Posted on 07/22/2009 8:25:45 PM PDT by hedgetrimmer
I have lived in Watsonville, California a small city for the last 34 years. I have seen it change from a small truly multi-cultural town of Italians, Japanese, Croatians, Serbians, Filipinos, Mexicans and other ethnic groups to a town that is 90% Hispanic. Now we have the gangs, the crime, the collapse of the school district, our hospital went bankrupt and the local real estate market is in the toilet. Our local Strawberry Festival lacked funding to continue this year and an outside promoter came in to keep it functioning for at least another year. Unfortunately it appears that the promoter is of the wrong race. The following is a letter sent to one of the scheduled bands which was scheduled to appear at the festival by a member of the Watsonville City Council.
Here is the letter from Watsonville City Council member Manuel Quintero Bersamin:
Dear Mr. Gonzalez,
MALO is booked to perform at the Monterey Bay Berry Fest in August 1 and 2, 2009.
This Berry Fest that MALO is booked for is not the original Watsonville Strawberry Festival. The original Strawberry Festival was controlled by the City of Watsonville City Council for many years.
The promoter has taken our Strawberry Festival from a Latino city that has a population of low-income immigrant Mexicanos.
The Watsonville City Council is a Latino majority council. Most of us are Chicanos who have supported MALO all of our lives as younger men. Now, as mature men,we are the Latino leaders of the city that we grew up in. We are the sons of Mexican immigrants who came to Watsonville to work in the fields to harvest lettuce, apples and strawberries.
We are proud of our Latino heritage and we are fighting to uplift our Raza. Under our Latino leadership on the city council, this Strawberry Festival was meant to honor our fellow Mexicanos working in the fields.
The promoter of the Berry Fest event that MALO is booked for in August lied to our city by saying he would hold the event within the city limits. We have held this event within our city limits so that the low income Latinos who make up 90 percent of the city’s population could easily walk to and attend the event after a hard days work in the fields. Most of the people in Watsonville are Latino and many of the residents, like myself are children of low-income farmworkers.
The Watsonville Strawberry Festival was founded to honor the product of strawberries. When Latinos gained control of the Festival, we wanted to honor the workers and we decided to make the festival easy to get to here in the city limits.
The Anglo Promoter has decided on his own to move the festival out of town and CHANGE THE NAME to the Monterey Bay Berry Fest and not even mention our city name. It could be that he moved the Strawberry Festival out of Watsonville so in order to gain more non Latinos to attend his festival. Many Anglos in our region will not travel to a festival in Watsonville because sadly, they believe negative stereotypes about Mexicanos. They are more likely to attend a Festival that does not mention Watsonville because they will think of being near Mexicanos. He is calling his new festival, the Monterey Bay Berry Fest.
By moving the Festival out of city limits, the Latinos of Watsonville will lose the one festival that they could call their own city festival. Most of all, our Mexican community will think that our Latino city and community was not considered “good enough” to have our own festival as a people, as Raza.
I know that you did not know about this when you signed the contract but you should know what this promoter has done. You can call me or our Mayor, Antonio Rivas, or Vice Mayor, Luis Alejo, to verify the facts.
Please do not support the taking away of a Festival from a city that is 90 percent Latino and from a community that has always supported you. We deserve the right to maintain our own Watsonville Strawberry Festival to honor the workers who harvest the strawberries.
We want our city to be known for the Watsonville Strawberry Festival and not just the negative stereotypes that non-Latinos have of Latino Cities. We want our youth to be proud of their hometown. This promoter has taken that away from us.
Sincerely, Manuel Qunitero Bersamin City Council, District 1 City of Watsonville mbersamin@ci.watsonville.ca.us Term Expires November 2012
Website for Watsonville City Council http://www.ci.watsonville.ca.us/departments/c...
Welcome to El Conquistador.
Anyone who is not Latino: You do not matter anymore.
At least that’s the tone I get reading this.
La Raza in action.
It is still supposed to be a free country. I suspect the problem isn't the location, but who is going to pay for it and who is going to reap the benefits. It sounds to me like the La Raza crowd only wants to reap the benefits and wants the gringos to just pony up the funds necessary, shut up and be happy with their seat in the back of the bus.
They call it the reconquista. The re concurring. Nice.
heh heh heh...chu anglos jus doan entiende (unnerstand) Mescan cultura......./wise-a**
I drove through Watsonville a couple of years ago. It was strange, no white people at all in the streets.
Scary, horrifying, we grew up going to the various festivals around there. So sorry to hear this report.
He complains about stereotyping Latinos, but then he stereotypes Latinos. Go figure?
Given the rates of foreclosure in your part of the country, you’ll be lucky if there are enough US Citizens left to keep Mexico from just taking Kally-Fornea back.
So much for supporting your Raza...
OK, we need a majority white town to do something along these lines and then show the media this letter and ask them to go to Watsonville and investigate that matter first.
The local television, radio and print media have picked up on this story. I as a person of Caucasian persuasion I would not feel comfortable doing business in the City of Watsonville. T thing the local chamber of commerce should tell the councilman to please STFU!
you’d be hard’pressed to find one in California south of Nevada City - we’ve been reconquista’d, gangified and LaRaza’d over the last 20 years while the rest of the nation was waiting for us to slide into the ocean.
Let me retype that. I think the local chamber of commerce should tell the councilman to STFU!
How long before city hacienda is flying the Mexican flag instead of thr US flag?
and they're complaining that another town has a stawberry festival now?
I would hope not... don't they have adobe buildings at least?
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