Why the Mexican Flag at LA Protests Is a Patriotic Act
As images circulate from the Los Angeles protests—showing young people waving the Mexican flag amid the chaos of federal raids and National Guard crackdowns—commentators on the right have seized the moment to accuse demonstrators of “hating America.” But these critics miss the mark entirely. In fact, the presence of the Mexican flag at these protests doesn’t signal a rejection of the United States—it signals an aspiration that America live up to its promise.
Waving the Mexican flag in this context is an act of civic love, cultural memory, and political courage. It is a vivid reminder that American democracy has always been shaped by immigrants and their descendants. It is a call from those who have long been excluded or criminalized—not to burn the house down, but to belong in it.
From Irish and Italian laborers waving their tricolor flags during the early 20th-century union battles, to Puerto Rican communities proudly displaying their flag during civil rights marches, to Southeast Asian immigrants rallying against deportations with their own cultural symbols—American protest movements have always included, and been strengthened by, the flags of origin. Those flags didn’t dilute American values; they expanded them.
When Mexican-Americans carry their flag into the streets of LA, they are continuing a tradition older than any ICE directive or border wall: the tradition of immigrant communities shaping the definition of freedom on their own terms. Waving a Mexican flag in a U.S. protest says -- This is who I am, and I am part of this country. My people matter. My history matters. And I will not be silent in the face of injustice.
When making these statements to protest injustice we defend the hard-fought freedoms we cherish through a long history of protest from the Boston Tea Party to the Civil Rights Movement. Because one flag, one language, one way of life is not how democracy works; democracy is about freedom not uniformity. And American patriotism is not about pledging blind allegiance—it’s about building a country worth pledging allegiance to.
Flags also tell stories. They are not just symbols of states—they are symbols of survival, memory, and pride. For many Mexican-American protesters, waving their ancestral flag is not just about national identity. It’s about honoring their parents who crossed deserts or washed dishes or picked fruit. It’s about standing up for detained neighbors and deported classmates. It’s about refusing to let their stories be erased.
The U.S. flag proudly displayed alongside the Mexican one in the Los Angelos protests are not in competition. They are in conversation. That conversation is what democracy looks like. A government that uses violence to silence dissent, that detains people without due process, that deploys troops against civilians, and that treats immigration as a crime instead of a cornerstone of our national story is not.
In the face of such threats, the most American thing anyone can do is resist. That resistance may look like a chant, a march, a legal challenge—or yes, a flag.
