One of the interesting things about Flores is his cultural background. He is the child of Garifuna immigrants from Central America. Their history is fascinating -- way back around 1720 their ancestors survived the wreck of their Spanish slave ship on St. Vincent, killed the Spanish crew, and headed for the hills, where they intermarried with the Carib and Arawak peoples. The Brits steamed in to St Vincent about 20 years later and the Garifuna fought them to a standstill -- they were the first native peoples to force a colonizing power to sign a treaty....Which neither side stuck to, and around 1800 the Brits exiled most of the Garifuna to the shores of Belize, and today they live there and down into Hounduras and Nicaragua. Their native language is a composite of Arawak / Carib, Spanish and English. Most of them share Flores's dark skin tone but genetically they are very native too. Their music is very African-sounding....
In Central America they've played a role something like the Kurds -- a stateless people alternately attacked or used as mercenaries in that region's many wars. (Except in Belize.) New York has the largest colony but there is a substantial one in Houston as well; here, they first came as stowaways via the Ship Channel and settled in the nearby Fifth Ward. A Fifth Ward friend of mine told me they stand out for preferring soccer over basketball; cigars and rum over Newports and beer; and reggaeton over hip hop and R&B.
In more recent years a more middle class contingent of Garifina as arrived in America including a HS buddy of mine who is also a Texas Ex. He came to America at about eight but he keeps his culture alive with his cooking, music (jamming out in his garage with those African sounding drums with friends and family), and frequent trips home. He doesn't speak Garifuna, as his parents were city folk when they came to Houston, but in Belize most of them speak English as either their first or second language. Back in HS we knew he was from Belize but he didn't really talk at all about being Garifuna. That came after we grew up.
About a year ago we had lunch from this food truck in Houston and he told me about all this stuff. I knew only their music:
Point is Flores was raised with a different mindset. He as spoken out against police violence / trigger happiness: "I've lived this," he said, recalling that he'd personally had NYPD cops point weapons at him based on nothing more than suspicion. In the aftermath of George Floyd's murder, he released this statement:
Frankly given that sort of outspokenness I am surprised an organization like the Texans ever considered him at all.