He’s one of the first syndicated Latino cartoonists in the United States and has collaborated on the award-winning film “Coco,” but Lalo Alcaraz is on a different and very personal quest these days.
The Los Angeles-based political cartoonist said he “never ever” thought he would work with Republicans on “anything,” but 2020 is different.
Alcaraz, 56, recently teamed up with The Lincoln Project, the political action committee formed in 2019 and comprised of Republican strategists who have endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden and are spending millions on campaign ads supporting Biden and other Democrats in congressional races. Alcaraz’s cartoons, which run on the group’s social media sites, include a particularly prescient “Viruses for Trump” illustration depicting the president holding a rally with the virus in several battleground states.
“You know what they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” said Alcaraz, who describes himself as the “perennial anti-Republican Chicano cartoonist.”
“I’ll work with anyone I agree with,” he said. “And I agree that we need to defeat Trump in November.”
As a Mexican American, Alcaraz has taken the president’s rhetoric “very personally,” saying it’s not like anything he’s ever seen before. “When he goes after Latinos, Mexicans, immigrants, I have to keep pushing back on him,” Alcaraz said. “He’s catering to the most racist element out there and we have to push back on that.”
Like other cartoonists examining current events, Alcaraz said, he considers himself a fact-checker of sorts. For example, months ago Trump had touted closing the border because of Mexico’s high number of coronavirus cases, though the U.S. had many more cases.
“So I have to point that out and push back,” he said.
Alcaraz’s most recent illustrations include a commentary on the controversy around the president’s taxes, his performance during the first debate, and the announcement that both Trump and first lady Melania Trump tested positive for the coronavirus.
Source: NBC News
