A small sign sits in the shadows of a lending library Mariano Rodriguez built in his front yard.
The library is popular with Rodriguez’s neighbors; books disappear and reappear daily. Dozens of people have written in the guest book, thanking him for taking the time to build the tiny library.
The adjacent political sign, however, has been attacked twice in the last two weeks. One time Rodriguez chased down a teenage girl who almost succeeded in stealing it.
It seems not everyone agrees with Rodriguez that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will make America great again.
LIFELONG REPUBLICAN
It was the balloons. One of Rodriguez’s first political memories was watching a sea of balloons fall from the ceiling at the 1972 Republican National Convention.
With handfuls of popcorn and slices of pizza, he sat glued to the TV screen as the GOP nominated Richard Nixon. Rodriguez, then 9, had just moved from Mexico City to live with an aunt and uncle in Indiana to attend better schools.
“It was cool,” he says.
And very different from his expectations of presidential power.
“Coming from Mexico, everyone is like, ‘Yeah, what is he going to change?’”
That was certainly the feeling in his own family back in Mexico. Rodriguez remembers his father voting in elections there before the move, but he was largely apathetic.
In the Midwest, Rodriguez was raised on Republican values — rooting for GOP candidates until he was old enough to vote for them himself.
It was one of his first acts after becoming a permanent resident.
“Once I got my green card,” he says, “I went out and signed up for the Republican Party.”
FIRST A FAN,
NOW A SUPPORTER
Rodriguez’s earliest memories of Trump go all the way back to the 1980s, mostly in the form of news reports he read while in college.
An architect, he was drawn to Trump’s success as a real estate developer, although he also remembers the flashy, tabloid headlines about Trump’s love life, specifically two high-profile divorces.
The story of Trump’s father giving him a relatively small amount to start his career — a story that has been disputed — also appealed to the Mexican immigrant.
Roughly 10 to 15 years ago, Rodriguez said he remembers the announcer pointing out before a University of Arizona basketball game that Trump was in the crowd.
“I don’t think there has a been a year I haven’t heard about Trump,” Rodriguez says.
That includes Trump’s reality television shows, “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice,” which Rodriguez regularly watched.
With the season-long competitions and the celebrity appearances, Rodriguez says, he saw Trump lay the groundwork for an eventual run for president.
“I don’t think at first he was serious. But I think finally after all these years and following his show, I think he was gearing up for this.”
MAKING AMERICA
GREAT AGAIN
Rodriguez’s decision to back Trump is fueled by his frustration with politics as usual, with elected officials promising change and then doing nothing. The Great Recession nearly forced him to close his business. Some of his friends were not so lucky.
“Four years ago we almost lost our house because the economy was in shambles,” he says. “A lot my friends closed shop and went to work for somebody else.”
He believes Trump can do what President Obama failed to do in eight years.
“If we can get back to what this country is supposed to be — a number-one power, respected, plenty of jobs, plenty of progress — that is what making America great again means to me,” he says.
In particular, he faults Obama for the Affordable Care Act.
“I don’t think Obama did a lot of the stuff he promised,” he says. “His health care was the biggest one. ... It was a promise that was not fulfilled.”
DEFENDING
TRUMP’S STANCE
In Rodriguez’s eyes, Trump has been treated poorly by the press and by the Republican Party establishment.
He notes that former presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s negative comments about the billionaire only strengthened his support.
When he cast a ballot for Romney four years ago, “it was a waste of a vote,” he says.
He believes Trump’s critics often hold him to a double standard. For example, Trump is criticized for hiring undocumented workers on a construction project. But several congressional offices have proudly hired undocumented immigrants brought to this country as children, part of the group known as “Dreamers.”
“So what is the difference?” he asks. “The government is doing it too.”
Rodriguez, who immigrated legally to the U.S. when he was 9, supports Trump’s pledge to build a massive wall along the Mexican border.
He considers Trump’s comments comparing illegal immigrants to “rapists” inflammatory, but he believes the candidate has a point.
“The people that are coming here illegally, they are not the people who are working for Raytheon or have good, high-paying jobs,” he says. “These are the people who are coming in and trying to get any job they can. And among those, you are going to get some very bad people.”
He does, however, disagree with Trump on refugees from Iraq and Syria.
“I don’t agree that we shouldn’t let them come in here, but they should be a little better vetted,” he says.
The process for his family to immigrate from Mexico took months. Now it could take years.
Rodriguez believes part of Trump’s campaign strategy is to make controversial statements that attract attention from what once was a crowded field of Republican candidates.
“I think some of it is to attract people to his presidency,” he says.
WEIGHING THE FIELD
A year ago, Rodriguez was undecided about which candidate he would support. He thought Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, was interesting, as well as U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.
When Fiorina ended her campaign, he was disappointed but not surprised.
“I don’t think the GOP is ready for a woman president,” he says. “I liked her. I liked her views.”
Trump is being attacked from all sides, but that isn’t unusual in a presidential campaign, Rodriguez says. Campaigns “are always going to focus on the negative.”
The GOP establishment, he says, fears Trump.
“They are not 100 percent sure what he is going to do,” Rodriguez says.
Despite the problems with his yard sign, Rodriguez says he has been surprised by the number of friends who also are supporting Trump.
“It all has been kinda positive, which has been surprising,” he says.
Walking out to the library with his wife, Andrea, he pulls out the guest book that has been signed by neighbors who appreciate the tiny library.
On page after page, people thank him for building and stocking the library.
On the last two pages, the comments are still mostly about the books — although several people say they like his literary and his political choices.
One of his Trump books he put in the library is apparently on loan, hopefully helping another person decide who to vote for in the state’s Presidential Preference Election.
