2016 American Renaissance Conference Prominently Features Mexican Anti-Semite | Southern Poverty Law Center

31.3.16

2016 American Renaissance Conference Prominently Features Mexican Anti-Semite | Southern Poverty Law Center - Fernando Cortés' participation at a conference organized by avowed racists who make a living distributing misinformation and spreading fear about people of color and immigrants comes as a surprise, for obvious reasons. Even more surprising is Cortés' presentation at the conference, scheduled in May. Its title? “Massive Mexican Immigration: A Business of Crooks.”

In his short biography on the conference announcement page, Cortés identifies himself as a supporter of Identitarianism, but he has fingers in many elements of the radical right.

In May of 2015, Cortés was the emcee for what was billed as the “First International Identitarian Congress” in Guadalajara, Mexico. The event, in honor of the 100th birthday of Salvador Borrego, a historical revisionist, was a gathering of renowned anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers, including Ernst Zündel, Mark Weber, and David Duke.

Following the Guadalajara event, Cortés appeared on David Duke’s radio program, where he told the former Grand Dragon, “We [Mexican nationalists] understand the attack and the genocide that is trying to be done with the European and white Americans and we are against it. … The people in the United States, they believe that we want massive immigration, that we think it’s a good thing, that we’re taking advantage. We understand perfectly that it erodes the fabric of your society, that it’s toxic for your nation. It’s also toxic for our nation.”

Minutes later, Duke applauded Cortés for his “big role” in the conference before expounding on the real enemy.