While parts of Twitter are slamming Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke for doing a Wednesday Facebook Live recording of his haircut at Chema’s Barber Shop in El Paso, we just want to take a moment and acknowledge who the video’s real star is.
It’s Manuel, O’Rourke’s barber.
Near the beginning of the video, O’Rourke asks Manuel about his personal story, and Manuel shares it with grace and dignity, as if he is trying really hard to not let his friend down. In Spanish, by the way (O’Rourke later translates it). At one point, Manuel adds that he was grateful for what El Paso has given to him as a business owner. Near the end of the video, Manuel asks O’Rourke to do a video greeting for his grandchildren. The candidate agrees. It was a pretty tender moment.
Anyway, we understand that there will be cynics about what O’Rourke did, but if he didn’t do the video, we would have never gotten to know more about Manuel and the customer who considers Manuel like a son and says “Bendiciones” as O’Rourke is about to leave. (We will also take the visit by a guy named “Robert.”)
Political campaigns aside, just take a minute and get to know Manuel. Because to be honest with you, this country needs to know more about people like Manuel.
https://www.facebook.com/betoorourke/videos/670671816719604/
As for those who think O’Rourke is just pandering in this video, he’s a politician. What a shock.
More of Manuel please.
And as for Twitter?
We will end with this tweet:
I see Politics Media Twitter is here to pile and snark on Beto for “live-streaming his haircut,” and not mentioning that he’s interviewing the barber about his experience as an immigrant or as a business owner. Great use of the medium, all!
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) May 15, 2019
