This past weekend, thousands of Latinx folks gathered at Queen Mary Park in Long Beach, California, for the second annual Tropicália Music and Taco Festival. Likened to a Latinx Coachella by some attendees, Tropicália was put on this year by that California mega-fest’s own promoter, Goldenvoice, but did not abandon its original spirit. The lineup featured cumbia legends like Los Ángeles Azules and La Sonora Dinamita right alongside newly beloved bilingual favorites Chicano Batman, Kali Uchis, and Cardi B (who was replaced by SZA at the last minute, due to illness). Peppered in were indie-rock darlings like Mac DeMarco, Toro y Moi, and Mazzy Star.

And then there was Morrissey.

While the Smiths singer may not be Chicano, many attendees I spoke with at Tropicália agreed: Morrissey is loved dearly by the Mexican-American community and he knows it. This is especially true in Los Angeles, where the city council declared November 10th “Morrissey Day” last year. “Estoy en casa!” (“I’m home”), Moz shouted during his headlining set on Saturday. In one especially cringe-y moment, he name-dropped L.A. county neighborhoods Alhambra and South Pasadena in a painfully anglicized Spanish accent.

Sociologists have tried to explain exactly how the Smiths became so popular among Mexican-Americans. While there’s no definitive cause, Morrissey’s place in the Mexican community likely has something to do with the importance of rock music among pachucos and greasers assimilating to American life in the 1950s. One leading theory also links the heartbreak and dramatic emotionality in Morrissey’s work and singing voice to that of the lost-love songs in the Mexican Ranchera tradition. On more than one occasion, the fans I talked to called Morrissey “the British Chente,” referring to Vicente Fernández, the King of Ranchera who has been known to make drunk macho men cry on occasion.

What’s most confounding about Morrissey’s stalwart popularity among the Mexican-American community is not that he’s British—it’s that he’s anti-immigrant.

Even though his own parents were Irish Catholic transplants to Manchester and his most devoted fan base is comprised of immigrants or descendants of immigrants, Morrissey has repeatedly criticized multiculturalism and refugees in Europe and the UK. In a 2007 op-ed for The Guardian, he said he abhors racism and oppression of any kind, and yet, he’s espoused racist and nationalist rhetoric nonstop in recent years. He referred to Chinese people as a subspecies. He called Berlin the “rape capital” and said it was due to Germany’s open border policies. This year, he declared his support of For Britain, a far-right, Islamophobic political party in the UK, and then responded to the subsequent outcry by saying, “As far as racism goes, the modern Loony Left seem to forget that Hitler was Left wing.” Of course, in the same interview he called Halal certifiers supporters of ISIS.

An artist who loves his Mexican fans so much can’t possibly be racist, right? Morrissey has spoken on many occasions about his Mexican fans. He has released a song called “Mexico” and, um, complimented Mexican people: “I really like Mexican people. I find them so terribly nice. And they have fantastic hair, and fantastic skin, and usually really good teeth.”

On the official Tropicália poster, top-billed acts were featured as characters in the popular Mexican card game Lotería. Morrissey was portrayed as El Valiente (“The Brave Man”), but perhaps it would have been more fitting for him to take on the likeness of El Borracho (“The Drunk”): At this point, the Mexican-American community has put up with his outlandish comments the way one might a drunk uncle who won’t shut up at the dinner table. You love him, but he just won’t stop saying terrible things.