Mexican flag
Reyna, from Chiapas, Mexico, but now a Canadian and living in Port Moody, outside of Vancouver, did not work on the site but had friends who did. Up atop the hotel he first has the camera look about the top of the building as he makes comments about the beauty of the Vancouver skyline.
The camera then comes upon the flag.
“What is that? It’s a Mexican flag. Why is that?” he asks. “Because it’s Mexicans that built this tower, from the dry wall to the concrete finish to the steel framing, to the cleaning.
“This building is standing here today, thanks to us.”
He told the Vancouver Sun that not only did Mexican-Canadians help build the hotel, but so did many Muslim-Canadians and “immigrants as a whole.” Planting the flag and posting the video, he said, is a response to Trump’s statements denigrating women, Mexicans and others groups.
“I was a bit hesitant,” Reyna told Sun reporter Joanne Lee-Young. “But then I figured, ‘Oh well, I am willing to face the consequences if I can send a message.’ My intention was to show Donald Trump that (Mexican workers) work for him, but he also benefits from us.”
A present for Trump
The hotel is still under construction and Lee-Young reports that Reyna took an elevator to the 20th floor and then had to walk up stairs all the way to the top of the building, 63 floors off the ground.
Commenting on the work-site, he said while it has a very Canadian atmosphere nonetheless Trump’s negative comments hang over the place, as does the Trump name, posted on the hotel in large letters.
“So there’s a little present to Mr. Trump,” he says on the video as he points to the Mexican flag. “So that every time you judge us you can think ‘who is building your towers?’ We are. Thank-you.”
The flag has since been taken down.
