Trump’s hair, the chair, and how we got there

As I sit in the chair, the 45-year-old stylist snipping away at my hair, I am digging deep for the right words in Spanish to express my next thought.  My stylist is from central Mexico, married, with four kids and she works at this shop to support her family. She’s been a US citizen for 10 years. Her English isn’t so good, so I use my rustic Spanish and we carry on a surprisingly entertaining conversation slipping between the two languages.

It can be a lot of work, prying open those old doors in my brain where my Spanish language knowledge lives and slowly deteriorates. But with some encouragement from my new stylist/Spanish professor, I’m giving it a go. And we’re having some fun.

But I feel a certain awkwardness that I can’t quite identify – perhaps the class difference or the cultural difference between us, or perhaps just the yawning chasm that seems to separate people in these days of racial tension and identity politics. So the last thing I intend to do is talk politics.

Frankly, I think I might get an earful from this Mexican immigrant about President Trump’s comments and wall-building adventure; and she’s working for a tip, too, so no need to put her in an uncomfortable position with a customer.  So we carry on a polite conversation about kids and life, with me digging deep to be coherent in Spanish and her giving me a Spanish lesson along the way.

Then, it happened.

She’s combing my hair and at one point the hair lands atop my head in a very Trumpian fashion, sagging down over my forehead. I laugh and tell her to stop! Look, I say, pointing to the mirror – it’s Trump! She looks in the mirror and then bursts out laughing. Turns out she likes Trump! Wait, what?

She tells me she likes what she hears from Trump about building the wall and deporting the criminals.

Those are not my people, she says in English. Those are los malos – the bad guys. Trump should kick them out, she says.

She is concerned about one thing insofar as politics is concerned – trabajo – creating jobs for her, her husband, and her kids, who are 24, 21, 19 and 12. She doesn’t like what she’s seen in recent times, with few jobs available and many people looking. The rhetoric coming from the Trump team doesn’t anger her – she is ready for a change. This from a Mexican woman who, according to all the news accounts I hear, is mad as hell at Trump and wants him gone! Not so fast, NBC and the media gang. You may have lost something in translation.

Then again, it’s quite possible it’s me who lost something in the translation; wouldn’t be the first time that happened. But I don’t think so. I think I picked up today’s lesson very well.