Mexicans Without Borders: This Sign Isn’t Big Enough
By Greg L | 3 April 2008 | Manassas City | 58 Comments
The saga of this community defacement on Prince William Street has taken a severely surreal turn. The MJM is reporting that after being denied a commercial rezoning, and then being cited for improperly altering a structure subject to a demolition order without a building permit, Gaudencio Fernandez has applied for a special use permit in order to construct a replacement for this forty-foot long monstrosity that would make it two hundred twenty feet long and sixteen feet high. I can just imagine what a public hearing for that would be like. Manassas City residents are already spectacularly unimpressed with Mr. Fernandez’ efforts to transform the city’s historic district into a demonstration for radical, racist and deliberately offensive screeds based on the philosophy of the Mexica Movement, making the chances a request like this would ever be approved infinitely close to zero.
So is there any indication that Mr. Fernandez has come to the realization that getting approvals from the Architectural Review Board, the Planning Commission and the City Council might be helped had he not gone out of his way to be as offensive as possible? Apparently not:
Fernandez said as long as the city and county back the newly instituted Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287(g) program, he will not take the current sign down.
“As we long as we have not seen any changes, we will not remove our message,” Fernandez said.
That’s quite a demonstration of how committed Mr. Fernandez and his ilk are to helping make the City of Manassas a great place to live. Since he doesn’t agree with the decisions of the City Council, he’s going to take the property he trashed in an attempt to remodel the formerly historic structure to accommodate residential overcrowding and try to turn it into a permanent public eyesore. Fernandez is utterly insane if he thinks the council is going to agree to this, and it will doubtlessly inflame the African-American community that has to put up with this on a daily basis for the past five months. On the astronomically infinitesimal chance that the Council did approve this request, every indication is that Mr. Fernandez and his Mexicans Without Borders buddies would only push harder.
Opening this up for a public debate over a Special Use Permit request should be interesting, though. I think members of the community have a lot they’d like to say to Mr. Fernandez about his disdain for their community, and hopefully when they do it will cement in his mind that self-inflicted head wounds like this are just plain dumb. This behavior is driving residents away from Mexicans Without Borders, and few illegal alien supporters are bothering to even attempt justifications for this outrage.
This latest demand should really encourage citizens to demand that this monstrosity is removed. Their patience is being rewarded only with ever more outrageous behavior in support of criminal illegal aliens, and that patience is wearing very, very thin.
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I can’t wait to see if the sign will still be there for the annual Railway Festival in June. This should get very interesting!
I just read the MJM article, and the thing that strikes me is that if the city doesn’t force Fernandez to take the sign down because of ‘political speech’ content, then you’re going to see all kinds of makeshift housing structures pop up with messages painted on them. This way they can get around the building permit requirement. Don’t think it won’t happen. Half their homes in Mexico where built from old sign boards anyway!
Do we not have enough bulldozers in the state?
A couple passes with a D7 and a bill to the property owner would solve this.
I question why Fernandez was never cited for the dangerous conditions which led to the fire which destroyed the original structure in the first place! Did the Fire Department pass its findings on to the appropriate City office and, if they did, why was it never acted upon? I ask all of you who are legal residents, do you think that we could, in effect, burn down our home with all those violations (overcrowded, numerous extension cords running to the basement, etc.), collect on the insurance, ignore an order from the City to tear down a condemned structure, then spit in their eye with a violation of Historic District signage restrictions, AND THEN DEMAND THE RIGHT TO PLACE A LARGER INSULT IN ITS PLACE, and get away with it…or would we be facing numerous legal sanctions (fines, jail, etc.)? What do you all think?
Don’t you folks know it’s not a sign, it’s a ‘Mexican Building Permit’, and the MJM just printed up thousands of them for the illegals to use. Sure, just cut it out and tape it to your latest illegal structure, and now it has all the protections afforded the original!
AWC - you are correct. We wouldn’t get away with it.
Don’t bet against Sr. Fernandez to win approval. The COM appears to ignore the monstrosity now in place and with the coming of tourist season, maybe the city should have bus tours to the site. (sarcasim)
I like the sign. It reminds us all of the illegal immigration this County faces everyday. Keep the sign up and the fight up to rid PWC of all illegal aliens!
The first mistake was the COM backing off of their overcrowding ordinance. They should of let it run it course and lived with any decisions on the legality of it. By backing down, you can see the results vis-a-vis the sign. Fernandez and his followers have no fear of action by the city. That sign is “in your face” and “let’s see you do something about it.”
We are all familiar with the concept of equal protection under the law. How about equal enforcement of the law? Be it parent, teacher, judge or politician, if you fail to enforce the rules you undermine your own credibility as well as the rule itself. The people of Manassas City owe it to themselves to clean house the next election.
I agree with AWCheney. Why hasn’t Mr. Fernandez been punished for his actions? And, the other obvious questions are….Why has the sign been permitted to stand for so long? Why hasn’t the wall been torn down? Isn’t the wall a safety hazard? Isn’t it illegal to have a huge “billboard” in the historic district? Where is the city government in all of this? These are some of the things I would ask the city in an open forum. Though, I am not a city resident, but live in the county. I just can’t understand why this sign has been permitted to stand for so long. The whole situation doesn’t make sense. As Anonymous said at 8:36….It appears like the city is just ignoring this monstrosity. I am embarassed for the city, bacause of their lack of any real action on this issue.
Our City Council needs to grow a spine and bulldoze that hateful and inflammatory eyesore. I would love to cover and screen in my deck, but that process would involve applying for a variance which I likely would not get, because of its proximity to the backyard fence. Perhaps if I did as Anonymous suggests–build the structure and then paper it over with racial epithets–I won’t need permission from anyone to do as I please with my home. Perhaps we could all erect large signs in our front yards protesting such hate speech, and the City Council will look the other way.
By the way, whatever happened to the allegation that a “Molotov cocktail” was found at the site? I never heard the results of the “investigation” that was launched.
I love this sign. It shows the scofflaw mentality of the Illegal Invaders, and it shows the temerity of some elected officials.
I’m glad I don’t live in the City and I’m glad I don’t run a business within eyesight of that ugly (on so many levels) representation of immigrants.
The sign needs to go. However, again what people are not catching on to, is the fact that these people do not even want Federal immigration laws to be enforced. Recall at the public hearings for the overcrowding ordinance, the illegal alien supporters say it a Federal Government responsibility to enforce immigration laws. Now, they are saying that is not even the case.
Yet, the MJM and some elected officials are buying this hook line and sinker that these illegals are somehow a plus for our society. Don’t believe illegals want to not have to follow any laws? Just look at this property, and how the law is not being followed.
this sign just shows how stupid Fernandez and MWB are, I say leave it up so everyone can laugh at it. It would be much better if fernandez and ricky stood outside it so we could heckle them. If the goal was to tick everyone off (including their own supporters) I think it worked, it only furthers the goal of everyone to want the trash taken out of the county.
If you’re talking about Fernandez (”want the trash taken out of the county”), I agree. The problem with the sign, however, is that the law is being broken again with impunity and it sends a message that the law need not be equally applied to all. THAT should be the issue here. That “sign” is a blight on the Historic District of Manassas, where people live and work. They’re the ones being subjected to that thing…and for them, it must go!
I agree,
the not so funny thing is it really is similar to how the illegal aliens operate, in defiance to our laws. I think fernandez is not illegal, but his defiance of the law is par for the course. They dont believe they need to abide by our laws and I think that’s what upsets most people (as well as the lax govt. enforcement)
The sign is ugly and really a blight on the neighborhood. I looked at it last week and the neighborhood really could be something if that sign were not there holding it back. I feel sorry for the people that live around there. I hope they are giving Fernandez a word or two about how he’s defacing their neighborhood.
I don’t think the sign complies with the American with Disabilities (ADA) act. The letters should be larger and easier to read and they need an audio recording for those who can’t see. Bi or multi-lingual would also be a nice touch to accomodate foreign tourists visiting Old Town (perhaps French, German, Japanese, and Spanish?) Perhaps the city could pay for tour guides to explain its cultural significance within the context of PWC history.
Why tear it down when it could become (perhaps already is) a tourist attraction which draws people and $$$ to Old Town.
More publicity, please.
This whole thing is unblievable!!!
Homeowners living in historic Manassas can’t even replace their windows with the new vinyl replacement windows. I seem to remember a few years back someone did replace their windows with vinyl replacements and the City Council made them take out the vinyl and replace with wood-framed windows in order to be in line with the other historic buildings.
These illegals are a true piece of work. And, yes AWCheny if it were anybody else but the hispanics that freakin’ wall would not be a topic of conversation today. Because, as soon as he City Council orders the wall removed the Mexican Consulate will be p their butts lickety split!!
AWC,
You have hit the nail on the head. This goes way back to the original zoning complaints that have been ignored.
The conspiracy theorist in me can’t help but tie the presence of this sign to all of the other things happening in the area and wonder what the connection is. In the county, we have ,a police chief that meets privately with agents of foreign governments and won’t provide any details. Both city and county police officers have threatened to arrest citizens that have taken pictures of day laborers loitering on private property. And, we have a local paper whose editor serves as an illegal alien apologist, potentially placing her own job at risk (assuming the local subscribers are as anti-illegal immigration as has been presented here).
Is there a connection here?
The answer is out there.
I want to believe!
JFK,
On a serious note, can you please provide more information on the threats by the City po po to people taking pictures. I’d be interested to see under what guidelines the arrests could be made. I ask because I have been told by a number of officers of the City that picture taking and or video taping of people outside is perfectly legal since privacy is not to be expected when one is outside and in view of the public. The same can be said of conversations.
What Anonymous said on 3 Apr 2008 at 12:38 pm
I’m with anonymous! I’m taking the whole family to Old Town, ordering a picnic lunch at Okra’s (they do a sausage, red beans and rice dish that I highly recommend), and then sitting across the street from the sign to bask in its artistic uniqueness.
I hope they change the wording on a regular basis to keep the entertainment value fresh. I wonder if the sign could eventually be designated as an historical landmark?
So now illegal aliens are “native Americans”? Doesn’t that mean that they should add a few anti-Redskin slogans to their sign?
It saddens me to see a lot of these comments. This is NOT a US citizen versus Latino issue it is about upholding our nations laws. I believe that a lot of people are loosing site of this issue. Upholding and living by the LAWS. If these illegal aliens are allowed to pick and choose what laws to live by then i want in on the action. I want to pick and choose what to follow because there are many laws i would like to not have to follow. The sign that is displayed is racist. Point blank. Racist against a whole nationality of people the majority of which don’t even know what is going on. I am a little tired of the racist comments and speeches. I am tired of being told it is white people (excuse me, European Americans) versus everyone else. Come live here, have a good time - LEGALLY and make the world a happy place. ALL countries, including Mexico, have border laws get used to it.
I Know of a person who claims to have damaged it before, The person has also stated that soon it will come down completely. However I Personally don’t think vandalizing graffiti is very mature, Leave it up as a symbol of the disdain these organizations hold against the Citizens.
Citizen 12 said “The people of Manassas City owe it to themselves to clean house the next election”. It sounds good, BUT, there are three people running for Council (unopposed) next month. Two are sitting Councilmen, the third sitting Councilman is running for Mayor (also unopposed). Hence, there is no near term ability to “clean house” (note the use of the word ability vice need).
Emma also suggested City Council “grow a spine”. I believe we can trust Council to enact the will of the people. However, we must make our voices publically heard regarding this gross monstrocity. Everyone needs to come out any public hearing and speak. It won’t be as convenient as posting on BVBL, but it should be more rewarding and effective; it may even be entertaining. I’d also note that City Council still hasn’t finalized their budget, and this is a great opportunity to speak up (are you willing to pay more to have our laws enforced). If so, you voice is needed.
Also, FYI, there are 5 people running for 4 School Board positions. All 3 incumbents deserve re-election. I don’t know enough about the other two yet.
Speak up -Wouldn’t it be nice if some of the complainers would run for office in order to get some cleaning done. Talk is cheap! Action speaks louder than words! Where are you sharpies? Guess you don’t want to be on the receiving end!
COM - the smoking man told me about the city police. Sorry I can’t quote you page and verse. If I see him again I’ll get his phone number for you.
Mulder and Scully, I know who you really are.
Think the actual “election” for Manassas City Council
took place several months ago at the Republican mass
meeting where two incumbents and a new candidate,
defeated two candidates who were considered to
be more aggressive on illegal immigration
(both of the latter are HSM members). Know
everyone running was/is focused on the issue –
some, though, are more keenly sensitive to the legal
and financial implications of council actions on
this matter. They will move forward, but prudently.
Speak up is right about the school board election. The three incumbents, Bass, Albrecht and Bushnell deserve to be re-elected. I too am not sure about Dance or Pratt. I think I will just vote for the three.
Catawba said on 3 Apr 2008 at 2:10 pm:
So now illegal aliens are “native Americans”? Doesn’t that mean that they should add a few anti-Redskin slogans to their sign?
NAW! They’ve been smoking too much peyote.
The humor here is just tooooooo much!
Yeah, either smoking peyote or drinking crack!
Duh??
None of us could do the job that Krusty is capable of. You should have seen the job she did on that chalupa the other day at the Taco Bell.
Maybe we should put up a billboard that has the costs of the emergency room services and ESOL services, etc. that we are providing.
Jfk,
Figures the smoking man is in town, when most of the show centered around NOVA.
We can’t, it would be racist if we did because we would be picking on Hispanics, even though they would not be mentioned in any way.
A Reader - what a great idea! Maybe Stewart and Stirrup can use their discretionary funds to start an info board that can be changed quarterly to show us the savings/benefits/ice detainers, etc.
I also think we need to start an alternative newspaper as competition to the MJM - this blog usually breaks stories before the MJM does.
Michelle Malkin writes about the new “In An Absolut World” ad campaign:
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/04/02/absolut-reconquista/
The beverage of open-borders used to be Miller Light. Now, it is Absolut Vodka. The vodka maker’s latest ad redraws the map of North America to please Mexican consumers. (Hat tip - Snapped Shot and Jim Hoft).
Reconquista? What reconquista? Oh, yeah. That reconquista:
http://michellemalkin.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/1absolut.jpg
I’m a bit taken aback with the whole “slaves of the 21st century” claim at the bottom of the sign. Are the authors of the sign expecting me to align their current life here in the states with that of the slaves brought here from Africa and other countries? Are they using the term “slave” in an effort to garner sympathy? Slaves were (and still are) brought here against their will, they and their children were not afforded an education, they had no legal rights, they were looked upon as property, and they NEVER had the opportunity to pick up and move back home if they so chose. The claim of the sign’s authors that they are somehow slaves is an insult to those who were slaves and their descendants. And such a claim placed on a parcel of land on Liberty St. which is an historic African American enclave, and home to the first African American Elem school in PWC (”The Brown School”), really annoys me.
I just got on Google Earth and measured his property. The wall would cover the length of the side of his property that borders Prince William Street, and the first part of Liberty Street before it turns. It’s larger that the two wings of the museum building next door. The roof of the railway station is 140 foot long by comparison.
I’ve been told that the Hispanic population of PWC has greatly decreased; is that true? Also do you all think that illegal as well as legal people are leaving.
Also do you agree that the next area to be hit hard is Loudoun County due to the new BOS over turning what the last BOS had put in place regarding this issue?
Or
Do you all think that because the new BOS will turn down many if not most of the development applications many illegals will have no reason to re-locate to Loudoun?
Che’ said on 3 Apr 2008 at 5:30 pm:
None of us could do the job that Krusty is capable of. You should have seen the job she did on that chalupa the other day at the Taco Bell.
Was it eat in or take out?
The thing is …. Fernandez does NOT own the property, Delia Alvarez owns the property. Where does he get off doing and saying all of this???
Che’ said on 3 Apr 2008 at 5:28 pm:
Yeah, either smoking peyote or drinking crack!
Duh??
To each, his own.
The Huichol are a peyote-using tribe native to the rugged Sierra Madre Occidental mountain deserts of north-central Mexico. The Huichol regard peyote as a divine gift. During a peyote ceremony it is customary to smoke a special preparation called ye-tumutsali.
The Paiute indians in the Lovelock/Pyramide Lake area of western Nevada are payote users. Believe they got permission to use the drug (yes, it’s considered a drug) during their tribal rituals. Wow, this is getting educational. How nice!
Why is it that unemployment is going up, construction jobs way way down but there are still a 1000 Mexicans a day trying to sneak into America???
It’s not about jobs. It’s about life in America - which has a much higher living standard. A living standard caused by a lot of highly educated and highly paid workers.
That living standard will fall if we let the flood of illegals continue.
Don’t believe me. Well….look at Mexico.
Why is their standard of living well below ours?
Think about it!
The US can only absorb so many poor, uneducated workers before it brings the whole system down.
Before we are similar to Mexico in quality of life.
Think about it.
Anonymous said on 3 Apr 2008 at 9:57 pm:
The Huichol regard peyote as a divine gift. During a peyote ceremony it is customary to smoke a special preparation called ye-tumutsali.
Bah! Anyone wanting a real religious experience knows to use authentic Appalachian moonshine. Grab your jug quick though. The price of corn is going up!
ateacher said on 3 Apr 2008 at 6:40 pm: said: “The claim of the sign’s authors that they are somehow slaves is an insult to those who were slaves and their descendants. And such a claim placed on a parcel of land on Liberty St. which is an historic African American enclave, and home to the first African American Elem school in PWC (”The Brown School”), really annoys me.”
Mr. ateacher: I am a little taken aback as well that you are NOT aware that there were millions of Native American slaves and thus every Native American has a right to speak to the issue of slavery. More in fact than black Americans. This is not about competition over who had more slaves it is about correcting ignorance. As a person who has black ancestors who are slaves I am not at all insulted as you assume. In fact I am proud that these facts are coming out. And the history and collaboration between black and Indian slaves needs to be further explored.
Please don’t speak for others. How can you possibly make a statement that this is an insult to those who were slaves and their descendants and you are not one. The native way is only to speak from your own experience–to stay within your own hoop. The arrogance way is to go around speaking for others–to protrude into other people’s space as you have done.
These attempts to divide and conquer people of color will not work. I realize that history is full of white people using the divide and conquer technique but with the power of the internet it will no longer work.
Peace and Love
Indigenous Native American
The Meek Shall inherent the earth.
Please I am asking all of the people who are speaking from fear to slow down and let the fear go. The continent of American or Turtle Island (North and South America) is a brown continent. The vast majority of people living here are brown Native Americans. This has always been the case and will always be. If the efforts to exterminate our people with 95% of our population being murdered by white people did not work, then nothing today will work in a world with the communications power of the internet.
So we have to let go of the fear and realize if we are white and live on Turtle Island then we must learn to live together. We must learn to love one another. We must look back to our own past to understand where such fear came from in our hearts and try and heal this fear. We must understand that we are still living with hurts from the brutal horror of the European dark ages where people through out Europe went through an unbelievable holocaust with rape, death, destruction, theft, murder, disease being the norm. We are also still living with the hurts from the 4,000 years before this with the oppression of the Authoritarian Age including the oppression of the Roman Empire. If we go back further to when your European ancestors were living in uninfected tribes, like our Native American tribes, you will find people who lived in peace and harmony who had no fear in their hearts. This is where we must return. We must go back to a time when human’s lived at one with mother earth and from love before authoritarian rule conquered the entire world and encased our hearts in concrete.
Only then will we be able to live together in harmony. Only then will be see that color does not matter. Only then will you not feel threatened by being a minority on Brown Turtle Island and try to control this with immoral borders, laws and violence and end the 500 year oppression of Native Americans on Turtle Island.
The Native American prophecies, from before contact and the invasion that foretold of the invasion, have foretold of our times today where the brown people would return as we see. They also foretold of the end of the ways brought here by white people that we call “the way of the mind”. We can read the writing on the wall now with such threats brought to the world by the “way of the mind” with peak oil and global warming. Things CANNOT continue as they have for 500 years on Turtle Island and 5,000 years in Europe operating from control and authority. Even your bible speaks of revelations and the transition out of the current system. In the coming years, 5, to 10 to 30 years the authoritarian system started in Europe 5,000 to 7.000 years ago and now infecting the entire world will come to an end. It could come from many direction. We are currently right at the top of world oil production 2007 and 2008—known as peak oil. Every year from now on world oil production will continue to decline until we run out. At the same time our economic demand for oil is increasing. What happens 2 to five years from now when we a shortage of millions of gallons each day and gas cost $30 to $50 per gallon. The world economy will collapse and along with Western Civilization.
The only way out is to begin healing our hearts from the hurts of the past, to learn to love one another and mother earth, to repent and understand that the answers to our problems do not lie in our heads but in our hearts; to tear down the walls and embrace our Native American brothers and all people. The powers in charge of things are far greater than we are. And continuing to oppress Native Americans after 500 years and the theft of their land makes a clear statement as you where your heart is and this along with the other aspect of embracing the authoritarian system and authoritarian world via your lifestyle decisions and choices will seal your fate.
I ask you once again to let go of the fear. Tear down the walls in your hearts as the borders that separate us. Come together with people of color and begin a dialogue to heal ourselves and our world. We are all not infected and hurt. We are all scared. And we will all either live together or die together.
Peace and Love
Indigenous Native American
The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth
May I suggest, INA, that you take your fantasies over to AntiBVBL where they might actually be taken seriously. I’m sure that they will cheer your perverse philosophy and you will welcomed with open arms!
Correction: be welcomed
What? I’ll have what he’s having. Make it a double.
In order to have full constitutional rights, you must first be a citizen. Then you must not break the law, once you’re convicted of breaking the law, you forfeit most of your rights. So many people forget this.