Esperanza v. City of San Antonio: Politics, Power, and Culture

Esperanza has organized hundreds of programs, platicas (community discussions), classes, and activities that have explored complex issues and enlarged understanding of diverse cultures and histories. The organization has been active in women's reproductive choice, human rights, and the rights of Spanish-speaking workers. Esperanza has organized antiwar protests, low-cost housing actions, and demonstrations against the Klu Klux Klan. Esperanza has presented the work of hundreds of artists and cultural workers, particularly those who have been ignored or silenced in mainstream arenas. Individually, the women and men of Esperanza have done the work at home. They have talked, challenged, and learned with their own families and with neighborhood friends. With great courage, they have strived to live the changes they advocate and to empower the people they love.

Throughout its history, Esperanza has worked hard to maintain a cooperative relationship with city government, recognizing that city officials are not the source of oppression against the people of San Antonio, although they have often been the agents of oppression. Yet, in 1994 and thereafter, as Esperanza articulated and organized in favor of genuine cultural diversity, this work threatened the deep entanglement of the city with the tourist and development industries.

Emboldened by the success of the anti-affirmative action movement, some-both in and out of city government-decried Esperanza for raising issues of race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality in connection with public funding. Esperanza and its leadership, particularly Graciela Sanchez (Esperanza's longtime executive director), Gloria Ramirez (current chair of the board of directors and longtime editor of the newsjournal La Voz de Esperanza), and Michael Marinez, (activist artist and longtime Esperanza volunteer), were demonized by the news media and hounded by anonymous threats.13

Howard Peak, who had been a new city council member during the 1994 DACA controversy, was elected mayor in 1997. Peak, trained as an urban planner and closely tied to San Antonio builders and developers, believed that city officials must promote the city's tourist and development industries. He also felt that cultural diversity could advance these goals, but only in its "feel good" form. Toward this end, Peak sought to silence and isolate Esperanza as the principal voice for cultural rights. As we discovered later in litigation, it was Peak who guided the defunding of Esperanza. Peak encouraged the involvement of right-wing organizers by personally appearing on conservative radio talk shows, garnered support for the defunding from a network of conservative white gay men, and secured the unanimous agreement of the city council in a closed meeting at City Hall late in the evening before the defunding vote.14 Throughout, Peak's position was that Esperanza's social justice programming and its vision of cultural diversity were political, that art is not political, and therefore Esperanza did not qualify for "arts" funding.