Everybody against the citrus-faced guy!

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I had planted a herb called rue next to my orange tree, and all of the sudden I noticed caterpillars, different from the ones in the milkweed or tomato plants, hanging around the herb and the tree. I blamed them for the funny looking oranges that the tree had yielded this year, but before putting them in the compost I took them to the arboretum to be examined by their nursery volunteers.

It turn out that they are swallowtail caterpillars, they like citrus and the rue is one of their preferred host plants.  Now the monarchs share the garden with them. The swallowtail are beautiful butterflies, even if they may be responsible for making some of my oranges looking like weird human faces.

Today I read an article of a sports commentator about the influence of the “citrus-faced” man in some athletes, and this term called my attention. I thought about my oranges, which were as sweet as ever in spite of their shape. However reading about the citrus guy in the sports story left me with a bitter taste.

In a school in Iowa, Latino players were targeted with chants invoking the name and messages of Donald Trump.

Trump’s considerable popularity and his inflammatory rhetoric, widely denounced as racist, have exacerbated the divisions and anger being expressed in this presidential election . It has also presented the challenge how to correctly characterize his appeal, in order to establish a dialogue with his supporters to find civil solutions.

Trump Pinata

Is he really a racist even though some African Americans and Hispanics are supporting him?

Is he a neo-fascist when he is reinforcing anti-other people stereotypes, proposing violent solutions such as massive deportations, attracting hate groups like the KKK and other White Supremacist ones, using a Nazi like salute as a pledge to vote for him?

Or is he just an authoritarian figure embodying the frustrations or the hidden authoritarianism/fear of social change of many people? His appeal as a strongman to some of his supporters is such , that they openly or subconsciously  make reference to Hitler’s Germany in positive terms.

I continue tending to my butterflies, in special the monarchs which fly across borders, going back and forth from Mexico. In the meantime, I stockpile chisels and hammers to poke holes in Trump’s wall. Most importantly I have joined the many who oppose the divisive bitter cara de naranja.

butterfly preferred ricardo


About Ricardo Toro

Anaheim resident for several decades. In addition to political blogging, another area of interest is providing habitats for the Monarch butterfly. http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2013/12/caterpillars-crossing-in-a-city-at-a-crossroads/