Northern Va. city cancels Latino festival, blaming activists
By the Associated Press

September 12, 2007

MANASSAS PARK, Va.

The city of Manassas Park decided to cancel its third annual Latino Festival this month, blaming anti-illegal-immigrant activists for scaring away sponsors.

But some business owners who have supported the festival in the past said city officials never contacted them about backing the event--and they would have gladly helped if asked.

"We had over 40 major sponsors last year, and this year it went down to five," said Theresa Polk, who was in charge of planning the festival honoring Hispanic Heritage Month. "We were getting feedback from citizens saying they would not be attending. They're staying home and keeping their families close."

Polk said potential sponsors were worried that if agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement were to raid the festival, it would reflect poorly on their businesses.

The cost of the one-day Latino Festival was about $30,000 in both 2005 and 2006, city officials said. Sponsors contributed more than $20,000 last year, but officials said they had raised only $750 this year.

While surrounding Prince William County and other northern Virginia jurisdictions are seeking to deny services to illegal immigrants, Manassas Park's leaders have taken a different stance, denouncing what they call the "vigilante agenda" of anti-illegal-immigrant activists.

"The lack of sponsorship ... is associated with the creation of an ethnically unfriendly environment, not from city of Manassas Park, but from actions of jurisdictions around us," Mayor Frank Jones said.

According to recent census estimates, a little more than 30 percent of Manassas Park's 11,642 residents are Hispanic.

Manassas Park officials would not provide a list of sponsors who were concerned about backing the festival because of tensions over the illegal-immigration laws. But Ronald Virto, publisher of the Manassas-based Spanish language newspaper El Comercio, said no one from the city of Manassas Park called to ask for his backing, unlike in the past.

Virto said he put up $10,000 for the festival in 2005 but was not a sponsor last year.

"I was very mad and sad because I don't even know what happened," he said.

www.dailypress.com