La Raza’s Monica
Lozano
The nation’s largest Hispanic
group, the Washington, D.C.-based National Council of La
Raza, has decided to pull its 2009 annual conference from Kansas
City, Mo., because Mayor Mark Funkhouser appointed a member of the
controversial Minuteman Civil Defense Corps to the city’s parks
board.
At press time, the Baltimore-based
National Association for the Advance-ment of Colored People was
considering whether to pull its 2010 national convention from the
city as well, in a show of support for La Raza.
Losing the two conventions, which
combined have a estimated economic impact of $15 million, would be
a blow to the city, which has invested more than $4.5 billion in
economic development over several years to position itself as a
major meetings destination. For its part, La Raza stands to owe the
city as much as $70,000 for failing to meet its contracted hotel
room block.
“It is unfortunate that this dispute,
which is really part of a larger, national impasse, is playing out
here in Kansas City,” said Richard Hughes, president and CEO of the
Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association. “We are talking
about the appointment of a 72-year-old, rose-growing grandmother to
a five-seat parks commission.”
The grandmother in question is Frances
Semler, a member of the MCDC, which opposes illegal immigration.
The NAACP’s national board vice chairperson, Roslyn M. Brock, said
her organization was “deeply concerned” about Semler’s appointment
and charged that the MCDC “has a disturbing reputation of
threatening and working to intimidate” Hispanics.
“Our decision is a clear expression of
support for Kansas City’s Hispanic community,” said La Raza board
chair Monica Lozano in a statement. “An active member of the MCDC
should not be an official representative for a city that purports
to believe in diversity.”
Al Garza, national executive director
of the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based MCDC, said he was “appalled that [La
Raza] would use the race card” against an organization “fighting
for the rule of law and national security,” adding, “Our reputation
speaks for itself.”
Mayor Funkhouser told the Kansas
City Star that he was “disappointed” in La Raza’s move but
held that Semler “has the right of freedom of association and
freedom of speech. I don’t think her belonging to the Minutemen
impacts her work on the parks board.”
The ongoing controversy, said Hughes,
casts a twisted view on Kansas City and undermines its
achievements, including the fact that group bookings for the first
half of this year are up 70 percent over 2006.
A spokesperson for La Raza said the
group has contacted some potential alternate cities for its
conclave, expected to draw up to 20,000 attendees, and will make a
decision by the end of this month.