Showboat. Egocentric. Grandstanding.
The offspring of the Mexican boxing legend Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. was arrested in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 2 on alleged charges of overstaying his Visa and “lying on his green card application.”
I am not writing about the boxer in the header of this piece, but about this administration, whom ordered the arrest of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
I didn’t think that JCC Jr.’s arrest would be get me so riled up. Just five days ago, I ordered the highly publicised fight between Jr. and attention feigning influencer-boxer hybrid Jake Paul. It was a difficult watch from those of us who grew up with his legendary, iconic father on the glowing television screen, as our own fathers howled and cheered Sr.’s greatness with each punch. Our generation, who saw Junior in a refreshing glow, and who evolved, as journalist and author Mark Kriegel wrore, into an ever-perplexing guessing game.
The sudden, unexpected sting of tears running down my face and warmth filling my cheeks as I watched Cesar Chavez Jr. have questions translated to him in Spanish, as law enforcement wrapped his arms behind his back felt so familiar. The dejavu of witnessing the detainment and arrests of United States Citizens, residents, green card holders and undocumented immigrants that first generation children of immigrants have had instant access to on social media platforms and independent Latinx based platforms since June has been traumatic.
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was one of many who has been brutalized, detained, and made an example of. This administration has pushed Boarder Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, local law enforcement, and United States Military branches as strongly-grasped puppets to carry out their illegitimate, outlaw, vigilante, makes and anonymous enforcement.
You’re a Mexican. You made revenue for a significant fight with substantial boxing undercards that caught boxing-faithfuls’ attention and buy-in.
Some might state that because the hopes I had in the fight was fresh I was hyper emotional, but you obviously don’t count on how the deportation-porn brought on by the current administration that might play a role. The lack of due process and the amount of detainees currently being unlawfully rounded up is a major factor of my anger.
In piece by VPM journalist Jasmine Garsd sharing findings from the Deportation Data Project, “a group that collects immigration numbers, about half the people in detention don’t have criminal convictions. That’s close to 30,000 people in detention, without a criminal record — the group that has grown the most in recent months.” The alleged charges, and, at the time of this piece, unsubstantiated rumors regarding Chavez Jr.’s affiliation with Mexican cartel, make his arrest as engaging as the local elote vendor or viral Reels recorded by citizens witnessing unlawful arrests at our local Home Depots.
Junior being detained is so being made an example of whether the charges and allegations are valid or not. I don’t know. I just know that there is something to an athlete who is internationally known as a namesake of a legendary boxer who is a compatriot of the individuals detained on the same land that they’ve generated profit and spectacle for.
Chavez is the laborer, the Latin American, Central American, South American, and Mexican laborer in the United States, who faced a Pro-Trump, Anglo-Saxon, trash-talking-viral-seeking-influencer opponent.
As a Nicaraguan-Panamanian, first generation woman who was raised on the excitement of boxing, this was a hit that has continued to open up wounds that the current political environment has opened. As “safe” as we may feel in Southern California as a citizen with a Spanish surname, or an athlete on a green card who gained $750,000 after a fight that generated crowd, sponsors and outsiders following an influencer, looking for entertainment, the heartache and anger are going to continue to fester and infliltrate into our community for the next three years.
In the culture, depiste our occupation, our background, our generation, we need to step up, defend and support each other more than ever.
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