Mayra Flores: Hispanics share GOP values of God, family, hard work

The first Mexican-born congresswoman elected in U.S. history has a message for conservatives: Engage Hispanic citizens, who share many of the same core values.

Mayra Flores, former representative for Texas’ 34th Congressional District, spoke with The Lion’s Chris Stigall about her historic political journey and her perspectives on key issues such as immigration, border security and the Hispanic community’s role in American politics.

Speaking from the Pennsylvania Leadership Conference over the weekend, she told Stigall that a key to GOP success in places like the Keystone State will be to recruit Hispanics.

“I want to make sure that Pennsylvania is a stronghold for Republicans, and the only way to do that is by growing the Republican Party and getting more Hispanics involved,” Flores said, adding that Pennsylvania’s status as a swing state means its politics affect everyone in the U.S.

Flores won a congressional seat in a district that had not seen a GOP victory in over 100 years, but the district was redrawn, making her reelection difficult. She lost to Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez Jr. in November by only 5,400 votes out of more than 200,000 cast.

“But I’m forever grateful that I got to serve in Congress, and we made history,” she said. “And that’s why it’s so important that we continue to fight.”

Flores also talked about how her father’s values led her to eventually leave the Democrats and become a Republican.

However, when she first told her father about her decision to leave the Democratic Party, “he was very upset.

“And I said, Dad, you raised me Republican. You don’t even know it. The values that you instilled in me were Republican.”

Flores said it took her father some time to reflect on what she said, but that in 2020, for the first time, he voted for the GOP.

“And thanks to the Biden administration, now he’s a hardcore Republican,” she said. 

Flores said that Hispanics hold the same core values as conservatives.  

“We hold the same values of God, of family and hard work. That is who we are,” she said. 

One of the problems, Flores noted, is that there’s a lot of disinformation being spread on Univision, Telemundo and other Hispanic TV networks about Republicans. 

“That’s why it’s so important for us to go into these networks and talk about our platform and how our platform actually aligns with our values. And [how] our values are more important than any political party,” she added. 

She criticized the Democratic Party for keeping people uninformed and dependent, arguing that prosperity and self-sufficiency are key to breaking free from political manipulation by liberals.  

Flores came to believe that the Democratic Party wants Hispanics to be poor and uninformed, so the left can continue to use them on issues such as immigration.  

“They don’t want us to prosper,” she said. “If we prosper, they won’t be able to control us anymore.” 

Stigall asked about the argument that illegal immigrants end up doing the work that Americans don’t want to do. 

Flores didn’t mince words. 

“I find that very disrespectful,” she said. “I worked in the fields myself alongside my parents, and to make this idea that everybody that’s working in the fields does not have [legal] status, I actually find that very racist, because I was working in those fields alongside my parents, and we had legal status.” 

Flores said the border system can clearly handle processing legal immigration, versus the liberal system of importing people illegally and subjecting them to the “abuse” that comes with it. 

“You know, I find it very evil and disrespectful that anyone would be okay with people working in the fields and doing farm work illegally,” Flores said. “And more likely, they’re being taken advantage of.”  

She said a better system would be the old “Bracero Act [that] existed back in the 50s, which allowed people to come here only for a temporary basis” for a six-month period. When the work was done, they returned home. 

Flores also highlighted the dangers posed by the lack of border security, including the funding of cartels and the risks to American lives. She shared with Stigall her personal fear of visiting Mexico due to the cartel’s control over regions such as Tamaulipas, where her grandparents still reside. 

Flores noted many Mexican citizens support policies similar to those of Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, as they prioritize the well-being of their people who want to stop the exploitation of human beings, no matter the nationality.  

America is an “amazing country” because of the American people, she said, who need to band together “to protect” the country now. 

​The problem is a group of people who always think they know better than everyone else.   

“It’s just Americans – a lot of Americans, and I will say white liberals, right? They think they know us because they go vacation in Acapulco in Cabos, you know? And they think they know Mexico,” Flores told Stigall. 

“Why don’t you just stay there, if, you know, if the United States is so bad?” Flores asked rhetorically.