pass along to ur tios <3

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this was the perfect time to read this book. It helped me understand some of the reasons behind why there are so many far-right Latinos in this country. Paola Ramos does a lovely job of providing facts and history. I do not know much about my heritage history, so I am grateful to have learned more about it.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a great book. It is obviously written from the authors perspective which includes her own political leanings, biases and beliefs but despite that she remained respectful and fact driven. The book was thoughtfully written and was easy to follow.

[kiomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will be bringing this book up any chance I get