Vanessa Hernández, also known as Nezza on social media, explained why she went against the Los Angeles Dodgers’ request to sing the U.S. national anthem in English before Saturday’s home game against the San Francisco Giants.
In a pair of videos posted on her TikTok account, Nezza revealed that she was told by a Dodgers employee to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in English before stepping onto the field.
The first video shows an unidentified Dodgers employee asking Hernández, wearing a shirt that reads “Rep. Dominicana”, to sing the anthem in English. The video then cuts to her singing “El Pendón Estrellado”, the Spanish version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” that was commissioned by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945.
The initial video ends with a caption reading, “so I did it anyway.”
In a follow-up video, an emotional Nezza explained that she sang the Spanish version of the U.S. national anthem to protest against the controversial raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles:
“I didn’t think I would be met with any sort of no, especially because we’re in LA and with everything happening. And I’ve sang the national anthem many times in my life. But today out of all days, I could not. I’m sorry. I just could not believe when she [the Dodgers employee] walked in and told me ‘no.’ But I just felt like I needed to do it para mi gente (for my people).”
“I’m proud of myself for doing that today. Because my parents are immigrants and they’ve been citizens my whole life at this point.”
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Nezza Joins The Protests Against ICE
Since last week, multiple protests have been held across Los Angeles amid a wave of raids by ICE agents. Todd Lyons, the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, claimed last week that ICE has averaged around 1,600 arrests a day.
Other protests against ICE have been held in major cities such as New York, Boston, St. Louis and Chicago. Contrary to widespread misinformation, the vast majority of protests have been peaceful.
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