The context here is important. Ed Diehl, the gubernatorial candidate, isn’t a part of the MAGA wing of the GOP, and to the extent possible, he’s tried to keep national politics out of his campaign. He doesn’t even list immigration as an issue on his website. Nevertheless, being a Republican in 2026 means taking a position. Diehl has tried to parse his position as carefully as possible, arguing on the one hand that Oregon should work with the feds on immigration, but not when it concerns “unlawful detention.” Still, working with the Trump administration on immigration at all is an unavoidably committed position.
Xicha, meanwhile, is not just a Latino-owned brewery, but Latino-facing. They routinely post Spanish-language Instagram messages. Their spaces lean into their Mexican heritage, with Mexican-style beer and a Mexican menu. (I can confirm they have tremendous tacos.) It is the most visibly Latino brewery in Oregon, and Salem, the location of their brewery and first pub, is in the center of the Willamette Valley’s rich agricultural fields. Latinos who experience the consequences of Trump’s immigration policies constitute a quarter of Salem’s population.
And here’s the big thing: yesterday was Cinco de Mayo.
There’s no way to read Diehl’s selection of Xicha as anything but a political statement. He wanted to signal that he was pro-Latino, which in politics translates directly to the issue of immigration. Had Xicha allowed the event, which was all about the optics of the time and place, it would have read as an endorsement of a candidate in a party that is currently making it unsafe for the very people who own and work at the brewery. It was never going to be just a random event on a Tuesday in May.
I don’t have a big point here. I’m mainly just bookmarking this event as one of those very 2026 incidents that mark our time. Everything is political now, including tacos.
