Esperanza Peace & Justice Center

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Esperanza Center hopes courts serve justice

San Antonio Current
August 6-12, 1998

by James E. Garcia

The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center and two affiliated organizations filed a federal lawsuit against the City of San Antonio alleging that officials, particularly the City Council, violated their constitutional rights when they decided to eliminate city funding for Esperanza-sponsored arts projects.

Filed on Tuesday, the lawsuit has been a year in the making, though it was hardly unexpected. In an interview last fall with the Current, Esperanza Board Member Amy Kastely suggested a lawsuit was likely since the Esperanza Center -- which serves as the fiscal agent for the other two groups -- was the only applicant to have all of its money cut out of the budget.

Kastely and Esperanza's Executive Director Graciela Sanchez have since claimed that the effects of City Council's decision went far beyond its impact on the Center's ability to stage its arts projects. Sanchez said the decision has had a chilling effect on local artists, some of whom now worry that they, too, could be punished for expressing non-traditional or politicized views in their art.

Kastely said, "It's about how the broader forces within a society operate to deny equal treatment to individuals" who may happen to disagree with the majority's opinion on art, politics, religion or sexuality,"(but) who are also citizens and taxpayers."

Mayor Howard Peak has said the Esperanza Center brought the problems on itself.

Shortly after the City Council cancelled Esperanza's funding, Peak, when asked by a reporter why the Esperanza had been singled out, 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."

In an interview last week, Sanchez acknowledged that the timing of the lawsuit is no accident. The organization has applied for arts funding again this year. And again the Esperanza center has received high marks as part of the city's application review process for its proposed arts projects. While Sanchez believes her organization has a strong case against the city, the timing of the lawsuit also was meant to serve notice upon the City of San Antonio that there could be consequences if they discriminate against the Esperanza Center again.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs contend that:

* The City Council's decision to cut arts funding for the three organizations during last year's budget review process was discriminatory because the City Council (which voted 10-0) had knuckled under public pressure from groups that despise the Esperanza Center and what it stands for. (The Esperanza Center is not arguing in its lawsuit that the city discriminated against the organization based on race, religion, etc. Last year, however, Sanchez said, "They want to say this is not (about) homophobia, but it is homophobia."

Kastely, who is among the team representing the Esperanza Center in court, contends that the City Council violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment by singling out the Esperanza Center for complete defunding, despite a No. 1 ranking by the city in the multi-disciplinary arts category last year.

* The City Council violated the free speech rights of the Esperanza Center's staff and volunteers under the First Amendment by eliminating the organizations' funding because it "has voiced controversial opinions on a wide range of issues, from women's reproductive rights to diversity in the arts, from human rights in the Americas to diversity in the lesbian and gay communities."

* The City Council violated the Texas Public Meetings Act by discussing whether to eliminate the Esperanza Center's funding in meeting that "were not open to the public and in which no notes were taken."

Although Sanchez does want the City of San Antonio to reinstate the approximately $76,000 in funds the Esperanza Center lost last year, she said the case mainly is not about the money. The goal, she said, is to protect the Esperanza and other organizations that happen to support or express controversial opinions from being subjected to the same kind of discrimination.

In a news release, Esperanza officials wrote, "San Antonio represents ground zero in the ongoing culture wars between those who respect different voices and viewpoints and those who seek to return to the days when people were silenced simply because of their beliefs.

"...Government at all levels must act as a fair and just arbiter and make decisions taking the interest of all communities into account... Instead, (the San Antonio City) Council fold under national pressure last fall by allowing conservatives, particularly the Radical Right, to affect not only its arts funding decisions, but the integrity of the entire arts funding process itself.

"If left unchallenged, the San Antonio City Council's action sets a dangerous precedent: who will be the next organization punished of the viewpoints expressed in their (arts) programming."

So to suggest that the Esperanza Center is too political and therefore does not deserve to receive arts funding, as some city official have charged, is inherently discriminatory. Sanchez believes it isn't that the Esperanza Center is too political but that it practices the wrong kind of politics in the eyes of the City Council and the countless conservative organizations and individuals -- many aligned with the Christian Right -- who heavily lobbied city officials to keep the Esperanza Center from getting funded last year.

As Sanchez sees it, "All art is political."

What do you think? E-mail us at esperanza@esperanzacenter.org.