Worthington complaints: About music, or Hispanics?

The music at a heritage celebration was shut down by police, prompting a senator to raise the issue of racial bias.

By Bob Von Sternberg, Star Tribune

Last update: September 17, 2007 - 9:12 PM

When about 600 Hispanic residents of Worthington gathered in a city park Sunday to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, the musical portion of their bash was abruptly shut down by police, who cited neighbors' complaints.

The neighbors' reaction, along with the general level of acceptance of Hispanics in the historically white town, "was one of the saddest things I've ever seen," said Sen. Patricia Torres Ray, DFL-Minneapolis, who had driven to Worthington to take part in the festival.

"Yesterday I found myself in a town so segregated it looks like apartheid in South Africa," said Torres Ray, the state's highest-ranking Hispanic official. "It's not what the officer did -- he did what he was charged to do. But it said you are not welcomed here. You're not welcome to celebrate your heritage."

Worthington city officials said they didn't believe the complaints stemmed from racism, but were an honest reaction to amplified music in a residential neighborhood.

"I can't control people's perceptions, but we try not to treat anyone different," Police Chief Mike Cumiskey said Monday after meeting with some festival organizers who were protesting at City Hall over what happened Sunday. "We can't control who calls the police, but with more than 15 calls, only one caller even mentioned 'Mexican music.'"

Volume went down, then off

Even after organizers turned down the volume of the amplified music at a bandshell in the park, the complaints continued, so officers asked them to shut down the music, which they did, Cumiskey said. No arrests were made.

"People in the community were just trying to have a good time," said Roberto Ramirez, one of the festival organizers. "We want them to know we have rights, too, like everybody else in this city."

Hispanic migration over the past few decades has transformed the city, which now counts Hispanics as more than a third of its residents. Many work in the city's Swift and Co. meatpacking plant.

"It's as if white people are saying it's OK for people to be in the plant, but nowhere else," Torres Ray said. "That's your place, not the school, not the park, not celebrating your heritage."

She said she was disheartened by the almost total lack of ethnic intermingling she saw Sunday afternoon. "I can't tell you how depressed I was," she said. "All these Hispanic families, and one white woman among them. That's not the Minnesota we know."

Bob von Sternberg • 612-673-7184

Bob Von Sternberg • vonste@startribune.com

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