Former Rep Mayra Flores Called Out for Claiming Others’ Mexican Food Pics as Her Own
Well, it seems like January just started with a scandal that was not on our 2024 bingo card.
It seems like former United States Representative Mayra Flores, the first Mexican-born Congresswoman, just got herself in a peculiar situation. Relatively tame where political scandals are concerned— albeit hilarious — accusers say that Flores has been stealing internet photos of Mexican food for years. Why? To post it on her social media as if she cooked the food herself, once captioning a photo with, “As a proud Latina who knows how to cook, homemade Mexican food tastes better on a gas stove.”
One question. Why?!
As reported by The Texas Tribune, many of the photos that Flores posts on social media do not belong to her. For example, she posted her now-iconic 2023 “proud Latina who knows how to cook” caption alongside an Instagram photo of a few eggs and tortillas. One slight detail? As per Current Revolt, that same photo was first posted two years before by the Facebook account Izabal Magazine.
Strangely enough, there are many more examples where that came from.
Flores has allegely passed off several “stolen” photos of Mexican food as her own cooking
It is not surprising that many social media users are now asking Flores for “any explanation” about the allegedly-stolen photos.
This week, one X user noted that the Republican politician posted a social media photo of what she called “gorditas de masa” (sort of debatable). The big issue, though? That same picture seems to have been first posted by the Facebook page “Visit Guyana” back in 2022. While the page credited a photographer named Gwen Phillips, it seems like Flores may have gone the good ol’ copy-paste route. And no, they don’t seem to actually be gorditas de masa.
The X user behind the accusation wrote that Flores is “trying to convince people that she’s living the high life and making dinner over an open fire at the ranch.”
“Only problem is: this picture was stolen from a Guyanese Facebook page,” they added.
Some X users are attesting to spitting out their coffee at the pictures — while also questioning why Flores seems to have “been faking her humble Mexican food photos for years.” Really, though… why?
Other screenshots (gotta love the internet) show that the former U.S. representative also posted a photo of tortillas on a ranch in 2022. Captioning it, “I love the Rancho life surrounded by my beautiful family,” it seems like the Facebook page “Comida de Rancho” first uploaded it in 2019.
Flores’ response? As per The Texas Tribune, the current House candidate stated that it was not her “intention to mislead.” She explained, “The photo simply reminded me of my upbringing in Mexico and childhood… I deleted the tweet to clear up any confusion.”
Still, many social media users are responding to the situation on X, with some comparing her to former U.S. Representative George Santos. As you might know, Santos was expelled by Congress on fraud-related charges… and has probably lied a lot:
Other X users are simply calling Flores’ debacle “funny,” while quipping that it might make her a “grifter”:
Meanwhile, the former GOP Congresswoman has kept quite mum about the situation on social media. One thing she did post yesterday, though? A video of people allegedly on their way to cross the Mexican border over to the U.S. She wrote, “Yet Democrats are focused on cooking pictures I posted that reminded me of my [upbringing]. I can’t with so much pettiness.”
