Trump wants to erase the tragedy of the Californios. We can't let him

How his administration frames our past is one of its battlefronts

- Voices GUSTAVO ARELLANO COLUMNIST

PRESIDENT Trump is trying to rewrite U.S. history so people of European heritage are always the heroes.

Donald Trump is waging war on California the way Rome did on Carthage.

He ordered the National Guard and the Marines to occupy parts of Los Angeles, over the objections of Gov. Gavin “Newscum” and Mayor Karen Bass. He’s demanding that my alma mater, UCLA, pay a $1-billion fine over allegations of antisemitism. His Justice Department has sued the state on issues including transgender athletes, big-rig emission standards and cage-free eggs.

Now, Trump is going after our history.

Last month, the White House issued a news release titled “President Trump Is Right About the Smithsonian,” flagging a grab bag of museum exhibits as offensive — basically anything that highlights racism or is sympathetic toward LGBTQ+ people and undocumented immigrants.

Buried in this trash heap of whines is a complaint that reflects how hellbent Trump is on bending California to his will.

Describing a “Californio” family as losing their land to Anglo “squatters,” which the yet-to-be-built National Museum of the American Latino does on its website, is apparently a DEI thought crime, according to the news release.

My query to the White House, asking what exactly is so offensive about this characterization of the Mexicans who stayed in California after it became part of the U.S., was acknowledged yet not answered.

But the focus on “Californio” and “squatter” — and putting those words in quotes, as the news release did — suggests the underlying issue, said UC Santa Barbara history professor Miroslava Chavez-Garcia, who specializes in 19th century California.

“They're trying to question the legitimacy” of the Californios, she said. “Who matters as an American? [To Trump], it’s not people who come from Mexico. It’s people who came from the East.”