Anti-immigration Group Inadvertently Protests Anti-immigration Sentiment

[Rose Siding]

Protest Over Art Forces Police to Draw the Line
Groups clash over what some consider 'anti- American' inscriptions on a Baldwin Park arch.

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Members of Save Our State, a 7-month-old organization, say they are offended by "anti-American" inscriptions that read, "It was better before they came" and "This land was Mexican once, was Indian always and is, and will be again" on the 20-foot-high arch.

"I find it incredibly offensive," said Joseph Turner, the group's executive director. The quotation "is seditious in nature. It essentially talks about returning this land to Mexico."
...
The irony, Baca said, is that Save Our State's complaint about the quote being a Latino lament over the coming of Anglos is wrong.

"It was better before they came" was uttered by someone Baca described as "a white man from Arkansas, a civic leader" who was lamenting the influx of Mexican immigrants after World War II.

As a Chicana, she said, the remark offended her, but she was also intrigued by it.

"When it went on the arch, its ambiguity became profound," she said. "The 'they' could be any 'they.' "

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mural15may15,0,417537,print.story?coll=la-home-local

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Hahaha! Sweet!