Esperanza Peace & Justice Center

a n d p u b l i c f u n d i n g

Top 10 "Reasons" Given for why
the San Antonio City Council Eliminated the
Esperanza Center from Public Funding:

On September 11, 1997, the San Antonio City Council voted in one unanimous vote to pass the San Antonio FY 97-98 budget as orginially proposed with a several-page list of changes. Those changes included an across-the-board 15% reduction of funding for arts organizations, and the complete elimination of funding to the Esperanza Center and two organizations we sponsor, the San Antonio Lesbian Gay Media Project and VAN. No public debate was held on this matter, no official reasons were given. The decision was made in backroom, closed meetings without public accountability. The Mayor, several members of the Council and other people who were involved made comments to the press, however, "explaining" the Council's decision. Here we have listed our "top ten":

# 10	"This was a victory that the Almighty had to have given us. We're just His instruments in this." -- Jack Finger (San Antonio Current, Nov 6-12, 1997)
# 9	"What they [homosexuals] are doing is both unlawful, unhealthful, and more important than that, it is an abomination to God." -- Jack DeVault (Speaking before City Council, Sept 11, 1997)
# 8	The department [of Arts and Cultural Affairs] also gives money to the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, whose sponsorship of a gay and lesbian film festival helped provoke the financing dispute. "I don't have a problem if they promote that," said Robert Marbut, a city councilman leading the fight against public arts financing. "But that doesn't mean taxpayers have to pay for it." (The New York Times, September 11, 1997)
# 7	"[Esperanza isn't] enough of an arts organization. I think they're as much a lifestyle and political (organization) as much as anything else. That doesn't bother me, what they really are. It's just whether they qualify for arts funding." -- Otis Parchman, a member of the city's Cultural Arts Board (San Antonio Express-News, November 16, 1997)
# 6	"We have a high regard for arts in San Antonio, but we are trying to ascertain what we are getting for our money," Mr. Peak said. "We are trying to differentiate between groups that spend money for themselves and groups that provide services to others." (The New York Times, September 13, 1997)
# 5	"Esperanza's problem is a lack of tourists," [Councilmember Robert] Marbut said. "Any group that is not producing any tourists should not get any money." (San Antonio Express-News, September 19, 1997)
# 4	"As I understood their grant applications, the Esperanza used the arts as a tool to achieve their goals of a better society not to better the arts. I'm not against what they do. I think they are trying to do some things that are worthwhile, but I think that their ultimate goal is not the arts. It's social betterment." -- Doris Miller, a former Cultural Arts Board member (San Antonio Express-News, November 16, 1997)
# 3	Asked why Esperanza was singled out, Mr. Peak said: "They seem to go way beyond what people want their money spent on. That group flaunts what it does -- it is an in-your-face organization. They are doing this to themselves." He said the vote should not be interpreted as antigay and pointed out that other gay groups, including a men's chorale, received financing. (The New York Times, September 13, 1997)
# 2	"The controversial Esperanza Peace and Justice Center represents the extremist, Puritanical progressivists in San Antonio... Gays and lesbians have much more to lose by automatically being associated with the Center's tired, leftist, Third World agenda. For starters, the Center frequently sponsors, and clearly associates itself with pro-Castro Marxists... Its candid agenda is to delegitimate mainstream American culture as oppressive and to increase the power and legitimacy of minority groups." -- Rob Blanchard (In his own essay, August 31, 1995)
# 1	"I know some people had some problems with specific art agencies, but there's some who have done, I thought, excellent work in terms of social activity and all of the things that have been said about them are not true... I know the Esperanza Center has not -- everything they do is not wrong... just to castigate them in, you know, one direction is probably not fair. But the votes are already here for this." -- Councilmember Mario Salas (September 11, 1997)
<--Return to Index of information about Esperanza's Funding Cut	What do you think? E-mail us at esperanza@esperanzacenter.org.