Civic Life and Tacos

I’m currently sitting in the jury room of the Multnomah County Courthouse waiting to see if I’ll be selected for jury duty. I’m slightly disgruntled about having to do this for the third time since December 2019, but generally pleased to be able to participate in civic life. Independent judiciaries, which try to provide real justice to all citizens, are the cornerstone of a democracy. Who can feel too disgruntled by that?

While we’re on the topic of civic life, a tiny drama unfolded in Oregon you might find compelling. Here’s the Oregon Capital Chronicle with the lede:

Xicha Brewing owner Maggie Antunez was confused as to why her business was receiving so many negative social media messages about an event scheduled Tuesday evening at her business’s North Salem location.

It developed that two Republicans, including a major GOP candidate for governor, had reserved space at the brewery without telling Xicha it was a political event.

It’s hard to imagine this article being written in 1996—or 2016, to be honest. Breweries have historically been popular locations for political events. Breweries, not wanting to seem partisan, have generally been happy to welcome both parties (with some exceptions, for sure). Yet politics today are so far from neutral that these events produce the kind of attention mentioned above. More from the same article:

“We’ve recently learned that an Oregon representative is promoting an event at our space this evening without our knowledge or approval,” [Xicha’s] post reads. “As Latino-owned businesses rooted in the community, we do not condone the use of our space or Cinco de Mayo for political agendas that do not align with our values.”

The context here is important. Ed Diehl, the gubernatorial candidate, isn’t a part of the MAGA wing of the GOP, and to the extent possible, he’s tried to keep national politics out of his campaign. He doesn’t even list immigration as an issue on his website. Nevertheless, being a Republican in 2026 means taking a position. Diehl has tried to parse his position as carefully as possible, arguing on the one hand that Oregon should work with the feds on immigration, but not when it concerns “unlawful detention.” Still, working with the Trump administration on immigration at all is an unavoidably committed position.

Xicha, meanwhile, is not just a Latino-owned brewery, but Latino-facing. They routinely post Spanish-language Instagram messages. Their spaces lean into their Mexican heritage, with Mexican-style beer and a Mexican menu. (I can confirm they have tremendous tacos.) It is the most visibly Latino brewery in Oregon, and Salem, the location of their brewery and first pub, is in the center of the Willamette Valley’s rich agricultural fields. Latinos who experience the consequences of Trump’s immigration policies constitute a quarter of Salem’s population.

And here’s the big thing: yesterday was Cinco de Mayo.

There’s no way to read Diehl’s selection of Xicha as anything but a political statement. He wanted to signal that he was pro-Latino, which in politics translates directly to the issue of immigration. Had Xicha allowed the event, which was all about the optics of the time and place, it would have read as an endorsement of a candidate in a party that is currently making it unsafe for the very people who own and work at the brewery. It was never going to be just a random event on a Tuesday in May.

I don’t have a big point here. I’m mainly just bookmarking this event as one of those very 2026 incidents that mark our time. Everything is political now, including tacos.