By Michael Hernandez
The Leftist attempt to silence Trump supporters through the Goya boycott backfires and it awakens Hispanics and America’s silent majority to the cancel culture. The Goya boycott was an attempt to bully and destroy Goya CEO Robert Unanue for his praise of President Trump at the White House Rose Garden on July 9. Mainstream media including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tried to put pressure on Unanue to state how wrong he was in complementing the president:
“It’s suppression of speech. In 2012, I was called by Michelle Obama. They called on us as the most recognized Hispanic brand in the United States and I went to the Obama White House. So, you’re allowed to praise one president, but you’re not allowed to praise a Republican and to aid (America) in economic and educational prosperity? And you make a positive comment and all of a sudden, it is not acceptable.” Unanue said he would accept any invitation to publicly support Trump.
This shows that the Left hate President Donald J. Trump so much that they would rather ruin America than seek an economic rebound.
Goya Foods, headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey employs 5,000 people and is one of the leading sources for authentic Latin cuisine in selling and marketing everything from frozen meats, beans, grains, oils, flours, snacks and cookies. Goya now tops $1.5 billion in annual revenues.
Goya Foods founded in 1936 by Spanish immigrants Don Prudencio Unanue and his wife, Carolina, started out as a specialty grocery store in Manhattan, importing Spanish foods. The Unanue family is the second wealthiest Spanish American family in the United States with a net worth of $1.1 billion and are now listed on the Forbes Richest Family Net Worth list.
The woke culture hates any success story even if it is a Hispanic business. The same applies to Black business as stores of people of color burn in the fires and looting in the cities of America.
Trump supporters helped the Goya boycott backfire by responding to the Goya Challenge to buy Goya products and donate to food banks, homeless shelters, and senior homes as well as other charities. The result: A Buy-Goya campaign.
President Trump tweeted July 10: “I LOVE Goya Foods!. Philanthropist Foster Friess tweeted the Goya Challenge; BizPac Review CEO Jack Furnari tweeted July 12: “My wife went to the grocery store today. We’ll use about half of the Goya products she bought, and the rest we will donate to charity. We’re going to do this every week. #CancelTheLeft #Buy Goya.” Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fl) shared an “I Love Goya” image and tweeted: “Most of these people fronting about a #GoyaBoyctt don’t use Goya Foods anyways.” The brand was also promoted by Ivanka Trump. GoFundMe organizer Casey Harper helped to raise $150,000 to support the purchase of Goya products.
Meanwhile, the Goya Board of Directors vetoed an agreement last week to sell the privately-held canned-food giant at more than $4 billion to BDT Capital Partners, a buyout firm, that would have required Unanue to leave within 18 months to make way for a new chief executive. The vote came after Goya’s board had tentatively agreed to the deal a few weeks earlier. Unanue said he was asked months ago to serve as a commissioner on The White House Initiative for Hispanic Prosperity.
Unanue is to be commended for staying strong with the President and for assisting other Hispanic business ventures grow. The Leftist attempt to silence Trump supporters through the Goya boycott awakens Hispanics and America’s silent majority to the cancel culture.
(Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Citizens Journal.)
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service; editor of the History Makers Report and founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in Ventura County, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. He worked 25 years as a middle school teacher in Monrovia and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email at [email protected].
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I love Goya. I only don’t like when my store runs out of their products, which is pretty often now.
I’m a gringo and don’t buy a lot of Hispanic foods, but when I do, I’ll be buying Goya.
They have several products which are interchangeable with their non-Hispanic competitors, like olives, capers, chick peas, kidney beans, hot sauce, olive oil, rice…