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The Goya CEO’s Support For Trump Highlights The Power Of Colonialism In The Food World

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Andy Unanue’s support of Trump should not come as a surprise and highlights the continued power of colonialism on our food scene.
The international food conglomerate Goya is dead to a lot of people on social media right now — #BoycottGoya has been trending since yesterday afternoon. Important voices in food are speaking up. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is cracking jokes about prepping her own adobo seasoning (have at it, it’s easy!). And, in the final stage of the cycle, the counterprotesters have started a hashtag of their own.
What’s all the drama about, you ask?
At the signing of the White House Hispanic Prosperity Initiative, the head of Goya, Bob Unanue, praised Donald Trump in a press conference on the White House lawn, saying, “We’re all truly blessed to have a leader like President Trump.” People began calling for the boycott shortly after the words escaped his mouth — naturally connecting Trump’s aggressive actions toward Mexican and Central American immigrants and his continued disdain for Puerto Rico with the fact that Goya sells food marketed directly to those communities.
Prominent figures in the food world spoke up.
FUUUUUUUCK. A shame. Don’t care how good the beans taste though. Bye bye. https://t.co/xV7U0UO8CY
chrissy teigen (@chrissyteigen) July 10, 2020
As did former presidential hopeful Julian Castro.
.@GoyaFoods has been a staple of so many Latino households for generations.
Now their CEO, Bob Unanue, is praising a president who villainizes and maliciously attacks Latinos for political gain. Americans should think twice before buying their products. #Goyawayhttps://t.co/lZDQlK6TcU
— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) July 9, 2020
Naturally, that was counterbalanced by calls to buy Goya products from the right. And there were plenty of “well, actually” tweets pointing to Goya’s thousands of employees and its charitable history. (It should also be noted that the brand had a similarly positive relationship with the Obama administration.) A more productive branch of the conversation noted that you can buy these types of products from small-time and local operators instead of huge multi-national corps.
From that inciting incident and subsequent spin-out sprung plenty of questions. Should we all be boycotting Goya? Is there a company less aligned with aggressive actions against immigrants to buy these products from? Do Twitter boycotts actually work?
These are all valid angles to explore and we’ll get to them, but first a more pressing question: Does this surprise you? Because it probably shouldn’t. Not if you understand how colonization has shaped the North/ Central/ South American and Caribbean foodways. Not if you’re willing to look at the situation within a broader context of how mainstream food is produced and who profits from it.
Goya is a Spanish-American company. (You know Spain, right? The conquistadors?) And in that same spirit, the brand highjacked Indigenous American foods for colonial profits.

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