In many ways, Fennville, Michigan, represents the changing face of rural America. The small coffee shop, antique mall and mechanic in its quaint, four-block downtown are neighbors with a tortilla factory and Mexican supermarket. A mix of Hispanic and white people went about their business on a recent afternoon.

Just outside of town, several churches offer service in Spanish. The community center has soccer fields to go with its basketball courts. The school district developed a program to accommodate the children of hundreds of Mexican migrant workers who earn their keep in the corn, soybean and blueberry fields surrounding Fennville.

It’s a picture of integration that’s essential to America’s agricultural industry, but Fennville’s story also includes a darker part of the larger narrative.

The seemingly benign appointment of Morgan Bolles to the Fennville city commission in December exploded in controversy when days later it was revealed the 32-year-old is part of the Proud Boys, a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group whose nationalistic members have pushed anti-immigrant views.

Bolles didn’t disclose his affiliation with the Proud Boys ahead of the appointment, and Fennville’s commissioners say they were duped. In the intense and emotional discussion that followed, a picture of a racially divided town emerged. Many view Bolles’s presence as a stain on the Hispanic-majority city of about 1,800 in western Michigan. Many others support him.

Fennville’s Hispanic residents account for about 51% of the city’s population, and they are left to figure out how to respond to having a Proud Boy on the governing body. Those who spoke with the Guardian, however, say they are not afraid or angry. They are vigilant and watching, and they are also unsurprised.

“Racism is part of America – it’s just who we are,” said Sergio Reyes, a Fennville resident who moved to the US from Mexico about 40 years ago and describes himself as “American to the bone”.

“What’s good is that we know him, this is all out in the open, and you got people like myself who are willing to speak up on the problem,” Reyes added. “If he does something racist in the open, now we can deal with it.”

Several Hispanic employees of a Fennville business who declined to give their name echoed that sentiment.

“That’s America,” one said. Another added that they were not particularly concerned as long as Bolles (pronounced “bowls”) wasn’t pushing his views on the commission. “We just have to keep working and making a better life and not let it affect us.”

Fennville’s Hispanic population grew in recent decades as migrants arrived for jobs in nearby fields, as well as those at a large facility owned by the food processing giant ConAgra. The strength in numbers is also reassuring, said another Hispanic Fennville resident who declined to give her name.

“It’s a dangerous group, it’s a racist group, so of course some people are upset. But what can we do at this point? There’s many of us, and now we know he’s there and we watch,” she added.

The Proud Boys are widely regarded as a racist, misogynistic, anti-liberal organization that has a “tactical defense arm” to engage in violence with its perceived enemies. Though it claims not to be racist or aligned with the alt-right and other white supremacist organizations, some of its members and leadership are openly Islamophobic, anti-immigrant and antisemitic.

Bolles declined multiple requests for an interview with the Guardian, though his social media posts appear to convey his feelings towards minorities and LGTBQ+ people. One shows Bolles flashing the “OK” symbol with his hand, which is a gesture used to convey support for white supremacy. Another shows Bolles in a T-shirt with a picture of a limp-wristed Che Guevara above the words “Socialism Is For F-gs”. When a Detroit News reporter previously asked about the shirt, Bolles said it meant “Figs”.

His affiliation with the Proud Boys only came to light after a group called Vigilant Anti-Fascist Action posted photos outing him. Fennville’s city commissioner, Jim Hayden, said he “felt terrible” when he learned of Bolles’s membership . He and other commissioners said they were deceived by Bolles, who didn’t mention the Proud Boys affiliation in interviews or his application.

Bolles has previously said he didn’t offer the information because no one asked.

“It’s just childish to say ‘Nobody asked me’,” Hayden said. “If you have honor, dignity, respect and care about the job, then you tell the people interviewing you ‘I’ve got some things to tell you about’.”

Bolles isn’t alone in his political ambitions on the far right. Though there’s no clear data available on how many far-right extremists are running for local offices around the country, anecdotal evidence suggests more are doing so, said Cassie Miller, a research analyst with the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Leaked chats from the white nationalist group White Evropa showed the group’s leadership urging its members to infiltrate the GOP and run for local office, and at least eight white nationalists ran for state office in 2018.

Another was appointed precinct captain for the Republican party in Washington, while Matt Shea, a Washington state representative, has said that males who support abortion and same-sex marriage should be killed. He was later found to be planning surveillance of and violence against perceived political enemies on the left, and has been labeled a domestic terrorist in a report by independent investigators commissioned by the Washington legislature.

“Anecdotally, we’re seeing more extremist candidates running for office who are galvanized by Trump’s rhetoric and use his model – if you vilify immigrants and Muslims, that will rile up people and get them to vote, so we’re seeing more people parroting him,” Miller said. “The model of the organized right has been to get people in at the local level and move up the ranks.”

Fennville’s city charter and state law doesn’t offer any remedy except a recall, and that process can’t be started for a year. Bolles’s appointment is for two years, so it’s likely that he will serve the term and voters can decide his fate in November 2021, Hayden said.

It’s also unclear that a recall would be successful. Many citizens on social media and in public meetings expressed a “give him a chance” attitude. Reyes said that was “problematic” and questioned if those residents would feel the same if a Latin Kings gang member were appointed to the commission.

In the meantime, Bolles is helping make decisions about the minutiae that are part of running a small town. Fennville will soon need to replace its aerator, and it’s considering selling a city-owned building to a medical marijuana company. At a recent meeting, Bolles suggested the city consider live-streaming commission meetings as a measure to promote open government.

Though Fennville’s Latino population isn’t regularly politically active, it can be mobilized when there’s an issue that affects it, and Bolles is one of those, Reyes said. He expects that Fennville will “get him out” of office in 2021.

If there’s a silver lining to the controversy, it’s that residents have gotten to know each other as they discuss it, Reyes said, and that’s “the only way that racism goes away”.

“It’s gotten people together because we don’t want that in our town, we have to live with each other, and we have to learn that we aren’t bad people, “ he said.