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 In short order, more than 10 organizations canceled their deals
with Trump, in what Latino activists are calling an unprecedented
recognition of their economic clout.
Latino spending power will hit $1.5 trillion this year, up 50
percent from 2010, according to the Nielsen Co, which analyzes
consumer spending trends.
At an average age of 27, the Hispanic population is a decade younger
than the U.S. average and just entering the prime of its earning
power, market researchers said.
"Latino millennials have purchasing power and they're not going to
tolerate Trump's comments," said Luis Fitch, a Mexican-American
co-founder of UNO Branding, a marketing consultancy in Minneapolis.
"Corporations understand the numbers, they don't want to risk this."
Hispanics under 30 were the single largest group behind a
high-profile "Dump Trump" petition to Macy's Inc, which got more
than 730,000 signatures, according to Angelo Carusone, organizer of
the petition by liberal activists Moveon.org.
Carusone said he was in close contact with Macy's for days before
the department store chain said in a July 1 statement that it would
phase out Trump's menswear collection because it had "no tolerance
for discrimination."
"Continuing with a brand association that alienates a rising
customer base and makes them think negatively about the company just
doesn't make good business sense," said a Macy's official, who spoke
on condition of anonymity. "You just cannot ignore the buying power
the community has and no retailer in their right mind would want to
turn them away."
Trump has stuck to his stance that many illegal immigrants coming
across the Mexican border are criminals, but said that some of his
criticism has been distorted.
"Many fabulous people come in from Mexico and our country is better
for it," Trump said on Monday.
SOCIAL MEDIA BOOM
The backlash on social media was initially slow. On June 22,
Univision's lead anchor, Jorge Ramos, challenged Trump to run his
businesses without Mexican labor. "A day without Mexicans would stop
the Trump empire," Ramos wrote in an article published on
Univision's website and his own blog.
That same day, Adriana Almanza, a 28-year-old admissions counsellor
at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, posted a
letter on Facebook addressed to Trump about her immigrant father,
Raul. She said her father towers over Trump and represents the best
of Mexico: humble and hard-working.
In two days, Almanza's letter had been shared more than 88,000
times. The buzz on social media increased as celebrities jumped in,
including Colombian singer J Balvin.
"There is much hate and ignorance in your heart," wrote Ricky
Martin, in Spanish, using the #latinosunidos, or Latinos united,
Twitter hashtag. More than 11,000 tweets and retweets with that tag
were sent in the past month. More tweets flooded in under the
#yourefired and other hashtags, many from non-Latinos.
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On June 25, Spanish-language broadcaster Univision said it would not
broadcast the Miss USA pageant and would cut ties to the Miss
Universe Organization, a joint venture between Trump and Comcast
Corp's NBC Universal.
In the following days and weeks, NBC Universal, NASCAR, ESPN,
mattress-maker Serta, clothing maker PVH Corp, hair products
manufacturer Farouk Systems, perfume maker Parlux Fragrances, the
Professional Golfers' Association and several restaurants and chefs
all ended deals Trump.
ECONOMIC MUSCLES
A decade ago, Latinos flexed their political muscles with nationwide
demonstrations over immigration reform. This is the first time
corporations have responded broadly to Latino pressure, said Jorge
Chapa, a professor of Latino Studies and government affairs at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
"What I think is unique about the response to Trump was the fact
that major corporates also took action," Chapa said.
Trump's general counsel, Alan Garten, said his boss's comments had
been taken out of context by the media. "To say (Trump) is
anti-Mexico or anti the Mexican people would be completely
inaccurate," he said.
Garten said Trump's political campaign is thriving, pointing to
recent polling that shows him in second place in the race to be the
Republican Party's nominee for the 2016 election.
Garten also pointed out that Univision and NBC Universal had not
formally pulled Trump's Miss USA pageant, while ESPN's decision to
pull a golf tournament from a Trump course was a one-off event with
no significant financial impact.
Still, Trump argued in a $500 million lawsuit against Univision that
with no Spanish-language broadcast, his pageants will likely lose
"tens if not hundreds of millions" of dollars in revenue from
advertising, promotions, sponsorship, licensing and merchandising.
Univision has called Trump's complaint "factually false and legally
ridiculous."
A new five-year contract for exclusive Spanish-language broadcast
rights, signed in January, was worth $13.5 million to Trump,
according to the suit filed last month.
"The potential fallout from Univision's brazen decision to simply
walk away from its contractual obligations is catastrophic," the
lawsuit said.
(Editing by Peter Henderson and Tiffany Wu)
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