Protesters mark El Día del Niño by bashing Trump and Musk piñatas

Nothing feels better than clobbering President Trump’s…likeness.

Kids in South Phoenix learned this the fun way Sunday at an El Día del Niño celebration in Grant Park by taking sticks to piñatas – including one depicting a grumpy Trump and another featuring his billionaire fanboy Elon Musk seated in a red Cybertruck.

The children were getting a jump on the traditional Mexican celebration of Children’s Day, which takes place all across Mexico on April 30 and honors kiddies with parties, games, gifts and, of course, plenty of piñatas. Since the party also celebrated the 15th anniversary of the founding of Phoenix’s Barrio Defense Committees, an alliance of neighborhood pro-immigrant groups, the Trump and Musk piñatas were the highlights of the event.

Earlier, the children carried or wore paper cutouts of orange and black butterflies as they marched with their parents from Grant Park up to and around the 4th Ave. Jail in what was billed as a “Walk of Resistance” to protest the Trump administration’s mass deportation plans. Dressed in indigenous apparel, some of the adults danced in a serpentine fashion, led by a woman in a large headdress who carried a bowl of burning incense.

The group of close to 100 stopped before the jailhouse’s entrance, where human rights advocate Salvador Reza explained how the Barrio Defense Committees were founded to combat Arizona’s infamous immigration law, Senate Bill 1070, signed by Gov. Jan Brewer in April 2010. The groups also battled Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his anti-immigration sweeps, which ultimately resulted in Arpaio being found guilty of racial profiling and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office landing under the scrutiny of a court-appointed monitor.

But this time around, with foreign students being snatched up off the streets and immigrants exiled to a hellhole in El Salvador, the fight is a much larger and scarier one for the Hispanic community. From the steps of a jail where he had been incarcerated more than once on bogus charges related to his activism, Reza urged the children to be brave, comparing their plight to the yearly migration of monarch butterflies from Canada and the U.S. to Mexico and back.

“Just say, ‘I’m not an anchor baby, I’m someone who belongs here,'” he said. “Just like the butterflies you have in your hands, they go all the way to Michoacán then come back all the way to Canada, back and forth. For thousands and thousands of years, we’ve been doing the same thing.”

The 4th Ave. Jail is the focus of Reza’s group not just because of its connection to Arpaio. Law enforcement agencies in Maricopa County largely book their arrestees into 4th Ave., where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents check the immigration status of everyone in custody. If you are undocumented and arrested – even wrongly – you could be transferred to ICE custody for possible removal.

Reza told the children that there are people who don’t care if the police pick up their parents and make it difficult for them to work. Why?

“Because they’re mean, they’re very mean people,” he said.

Don’t lose the aim

Fellow marcher Albert Rivera stood up with Reza to tell the crowd that they must find it in their hearts to conquer any fear they were experiencing, because it was “very important to show resistance to the Trump administration.”

Back at Grant Park, members of the nonprofit human rights group Tonatierra performed indigenous dances and a children’s band played Mexican and American tunes. Raffles were held for a skateboard and two bikes. Kids got their faces painted and ate pizza and tacos while clowns entertained them.

One man at the event, a 30-something computer programmer who asked that his name not be disclosed, told Phoenix New Times that he is protected from deportation by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which gives semi-legal status to immigrants who were brought into the country illegally as children. Despite that, he’s walking on eggshells due to the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant actions and willingness to target green card holders over their political views.

“I’m afraid of getting randomly picked up and getting sent to El Salvador,” he said, a reference to the immigrants who have been deported to that country’s inhumane Terrorism Confinement Center.

As a result, he’s deleted all his social media accounts, fearing that they could be used to deport him. He’s also reduced the time he walks or drives a car, though he has a legally obtained Arizona driver’s license.

“Right now, it seems like any little interaction or encounter with the police can lead to your deportation,” he said.

Eventually, adults hoisted the Trump piñata. Children lined up to smack it around to the words of the traditional piñata song, “Dale, dale, dale, No pierdas el tino,” which translates to “Hit it, hit it, hit it! Don’t lose the aim.”

Several children got their licks in before the Donald’s head erupted into an avalanche of candy.

When Arpaio was in power, activists would similarly allow kids (and adults) to pummel Sheriff Joe piñatas to the derision of local commentators, who complained that they were advocating violence. Playing devil’s advocate, New Times asked, was Reza’s group teaching children violence with the Trump and Musk piñatas?

“No,” Reza scoffed. “We’re teaching them to defend themselves.”