Mexican actor Gael García Bernal spoke out against Donald Trump in a recent interview with The Guardian, saying that Trump's "hate discourse" is a precursor to "genocide or civil war."
Bernal, currently promoting his Amazon show Mozart in the Jungle, voiced his frustration over the platform Trump has been given to spew racist opinions directed at Mexicans.
"I mean, he called Mexicans rapists and drug dealers," Bernal told The Guardian, referring back to Trump's comments during his campaign kickoff speech. "How closed-minded and fucking ignorant is that? At first, you don’t listen, but then it reaches a point where you go, okay, now he’s created exactly what he maybe wanted to, which is that people are angry. I’m upset. I’m upset if I listen to anybody talk like that. We started to give Donald Trump so much space, and we started to validate his opinion, as if it’s like, ‘You know, it’s a valid opinion.’ No, it’s not valid."
The actor's remarks recall a November letter signed by various Latino public figures. "Trump’s hate speech appeals to xenophobia, sexism, and political intolerance; it recalls historical campaigns against other ethnic groups that led to millions of deaths," the letter read.
Diego Luna, who co-starred with Bernal in Y Tu Mamá También, is among the signees of the letter, alongside that film's cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki, and Bernal's Amores Perros and Babel director, Alejandro González Iñárritu.
Bernal appeared in the 2014 immigration documentary Who is Dayani Cristal? and made a series of short documentaries in 2010 about the lives of migrants, called The Invisibles, for Amnesty International.
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