Breathe
By Sofía Guadarrama Collado
On Saturday night in Washington DC, Donald Trump attended the Hispanic Inaugural Ball, or Official Hispanic Gala, which included Selena's Bidi bidi bom bom, Marc Anthony's Vivir mi vida, among dozens of other Latin American songs, as well as a live performance by Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán.
The event was attended by almost a thousand people, including Javier Garza Buffington, president of Grupo Legrand, who is part of the organizing committee (which is also sponsored by Grupo Salinas); Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Bernardo Moreno, Carlos Slim and his family; Eduardo Verastegui, who pretended to be an independent candidate for the presidency of Mexico; Altagracia Gómez, head of the Business Advisory Council and advisor in the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo; Santiago Peña, president of Paraguay; Nayib Bukele, from El Salvador and Javier Milei, from Argentina, who at the beginning of the gala was recognized with the Titan Award for Economic Reform.
During the evening there was much talk and praise about mass deportations, the construction of the unfinished phase of the border wall, tariffs and the elimination of rights for the transgender community.
Now, the Hispanic Inaugural Ball is just one of the galas that will celebrate the beginning of Donald Trump's second term, or as they say in English: Inauguration Day.
In 2017, for the start of his first term, Donald Trump attended three galas: the Commander-in-Chief Ball, the Liberty Inaugural Ball and the Freedom Inaugural Ball. But he did not attend the Latino Inaugural Ball, organized by his Hispanic Advisory Council and other organizations. Four years away from the White House were enough to understand the importance of this gala.
This tradition began with the independent country in 1789 when George Washington became president. And the party is not free. To give an example, in 1809, for the first inauguration of President James Madison, tickets cost $4 and sold 400.
However, President Warren G. Harding canceled his gala in 1921 to show austerity. In 1977, Jimmy Carter also wanted to suppress glamour and charged less than $25 a ticket. But in the United States that kind of propaganda doesn't work. The country of consumerism and wealth cannot sell austerity, so it splurges on such galas. Tickets for the Hispanic Inaugural Ball 2025 cost between 1,000 and 5,000 dollars.
In 1997, for Bill Clinton's second inauguration, fourteen inaugural balls were held. In 2009, 10 official and 121 unofficial inaugural balls were held for the inauguration of Barack Obama.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no inaugural balls were held for Joe Biden's inauguration in 2021.
Turning to the 2025 edition of the Hispanic Inaugural Ball, this event is a representation of the fastest growing demographic group in the U.S. electorate: 62 million, which generates $3.7 trillion in annual GDP. The evening seeks to forge alliances.
It is not known who President Donald Trump met with during the evening. He was only seen when he came out in the company of his wife Melania to the balcony at 9:43 Eastern time to watch the fireworks in his honor while a few meters away his personal singer, Christopher Macchio, sang Alleluia and Ave Maria. The Washington sky lit up to celebrate Donald Trump's second coming to the presidency of the United States. Fifteen minutes later, Donald and Melania returned inside the Omni Shoreham Hotel as he waved his arms to the rhythm of YMCA by Village People.
Donald Trump is the son of a Scottish immigrant, grandson of German immigrants and husband of Yugoslavian Melania Trump (born Melanija Knavsnota). The above clearly shows that the 47th president of the United States does not hate immigrants. He just doesn't want poor and illegal immigrants, although he knows perfectly well that his country needs them and Los Angeles, California will need them even more to rebuild it after last week's fires. But he essentially prefers elitist, transphobic, homophobic, conservative, racist and classist Hispanics.
*Sofía Guadarrama Collado, prolific author and scholar of Mexican history for 24 years. Her exceptional narrative instinct, as well as her conspicuous perception of the world, have positioned her as one of the best-selling Mexican writers at the national level.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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