Denise Hernández didn’t mince words in her Oct. 5 commentary criticizing the naming of the Botánica Music Festival, a viewpoint that drew more than a few comments from readers, on the site, and on social media – some in support, some in opposition.
Some readers thanked Rivard Report editors for publishing the opinion piece, while others criticized us.
In a world where too many people only consume media that conforms to their political, cultural, and social viewpoints, we believe it’s important to give readers a range of content that reflects the diversity and, at times, the deep divisions among the many communities that make up our city.
It doesn’t always make for easy reading, but it does make for important reading. Hopefully, it leads to dialogue and a goodwill effort among all sides to respectfully disagree while searching for common ground.
We take pride in being the only local news platform that regularly publishes articles and commentaries submitted by people from all walks of life in the city. Some of the people whose names appear on our site are well-known, while others are not. They all have a place on our home page.
In the same week that we published Hernández, we also published a commentary advocating higher homestead exemptions by City Councilman Clayton Perry (D10). In an ever-sprawling city where geography has defined and deepened economic segregation for decades, Hernández and Perry are very different people. They come from very different backgrounds and they live in two very different worlds. We work to connect those worlds.
That’s why we published both of their submissions. Some of those submissions come to us at the initiative of our readers, while editors often invite individuals with strong viewpoints on a subject of interest to write a commentary. We don’t base our publishing decisions on the individual’s viewpoint. We look for clarity and relevance, and we try to strike a balance between giving freedom to the writer and making sure they respect others with whom they disagree.
We don’t always get it right, but we try.
Some members of the Rivard Report team agree with what Hernández wrote, while others disagree. All of us defend her right to express and publish her views, even if doing so discomforts us or others in the city, including donors and supporters. She certainly started a conversation.
In this instance, Hernandez makes some broad generalizations about the Botánica Music festival organizers, some of whom are major supporters of the Rivard Report. Those individuals are accustomed to being in the public eye and do not need us to defend them. I hope the public conversation over the festival’s name leads everyone to listen a bit more closely to one another. If that happens, people will find they have more in common in their shared love for San Antonio, and desire to see all who live here prosper.
Love or hate the name of Botánica, most of us probably agree this city could use a major music festival that attracts people from all sides of the city and brings in people from elsewhere. San Antonio needs new events that people anticipate with energy and enthusiasm.
Perhaps it’s because I am in Washington, D.C., this week, ground zero for political polarization, posturing, and divisive rhetoric, that I am moved to write this column.
Our society seems to be self-dividing into thinner and thinner slices of self-identification in ways that too often are exclusionary to others. Historical injustices are cited as proof of contemporary guilt. People who spend their time constantly pointing fingers at others are never able to join hands in common cause.
No one needs to apologize for who they are or how they were born. The most productive people, in my experience, are those who find ways to move beyond our respective differences to come together.
When I study people of significant accomplishment, I see a common thread. That thread is one where people have driven themselves, usually through education, sometimes by sheer talent, often by both, to achieve and to create. They seem more inclined to collaborate than to exclude. People who open themselves to future possibilities are the same people who do not allow themselves to be limited by labels affixed by others.
Is Botánica a good name for a music festival in San Antonio? Don’t ask me, but I will say that even as this city is becoming home to more good live music, we need to keep building. I hope the festival turns out to be a success for everyone. And I hope that people from the many communities that make San Antonio a complicated yet beautiful city will be found in the audience, maybe even dancing together.
Right on Robert! We have to continue to work on getting and keeping the right mix for San Antonio, that brings folks together rather than deepening the divisions we see daily at state and national levels. It ain’t easy, but it is also not impossible. I believe that you are on the right track!
Couldn’t have said it better, and couldn’t agree more!
Well said, Bob. Thanks for doing what you do. You and your team make San Antonio a better place.
Your “common thread” paragraph says so much. You hit the nail on the head in that paragraph. Excellent.
Agree. After I left my comment on the article, I felt compelled to submit an extended version of my own take. You beat me to it!
Shared language?Honestly- with so many festivals, art exhibits, etc that have Spanish titles- many of us in San Antonio who do not have Hispanic or Latino roots feel marginalized. Why would anyone go to a festival or other event if they can’t understand the language of the title? I have friends from many countries and cultures and I always enjoy learning about other cultures- historic or present day. But please- an English translation of other language titles would make these events seem more inviting everyone- not just those who speak Spanish. The music festival organizers missed the mark- they should have included a translation and explanation of the significance of the term. Many people do find music “healing”- maybe that’s what they were trying to say.
Hernandez’ article was very interesting and informative- because she wrote it in ENGLISH!
I respectfully disagree. I grew up in and around San Antonio. My goal is to retire there. Why? Because of all the lovely culture, Spanish accents floating around and such pride in the city. I can hardly believe that one would feel “marginalized” by the name of an event because the title isn’t in English. What about an opera that has a title in German? Or an art exhibit named for its content that is of French origin? Fiesta is a Spanish word. Have you ever attended that? Embrace the culture and it will embrace you. Latin culture and its people are among the most warm group of humans I know. Kind regards and consider myself jealous of any residents of San Antonio.
I disagree with you, I was also born and raised in San Antonio and it is too much Hispanic culture, Mexican restaurants on every corner, looks like Mexico and yes I have been to Mexico and it did not look any different then San Antonio. Texas won Independence from Mexico , but yet allow San Antonio to turn into Mexico, the Anglos have no where to go without other culture starring us in the face…I’m so tired of going to a retail store to ask for help and the clerk cannot speak English, this has happened to me in Walmart, HEB. How can anyone get a job and not speak English. But enough said.
Racist much. Maybe you should move to Europe oh wait it’s not American. America is a melting pot ain’t nothing you gonna do about it buddy… your upbringing must have been this sour, maybe you should move to charlotsville. But regardless we will squash people that have your mentality. This nation is a country of immigrates . I Am A Proud American. My family built this country.
This land was part of Mexico with Mexicans already present before you or any other Anglo settlers arrived. That’s the obvious and logical reason everything is in Spanish. No one has to accomodate your bigoted sensibilities by changing the name of everything to English (which is not officially the language of the country), just to avoid triggering racists.
If you want 100% English, demand it in England. Annexation or not, and despite efforts to eradicate Mexicans via extrajudicial massacres for generations, we will continue to bloom in OUR land where were planted and have lived for hundreds of generations. It is you, the latecomer, that must adapt.
He’s just stating the obvious that every Angelo thinks. This town is a one trick Spanish pony that will never get traction in the festival, convention, restaurant, etc business… SA can pretend it didn’t want Amazon but the truth is no company really wants SA. It’s an educational and cultural wasteland that’s limited to a kitschy tourist Riverwalk and not much else.
Mexican Texas was 1821-1836. 15 years. Great claim.
It has been a solid part of this United States of America for over 150 years. Lookie there, that means 10 times longer it has been USA than it ever was Mexico.
Before that it was New Spain for 130 years. That’s the only reason you speak Spanish here. Because of the hegemonic dominating and native enslaving Spanish Empire. Or did you think the natives were Catholic because why? You want to know the real ugly truth of slavery? Check out what the Spanish and the Portuguese did to this part of the world using natives and African slaves. Why do you think everywhere from ‘Colorado’ and south to Chile has Spanish titles…because a rich and diverse culture? No. It was what.? The CONQUISTA
There is nothing wrong with wanting white people to feel included in Texas cultural festivals too as we clearly share in the history of the place. I’m so sorry you have to share this place and it’s history with people who look different than you. Maybe take it up with the Spanish if you really have a problem with it.
These events are about celebrating the culture and diversity of indigenous people, not about placating to people who refuse to learn Spanish , and want to culturally appropriate the words of song to be understood in their language. Discrimination, really, you are part of the dominant language group and you feel discrimination huh? Must be hard for those who speak Spanish only, way harder than life is for you, but of course that did not crops your mind in your ethnocentric pout-fest.
Art Enthusiast can’t be much of an art enthusiast if said person doesn’t understand art doesn’t need translation to be enthused upon. That includes titles. Do your own translation. That is part of learning others’ cultures.
Thank you for defending the honor of your sponsors. We appreciate it.
No bias here.
move along.
Your article is an example of gatekeeping. Using age old platitudes of coming together through the privilege of your platform to back-handedly, and I’m being generous here, unwittingly mock the defense of culture by a woman of color is absolutely biased. You are using your power to undermine a completely legitimate argument to appease your finders. You have influence and you wield it against a consistently disenfranchised demographic. This article is perpetuating the same oppressive behaviors that people are trying to bring to your attention. The fact that you can afford to and choose to ignore them is part of the problem that keeps us divided. Using the bootstrap argument proves that you have no real idea what the majority of this city is actually up against. You are using the standards of success within a system not built for us, to judge our value. Your position is weak and we see right through it.
Exactly. Me. Rivard’s response to Ms. Hernandez’s article does not even engage with her perspective or argument. What a lame excuse for critical dialogue.
We like gentrifying , leave us alone. Cant you see your perspective is hurtful to our corporate existence.
Love
The Bobby Snowflake Report
We love tacos too. We bought the mural to prove it.
love,
Bobby Snowflake.
We can all agree. History doesn’t matter if you have money and control the narrative.
sincerely,
Bobby Snowflake
I generally like your reporting but I wonder how much of Denise’s point is cultural appropriation in general or name of my bar appropriation?
her bar suffers from the same inauthenticness she writes about, albeit by Latinas. Arent west and southsiders confused and offended when they walk into a restaurant with a vegan menu and liquor instead of a hierberia?
The west side and south are still technically in America. Even though it doesn’t feel like it.
Lol, as an Hispanic I think this entitlement to dictate other’s actions for this made up offense of cultural usage is stupid. Even more idiotic is Rivard’s attempt to juxtapose the social justice warrior’s whining with a simple homestead discussion as a very lame attempt in showing both the conservative and liberal viewpoints in San Antonio that have been featured on this leftist site. NO, the Rivard Report is NOT a moderate site and has not hosted any conservative viewpoints, articles or commentary. It is very misleading and a display of the failure of ethics for the site’s namesake to even claim that it attempts to reach across the aisle. Remedy this by hosting conservative voices on the site and by having perspectives from the other half of the spectrum.
Between ARt Enthusiast’s perceived marginalization and poor Bert’s lack of culture-free, all-white spaces, I’ve run out of space in my head for my eyes to roll back any further.
Why do you guys even live here? Seriously, I want to know. I don’t know how old y’all are but I’m 38 and San Antonio has always been the coolest, most colorful melting pot in Texas.
And Juan Martinez, you obviously have a viewpoint and are angry about the lack of conservative voices in local media. Do something about it instead of engaging in the same type of whining you accuse so-called “social justice warriors” of doing.
You are a light in the darkness.I am 75 ,one of the reasons my deceased husband and I moved here almost 40 years ago was the wonderful Hispanic culture and the seemingly respect for all cultures.Since almost everything I have loved has been destroyed by hate and put downs,I have turned off the the tv and I look forward to your column.Since I have been lucky enough to travel to a lot of counties and my love of different cultures ,this was and I hope will stay my wonderful,colorful and loving San Antonio.Ps.Respect and less ego always has worked great or me!
Exactly!