Thread: Property owner wants to display a sign of protest permanentl

Property owner wants to display permanent sign

Keith Walker/News & Messenger
Gaudencio Fernandez wants to display a sign of protest permanently at 9500 Liberty St. in Manassas.
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By Keith Walker

Published: April 2, 2008

Like it or not, former Manassas property owner Gaudencio Fernandez is planning on submitting a special use permit application for a much larger, more permanent sign in to replace his controversial structure at 9500 Liberty St.

In January, Fernandez came to the city offices for what officials thought would be a building permit application for the existing structure. However, Fernandez instead presented plans for a 220-foot long, 16-foot-high L-shaped structure that would display murals “expressing the community’s ideas.â€

Just another Reconquista.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Fernandez a Spanish(White European) surname? Didn't the Spanish conquer the indigenous people of Mexico?

Dixie

Yeah, just keep 'hiding in those shadows'.

The more the pro-illegals do this type of thing, the deeper they dig the hole for themselves. Let him keep up his sign. It exposes more AMERICANS to their behavior. Keep up the 'good' work! Makes OUR job easier.

Originally Posted by Dixie

Just another Reconquista.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Fernandez a Spanish(White European) surname? Didn't the Spanish conquer the indigenous people of Mexico?

Dixie

They don't even know their own history...So sad...They really are ignorant...And they really do think we stole california from them...

Isn't multiculturalism wonderful?

Go back to where you and yours came from. The more Manassas engages this guy in a conversation, the more he will win.

if fernandez wants to honor those before whites-he needs statue of an american indian -most mexicans are mixes of people from spain,indian and some african-no one in the americas looked like most latino's do now 500 years ago-most of the land they claim was not ever very populated because they did not have air condtioning ,etc-mexico became a country in 1824 -thier president wanted settlers from US to come and populated vast inihabited lands now known as texas-they had to become catholic-the mexican president over taxed them and they repelled(being majority white americans) in 1836 the alamo was lost but a short time later texas became its own country

yes dixie the spanards conquered the indians that once lived in the land now known as mexico-the inhabitants are decendants of both peoples for the most part-thier language,culture,music (term latin is the old language,spanish and other european languages derived from)are all from spain ,a european country-when they say "go back to europe" they are talking about thier own ancestors as well

Video of the sign and interview with Gaudencio Fernandez at:

http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0907/455673.html

In Manassas, Banner Calls For Halt to 'Racism'
Message Takes Aim at Pr. William Crackdown

By Christy Goodman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 20, 2007; Page LZ11

A large sign denouncing Prince William County's "racism" is causing a stir in Manassas.

The sign, 12 feet high by 40 feet long, was hung at 9500 Liberty Street, faces the Manassas Virginia Railway Express station and calls on Prince William to "stop your racism to Hispanics." The red and black spray-painted lettering reads, "When our brothers & sons are fighting and dying in Iraq, here you are separating our families. . . . We are the working force of America. We diserve the respect of all civilized people of America."

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The sign provoked a range of reactions. Manassas resident George Henderson stopped to take a picture of the banner on his way home from work Tuesday. "I agree with what they're saying," he said. "They're making a good point. Discrimination still shouldn't be happening."

But Monica Casper, also of Manassas, said she was "aghast" when she saw the sign. She read through the message in capital letters, dismissing each of its claims. "I clean my own house," she said. "My husband cleans his own shoes."

A man on a loud motorcycle rumbled past and conveyed his displeasure at the sign with an obscene gesture.

"I just don't get it," Casper continued. "I'm not a racist. My grandparents were immigrants. But they came here through legal channels: Ellis Island."

The sign was erected Saturday at noon on the last wall of a recently demolished house at Liberty and Prince William streets, within the historic district of Old Town Manassas. The property owner, Gaudencio Fernandez, said members of the Hispanic community had asked if he would leave one wall standing so they could hang the sign. He declined to say who made the request but said it was not Mexicans Without Borders, a local immigrant support group.

"Everybody knows the Prince William government is trying to pass certain laws against the immigrants, which affects everybody, whether you are legal or illegal," Fernandez said.

Fernandez, originally from Mexico, said he has lived in the United States for nearly 30 years. He has lived in the Manassas area for the past six years and owns a home remodeling company.

Despite some objections, the sign isn't going anywhere.

"I think it is a matter of free political expression on private property, and that is exempted from the zoning code," Manassas City Manager Lawrence D. Hughes said.

The city's attorney is looking into the issue, he said.

A framed rebuttal was left in Fernandez's yard Tuesday morning, placed near an empty beer bottle. The 10-inch-by-18-inch white paper read, "There are two many of you over here and half dont belong here. This is [the] USA. "

Staff writer Nick Miroff contributed to this report.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00047.html

Agree Florgal, like the marches, this kind of thing just makes our job easier. Exposes the problem to more Americans, and yes...makes people ANGRY!

Originally Posted by florgal

Yeah, just keep 'hiding in those shadows'.

The more the pro-illegals do this type of thing, the deeper they dig the hole for themselves. Let him keep up his sign. It exposes more AMERICANS to their behavior. Keep up the 'good' work! Makes OUR job easier.

In Manassas, the Medium Is the Issue

By Nick Miroff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 2, 2008; B01



In Manassas's quaint, red-brick Old Town neighborhood, a giant billboard greets visiting tourists and commuters, but it was not put there by the city or Chamber of Commerce.

"PWC and Manassas the National Capital of Intolerence," it declares, in hand-painted, none-too-subtle red and blue block lettering. The sign, 40 feet long and 12 feet high, sits on the property of Gaudencio Fernandez, 47, a contractor who immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 1979.

What follows is a rambling indictment of Prince William County and Manassas, likening efforts to target illegal immigrants in the jurisdictions with slavery, Jim Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan. "We demand equality and justice for all," Fernandez's broadside concludes. "We will not be your slaves of the 21st century."

Since it first appeared last fall, the billboard, called "The Liberty Wall" by Fernandez's supporters because of its address at 9500 Liberty St., has become a political symbol and a rallying point for those who see it as a truth-to-power act of defiance. The sign's text has changed a few times, but its message has essentially remained the same: Latino immigrants have been exploited by ungrateful, racist white residents who took advantage of their labor and now want them to leave.

To many residents and business owners, "The Sign," as they call it, is an ugly diatribe and galling eyesore. Comparing tougher immigration enforcement with genocide and slavery is offensive, insulting and wildly exaggerated, they said.

Local editorials and letters to Manassas officials have urged the city for months to remove the sign. Vandals with less patience have attacked the structure on several occasions, including one failed attempt to destroy it with a firebomb last year.

Despite the public pressure, Manassas officials have proceeded cautiously. With a Justice Department investigation into unfair housing practices pending against the city, as well as an unresolved lawsuit accusing the city of discrimination, Manassas officials are wary of further litigation and racial criticism. For the most part, city staff and council members have been silent or circumspect in discussing Fernandez and his sign, eager to avoid an escalation. Instead, they have prodded Fernandez to obtain a building permit for the sign or remove the billboard, but so far he has rebuffed them, citing the right to freedom of speech.

A standoff has set in, and next week, the city will take Fernandez to court. It recently sent police to his home to serve a summons to him and his wife, who is listed on the deed. City Manager Lawrence D. Hughes said Manassas is simply upholding city regulations, and that while Fernandez's billboard has offended many residents, its content is not the issue.

Fernandez could write anything he wanted on an existing, permitted structure because the city has no anti-sign ordinance, Hughes said. City officials said, however, that because the sign is mounted on the remaining wall of a house that burned down in 2006, and Fernandez reinforced the sign with a wooden base, he should have applied for a building permit.

"If anyone can build anything they want where they want, then we don't have a building code," Hughes said. "We've balanced the issue of free speech with the need to enforce the building code."

City zoning inspectors have also cited Fernandez for failing to keep the property in good order, accusing him of using it as a junkyard and providing a "habitat for undesirable wildlife," including rats and snakes.

Not true, Fernandez said.

Seeing the city's efforts as a ruse to silence him, Fernandez insists he will not remove the sign, nor allow it to be removed. Instead -- and this is where the standoff takes an especially strange twist-- Fernandez plans to enlarge the structure, having spent $1,500 on architectural drawings for a new, bigger, L-shaped wall, 140 feet by 61 feet, that would span the length of the property.

The new sign, Fernandez said, would feature painted murals and captions depicting the history of American racial injustice. "I really want the community to see what has been done to us people of color these last 500 years," said Fernandez, whose message to the "European Americans" of Manassas considers Latino immigrants to be "Native Americans" with a historical right to live in the United States.

To build such an installation on his property, Fernandez would need to apply to the city for a special-use permit because the property is zoned residential. Hughes said he considers the billboard a commercial use, even though its owner is trying to make a political statement, not a profit.

Fernandez said he bought the house and the property in 2003, and the original structure dates to the 1880s. Its location on Liberty Street puts it at the end of a block that is the last remnant of what was once Manassas's historically African American neighborhood. The house was not considered a historic property, Hughes said, because so many alterations and additions had been made to it over the decades.

In June 2006, the house was gutted in a fire that investigators traced to an improperly used extension cord. Fernandez was renting the house to tenants at the time, and a fire marshal's inquiry also found the house was in disrepair and in poor upkeep at the time of the blaze. The property remained in its damaged state until Fernandez began tearing it down last year.

It was about then that supervisors in Prince William County launched an enforcement campaign against illegal immigrants, sparking protests and unleashing the raw emotions of residents on both sides of the issue. Web sites and blogs erupted with angry comments and verbal attacks, and the county was thrust into the national spotlight.

That was when Fernandez launched his eye-catching, more old-fashioned kind of blog. Before then, Fernandez said, he was just a "regular person" who had not taken much interest in politics. He moved to the Manassas area seven years ago from the New York suburbs and enrolled his three children in Manassas public schools. With his centrally located, highly visible parcel as a soapbox, Fernandez left one wall of the ruined house intact and hung a banner from it that read: "Prince William Co. Stop Your Racism to Hispanics!"

The message quickly became a lightning rod. The banner was torn apart by vandals not long after it was put up, but Fernandez responded with a new message and sturdier materials. He also began hosting community cultural and political gatherings on his property.

"Mr. Fernandez's sign reflects the frustration he and others in the immigrant community have been feeling over the past year that their voices have not been heard," said Nancy Lyall, spokeswoman for the immigrant advocacy group Mexicans Without Borders, which has rallied behind Fernandez.

The group did not help Fernandez craft his politically charged statement, but Lyall said it supports his right to keep the sign because it does not use the language of "hate speech."

"We perhaps would have chosen some modification of the wording had it been a Mexicans Without Borders message," she said. "But the important thing is we understand Mr. Fernandez's heart. His sign represents the disappointment and pain that this country has inflicted on the immigrant community."

Many business owners and merchants in the Old Town district of Manassas say the sign is a disappointment. "It's like a dark cloud," said Joanne Wunderly, president of the Manassas Old Town Business Association. Her fine-arts and crafts store, "The Things I Love," is about 100 yards from Fernandez's billboard.

The structure has grown so notorious, Wunderly said, that when she explains her shop's location to visitors from other areas, they treat it like a city landmark and say, "Oh, that's where the sign is."

After spending millions of dollars trying to enhance the neighborhood's historic charm, it was not the kind of image the city bargained for, Wunderly said. "It's such a negative thing," she said. "When you see something calling you a racist, it takes away from the positive image you're trying to portray."

Lawrence "Buck" Buchanan, 82, sees Fernandez's sign every day from the house across the street where he has lived since 1947. He remembers when the city's African American community was much larger and when segregation was the reigning social order. Jim Crow laws in Manassas were not as rigid as they were in other parts of Northern Virginia, he said, recalling that his doctor had a common waiting room for patients.

The gatherings Fernandez has held around the sign do not bother him, Buchanan said, and there is a lot to the message that is true. Buchanan said, however, that he does not want to be confronted with the sign's loaded imagery every day.

"You put KKK up there and you bring blood up in my face," he said, shaking his head. "Why are you trying to bring that old stuff up again?"

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