New Zealand’s first Latin American MP has had a controversial start: he’s been labelled “disrespectful” for his attitude to senior citizens, called out the government for hypocrisy over the country’s “100% Pure” marketing campaign, and upset monarchists with a chihuahua meme about having to swear allegiance to the Queen.
Ricardo Menéndez March, who describes himself as a “proud socialist, transgressive queer”, is one of three new Green party MPs in parliament after a huge swing to the left in October’s general election.
The Mexican-born former cinema projectionist spoke out against inequality and the treatment of immigrants in his maiden speech, saying “the rules are simply not made for us”.
“They were made to uphold a system where the wealthy few keep getting richer at the expense of the planet and this House is enabling it,” he says.
Menéndez March came to New Zealand as a student to study psychology but with costs at $20,000 a year couldn’t afford to continue. He dropped out in 2010, broke, unemployed, and grieving the suicide of his mother. “I only got through that part of my life because of the radical love and collective care others showed me,” he says.
After years spent as a minimum-wage worker in the hospitality sector, plus a period as a projectionist before automation took that job away, he became an advocate for migrants and low-wage workers. His move into politics began when he appeared as an extra in a Green party advert for the 2014 election.
Being elected to parliament after years calling out the government for the low level of benefits and the failure to build enough public housing was “a bit surreal”, he tells the Guardian. So, initially, was the heat that came from speaking his mind.
His use of the term “Boomers” in a tweet – “As the senior citizens [shadow] portfolio holder I’m ready to ask ‘are you OK, Boomer’?” – was regarded by some as disrespectful.
As the senior citizens portfolio holder I’m ready to ask “are you ok, boomer”?
Hardship grants for senior citizens have increased over the past few years, with growing inequities for our migrant, Pasifika and Māori senior citizens. Everybody deserves to grow old with dignity
— Ricardo Menéndez (@RMarchNZ) November 23, 2020
The post also said: “Hardship grants for senior citizens have increased over the past few years, with growing inequities for our migrant, Pasifika and Māori senior citizens.”
In October, Menéndez March, 32, admits being taken aback by the vitriolic response to his post of a sour-faced chihuahua with the comment, “mfw [my face when] they show me affirmation of allegiance to the queen.” The affirmation is taken by all MPs.
He sees it as xenophobic. “It was [as though] I shouldn’t hold a view because of my migrant status, that I should integrate into the most normative side of our society instead of allowing myself to be transgressive and also support sovereignty movements.”
The Green MP set out his mission to represent the less fortunate by acknowledging in his parliamentary speech “everybody who has ever had to lie to [welfare agency] Work and Income to survive”.
For some MPs, discussions about low wages, public housing, benefit levels and the rights of migrants is “abstract stuff”, he says, while for many, it’s far from theoretical.
“We fight for overhauling the welfare system because we know what it is like to be sitting for hours at Work and Income, having every single receipt scrutinised in order to get a measly food grant, while corporates easily accessed millions of dollars of subsidies during the pandemic.
“When I first came a few years ago to my role at Auckland Action Against Poverty, I had very little knowledge of the Social Security Act but I knew the feeling of shame when I reached out to others and admitted that I didn’t have enough to cover my basic expenses.”
For eight years after quitting his studies, he didn’t have the head space for politics. “You think more about how you are going to pay the rent,” he says. Hearing a populist politician scapegoating immigrants for the housing crisis and unemployment during the 2011 election campaign prompted him to tune into New Zealand politics.
“It was personal – to be told that billionaires like [PayPal co-founder] Peter Thiel could, effectively, purchase a residency … because of his wealth, while the rest of us had visa conditions that left us open to exploitation and few legitimate pathways to residency. At the time, I didn’t have the exact words … but I felt both anger and frustration.”
While there is much to admire about his adopted country, it has many blind spots, says Menéndez March, whose spokesperson roles include social development and immigration.
“Aotearoa runs a very slick branding machine, whether it’s through tourism marketing, such as 100% Pure New Zealand … and we do have a reputation of being an egalitarian society, but when we look at the statistics there is entrenched inequality and environmental issues that haven’t been addressed,” he says.
“There’s that cognitive dissonance that even people born here have to face, whether it is around the history you get taught at school, the New Zealand Wars, versus the actual reality.”
