The Goya Foods boycott is an insult to Hispanics, America’s largest minority group. Politicians and pundits — some Hispanic, many others painfully woke-white — are calling for a boycott of the largest Hispanic food manufacturer and distributor in the nation, a company that employs more than 4,000 people.
The Bodega and Small Business Association, which represents thousands of New York City bodegas, is not taking this lying down. We are urging our stores and customers to stock up on all of Goya’s great products.
We are calling for a Goya buycott.
It all began after Bob Unanue, Goya’s CEO, committed the grave sin this month of praising President Trump. As The New York Times reported, the backlash surged following Unanue’s recent visit to the White House, where he dared to suggest that America was “blessed” to have Trump as its leader. Cue the Twitter hysterics.
Did any of these boycotters stop to think about the impact their actions would have on the more than 13,000 bodegas in the Big Apple — and on hundreds of thousands more stores all over the country that sell Goya products, a staple of the Hispanic dining table? Did they stop to think about the thousands of black and Latino workers Goya employs?
The boycotters say that Unanue crossed the line with his words, because Trump has disparaged Hispanic immigrants. Even if they are right, however, their own actions would, if successful, do greater harm to Hispanics than any of Trump’s words.
I’m a Hispanic immigrant, and here is one thing I know. The Unanue family, immigrants from Spain, are role models for every single immigrant to this country — a family whose achievements attest to the promise of America as a land of opportunity. Goya is a job generator, while most of its detractors haven’t done a thing to create a single job for the Hispanic community.
In fact, one of the loudest detractors of the company rose to fame when she canceled 25,000 Amazon jobs for the community she represents — a politician who grew up in relative affluence in Westchester and went by the name Sandy until it was politically convenient to be known as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Now she wants to cancel Goya.
AOC can go stuff it. I am proud to stand with Goya and all of the great products that the company provides for my community. These boycotters, safely ensconced in their Twitter bubbles, don’t understand the first thing about the ordinary Hispanic shopper. And imagine the sheer gall it takes to threaten a Hispanic company popular with Hispanics for expressing a political opinion.
Yet the boycotters won’t win this fight — the buycotters will.
All around the country, Hispanic consumers are voting with their wallets in response, and Goya products in many stores are being limited to just two per customer since the wokesters declared war on the company. PJ Media reports that shoppers are “posting photos of empty Goya grocery shelves in their area.”
Our bodegueros want to do what’s best for the communities we serve. We are not here to make a political statement in support of any politician, but we can tell when elected officials don’t give a damn about the opinions or the needs of the people they represent. We can tell the difference between actually helping communities and harming Hispanic-immigrant-run stores that work long hours to make ends meet amid a challenging economic and health crisis.
People have a right to speak their mind, but these Goya boycotters want to eliminate that right by enforcing political conformity on one of this country’s most successful job creators.
As store owners, we will never undermine any Hispanic entrepreneur whose company has done so much to demonstrate the value and importance of Hispanic immigration to the United States.
Francisco Marte is secretary-treasurer of the Bodega and Small Business Association.