Hispanic in Green Forest , Ar.

Manager: Protest or party
By: Ginger Shiras 04/12/2006
Email to a friendPost a CommentPrinter-friendly

GREEN FOREST - "They can either have a protest or they can have a Cinco de Mayo," the Green Forest City Council was told Monday.



Advertisement


"If they're going to have a protest down there, we're not going to have a Cinco de Mayo," said Don McNeely, manager of Tanner Hardware, which has sponsored the event for five years.
Maria Brito, owner of Mr. Mom's restaurant in Berryville, had told the Daily Times on Saturday that no pro-immigration activities were planned among Hispanics locally as a part of the national rallies Monday but a peaceful walk was planned at Green Forest in conjunction with Green Forest's Cinco De Mayo celebration.
Told of McNeely's comments, she said Tuesday that she would talk to others about possibly changing the date for the walk.
Called the Cinco de Mayo after a Mexican celebration on May 5, the event is held in Green Forest on the weekend closest to the date. After four years on the parking lot at Tanner True Value Hardware, the celebration is moving to the city park this year. Though the council had earlier approved the use of the park for May 7, a Sunday, it corrected the date to Saturday, May 6, at it's meeting Monday.
Store Manager Don McNeely told the council that the event at Green Forest started because Jerry Tanner, "a Christian man, wanted to have a fellowship between Americans and Hispanics. He wanted us to mingle together and get to see each other's cultures."
He said Green Forest could be known as an "ideal or model city of cooperation between the races."
"Green Forest is 30 percent Hispanic and everybody's getting along and everybody here knows that this is a redneck part of the country. ... That would be good for us. I think it would make Green Forest an outstanding city."
He said the event was best represented in a newspaper photo of a young Hispanic boy learning some guitar licks from a white man. "That's exactly what the theme is."
"We plan to have a lot of fun and a lot of loud Hispanic music, tamales and lots of booths. Tyson's has donated some chicken," he said.
Elias Flores, assistant manager at Tanner's, said after the meeting that nobody had talked with him about an immigration walk. "I think it is just somebody throw out the ball and see what it can catch."
McNeely said his concern about a demonstration was that "being a redneck area, people will complain to Jerry Tanner, being that he's a major sponsor in this event. All he wanted was to get the people together and have a party. He's doing it with a Christian attitude."
McNeely said the U. S. Senate will be back in session by then and the immigration issue may be resolved by then.



©Ozarks Newsstand 2006




Email to a friendPost a CommentPrinter-friendlyTop