It’s particularly fucked watching Trump’s calculated ICE raids go down in sanctuary cities where the people who actually live here are happy as clams working, living, and loving the immigrants who built places like LA from the ground up in the first place. I know it’s been said time and time again, but it bears repeating for the people in the back: the city’s name (Los Angeles) is in Spanish, for fuck’s sake, along with entire neighborhoods, restaurants, and industries that immigrants from around the world have brought to California. For example, I love my Russian dentist, whose contribution to society (getting rid of my cavities with a smile) is pretty much doing the Lord’s work!!

One famously culturally infused LA institution is the Dodgers, whose baseball stadium is located in a historically Black and brown neighborhood. Anyone who has been to a Dodgers game knows that there would be no Dodgers fan base without its diehard Latino audience. This is why it was disheartening AF when Dominican singer Nezza was told not to sing the National Anthem in Spanish, but she did it anyway.

Dodgers Spanish National Anthem Controversy: What happened?

What did Nezza do?

Singer Vanessa Hernández, a.k.a. Nezza, who describes herself as a child of immigrants, was booked to sing the National Anthem at a June 14 Dodgers game. Nezza had planned to sing the US National Anthem in Spanish (which, BTW, has been considered an officially approved version of the National Anthem for almost 100 years now). As Nezza’s caption explains, she planned the gesture “para mi gente,” meaning to stand up for her people in light of the families being torn apart by ICE.

But right before Nezza went out to sing, a Dodgers employee told her, “We are gonna do the song in English today. So I’m not sure if that wasn’t [translated], or if that wasn’t relayed,” Nezza showed in a recording she posted to TikTok with the subtitle: “Watch the Dodgers tell me I can’t sing the Spanish star-spangled banner that Roosevelt literally commissioned in 1945.” The next clip in Nezza’s TikTok shows her singing in Spanish with the subtitle, “So I did it anyway.”

In a follow-up video, where Nezza’s comment section was flooded with support and praise for Nezza’s brave choice to peacefully protest despite being shut down by the Dodgers organization, the young singer explained the interaction left her “shaken up” and “emotional.” As a child of immigrants who had to get documented, she “couldn’t imagine them being taken away,” especially if she was a young child, which is the exact targeted fuckery ICE is doing now.

Nezza was shocked to be told no, “especially in LA,” after singing The National Anthem many times. She was ultimately “proud” of herself “for doing that today” because she did it “out of love and good energy.” Despite that, according to Nessa, it’s “safe to say [she’s] never allowed in that stadium again.”

“The money the Dodgers have made off of immigrants, especially Latino players, and then to have the nerve to ban you for singing in Spanish is mind-blowing to me,” one commenter wrote, echoing many thanking Nezza for standing up for their community. Another shared how Nezza’s performance touched them personally during the game: “GIRL, I SAW YOU AT THE GAME. AS SOON AS I HEARD YOU START SINGING IN SPANISH, I STARTED CRYING AND WAS SO PROUD!!” Jason Mraz even entered the chat writing, “You did the right thing. Let freedom sing!”