A group of Coachella Valley students from Cesar Chavez Elementary had planned to put on a performance full of culture and history for people in attendance at the La Quinta Library in September – but were forced to remove all references to Mexico from its Mexican Independence Day performance due to one, yes just one, La Quinta resident, according to the Desert Sun.
Superintendent Edwin Gomez sent a letter to the city of La Quinta detailing the treatment experienced by the elementary pupils. In it, he said the city ordered that the Sept. 15 presentation be changed after a resident complained about showcasing Mexican culture. Maria Hassan, the teacher who organized the performance, was told to remove the Mexican flag as well as references to Hispanic culture from the students’ performance, Gomez wrote in a letter dated Oct. 11.
“I was informed that we could not proceed the way we had planned because they had received word from the city mayor that we couldn’t do anything with the Mexican flag or Mexican culture,” Hassan said in an interview. “I was very emotional, and I had so many students around me.”
The kids were made to perform without displaying the Mexican flag and gave no context to their costumes. According to the newspaper, the class was told that in the future, they would need to sing songs like “It’s a Small World” or “Yankee Doodle” over “Marcha Zacatecana” – and, a reminder here, this was all because of one, yes one, La Quinta resident because, well, I think the hashtag #DoYouEvenLaQuintaBro has never been more applicable?
The city is apparently taking their sweet time in investigating and working on some kind of statement about the incident and, who knows, maybe in the future, the city and the Mayor will show a little backbone and leadership and tell ignorant and obnoxious assholes to STFU and stick it in their Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Read more at the Desert Sun.
Update: The city has responded.
The event at the library was September 15. More than six weeks later the City of La Quinta is still “preparing a statement regarding its investigation of the incident?” I can’t wait to read it. In the meantime, it occurs to me that some of the words in “It’s a Small World” (a Disney song it was suggested the students should sing at future events) are certainly appropriate. “It’s . . . a world of tears. It’s . . . a world of fears.” Sad.
It’s a Mexican Independence day performance, did they not understand that it involved Mexico?!
All the racists feel emboldened by the white nationalist in the White House to come out of their racist closets. This time it is La Quinta mayor, linda Evans, displaying her white nationalist credentials.
How ironic that these children attend CAESAR CHAVEZ elementary school, and are asked to “tone-down” their performance of Mexican Independence day and sing “Yankee doodle dandy” instead. School is a place you are suppose to LEARN about other cultures, countries, religions and their history. Shame on the powers that be for allowing this to happen and setting a terrible example for the children.
Maybe this is the same La Quinta resident that disrupted the Children’s Festival last year screaming about how the 4-5 laborers waiting for a day job were an imminent threat to children.
I’m really surprise Council Members Mike Pena and Steve Sanchez did not speak against the city’s cowardly decision to censor the student’s performance. City of La Quinta has almost a 35% Latino/Hispanic population according to the city’s last census…
Very sad Mayor Linda Evans and fellow Council Members…
The irony that this happened in a city named, “La Quinta” is not lost on me.