Chuck DarwinThe moment that will stick with me the most
—the video that still gives me chills
—came during an otherwise unremarkable baseball day early in the summer.
It was June 14, and the pop artist #Nezza was getting ready to sing the national anthem at Dodger Stadium.
A week earlier, ICE and DHS agents had descended en masse on Los Angeles work sites,
grabbing immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.
In solidarity, Nezza’s crew informed the Dodgers that she wanted to sing the official Spanish-language version of the anthem,
⭐️“El Pendón Estrellado,”
which had been commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945.
In response, she told me, the team said she had ninety seconds to sing, but didn’t specify what language she had to sing in.
That was the day before she was set to perform. On the day of the performance, a Dodgers employee made clear to her that the team did not want her to sing in Spanish.
“We are going to do the song in English today, so I’m not sure if that wasn’t transferred or if that wasn’t relayed,” the employee said to Nezza.
A video of the exchange, which Nezza postedon Instagram, captured her bright expression immediately dimming as she crossed her arms.
Nezza, whose given name is #Vanessa #Hernández, told me in an interview that immediately after that video was shot,
she cried in the bathroom for 45 minutes.
As she walked onto the field, she saw Latino families cheering her on.
Even seconds before the first note, she hadn’t decided what to do.
She says she felt like God was holding her hand.
She breathed in, and Spanish came out.
According to Nezza, her manager received a phone call from the Dodgers afterwards informing them that Nezza
—and the manager’s other clients
—were no longer welcome at Dodger Stadium.
(The team denied doing so, and a spokesperson told the press that the franchise had “no hard feelings” toward Nezza)
What compelled her to sing in Spanish that day, she explained,
was the simple act of looking out into the crowd and seeing people who, she felt,
needed solidarity.
ICE raids had racked some of their community and upended their lives.
The act of showing up to a baseball game would have normally transported them back to a sense of normalcy.
But even in the most soothing of U.S. sporting events
—where teams compete with no clock,
and fans relax to the rhythms of the game and the comfort of an ice-cold beer
—there was tension.
“I just wanted people to know I was with them.
I wanted people who aren’t Spanish-speaking to see we’re a part of this nation’s history.
We wouldn’t be where we are without us,
we are part of that story,” she said.
“I never meant it as disrespect. . . .
Two things can be true:
You can be a proud American and want better for your country.”
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/defiance-in-a-time-of-cowardice-nezza-national-anthem
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