Gabriela Wiener: "Trump's anti-immigrant policies are a refresher of fascism."

Peruvian writer and journalist Gabriela Wiener criticizes the "dehumanizing" and "anti-immigrant" policies championed by figures such as U.S. President Donald Trump and allied leaders , a view she considers a "refreshment of traditional fascism" and wants it to reach "more and more places."
"For certain groups, for large communities of people, there has always been Trump, there have always been systems and governments that have taken away all possibility of free movement, of access, and that have put up walls and borders against this, and we see it every day," Wiener says in an interview.
For the Peruvian writer, these policies attacking so-called minority communities are due to the fact that "they are dangerous to their power and hegemony."
" They want us out, they direct all their hatred at us , and we are seeing it in its most complete and perfectly achieved stage in the extermination being carried out in Gaza by the State of Israel," he notes.
It's not just a matter for the United States or the situation in Palestine. Wiener, a resident of Spain since 2003, points out that the law that should regularize the situation of half a million migrants is still awaiting approval in this country, something that hasn't been achieved even under progressive governments.
"Immigration laws are something on which the left, right, and extremists still agree too much," he laments.
Peruvian writer Gabriela Wiener. Photo: Amir Hamja/The New York Times / NYT
In this regard, he calls for the public to "raise its voice" against the "dehumanization of people," and for writers to do so "not only in their books, but also to actively participate in public debate."
"The word is a political tool," he asserts, so "against these horrors, we must continue writing and creating possible worlds."
A finalist for the International Booker Prize with her autobiographical novel Huaco retrato (2021), the Peruvian writer also believes that "there is a defense of this type of fictional writing as a way of recovering historical violence and erasures of other perspectives and voices in history with a small letter."
Peruvian writer Gabriela Wiener. Photo: Amir Hamja/The New York Times / NYT
Wiener introduced the authors who will be part of Yegua de Troya, a "quite independent and combative" publishing sub-label that she will lead for two years and whose name has changed (it was originally called Caballo de Troya).
Wiener's proposal was born with " a catalog of only migrant, brown, black, Latin American, South American, and Southern authors " to "counterattack this historical issue that has placed these dissidents somewhat on the periphery of the book world."
Clarin