There has been a lot of debate about whether or not Lupe Moreno, who was appointed to the Library Board not once but twice by Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido, deserves to be tossed for calling Latino immigrants “sub-human pod-people,” as was reported by the O.C. Weekly.
Here then is a speech she blast-emailed to her email list. You can actually see a video of this speech at this link. In fact many of the pictures used in this post are linked to infamous Moreno speeches.
Here then are Lupe’s own words:
The men that founded this nation knew that the only way this nation would continue to exist was with a moral and virtuous people.
By the grace and blessings of our Lord God, Americans have done a great job of fighting and standing for this Great Nation. And even with the storms of life that have come over the last 200 years we continued to be a great people and a great nation.
But this country was knocked off its course in 1965 by the change in our immigration laws and then again with the Amnesty in 1986. Senator Ted Kennedy,
Lupe Moreno can’t be taken seriously. She’s an anti-immigrant psycho who “makes her point” by being outrageous and shocking. Maybe if she keeps ratcheting up the shock factor, perhaps she can be “The Next Ann Coulter”. OK, so we know Lupe is nuts… So why the heck does Miguel Pulido keep her on the Library Board?
Shouldn’t the people who make the decisions about our libraries be focused on doing what’s best for our kids? And why the heck would Lupe Moreno do what’s best for our kids if she thinks that most of them AREN’T EVEN HUMAN?!?! If Pulido really cared about our libraries and our kids, he’d remove this crazy lady off the board.
Does Mayor Chilango think he is any different than his border brother constitutents? Maybe he needs Lupe to tell him he really is different and special. He’s just another SUBHUMAN as far as Lupe is concerned. Can the Mayor tell us how he came to the U.S.? I hear he only became a citizen because of the REAGAN amnesty program in the 80’s.
It’s so much better to hear her own words than the ones the liberal media and bloggers here have tried to attribute to her.
After reading the speech word for word and watching the video, I couldn’t find the part where she supposedly called illegal immigrants subhuman or pod people. Perhaps the bloggers here can highlight that part if they can find it.
In reality, Claudio and others here have called for her removal from a city commission for something she apparently didn’t even do.
As an ACLU member, shouldn’t expect to see Art to step up for the first amendmant? As an ACLU member, shouldn’t he be defending Lupe’s, and all Americans’, right to say what they believe without fear?
That is what the ACLU stands for, and while they would protect anyone willing to stand up for their beliefs, whether they agree with them or not, I’m sure they would be unhappy to see the way one of their member’s blog is being used to bully someone over a first amendment issue.
WHAT LUPE MORENO IS NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH, AND REPRESENTS THE VIEWS OF MANY AMERICANS. WE SHOULD APPLAUD HER FOR HER COURAGE IN DEFENDING THIS COUNTRY FROM ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WHO HAVE BROUGHT NOTHING BUT DISORDER AND DISTRUCTION TO OUR COMMUNITIES. WE NEED MORE LUPE MORENOS!
Poster 3,
Claudio and I noted that discrepancy as well. Two thoughts: 1) the comments were made before or after the speech and were not videotaped, or 2) the video was altered.
I suppose a third option is that the reporter lied. I am emailing him today and will ask him to view the video and get back to us.
All that aside, her other comments are still inflammatory.
As for free speech, yes she has the right to hate most of the residents of my city – but she doesn’t have a right to be a commissioner. She serves at the pleasure of the Mayor. It is time for Pulido to WAKE UP and realize that he appointed a racist. She needs to go!
Way to go Lupe! What Art Pedroza calls “inflammatory,” the rest of us call “The Truth.”
Who do you think you are, Pedroza, to say “she doesn’t have a right to be a commissioner?” Just because she doesn’t buy into your La Raza BS and actually has the courage to stand for the truth? She speaks the truth; you lie and make stuff up on people and she’s the one who should go ???
WE NEED MORE COMMISSIONERS LIKE LUPE!
Did Pulido enter this country illegally? Is this something Lupe Moreno has information about and is holding it against him?
I was waiting for someone to challenge the “sub human pod people” comment! Art, Claudio: Love you guys and the blog, but read stories more closely, por favor. Here’s the excerpt ustedes cited from Lupe’s speech, as written by my colleague Derek Olsen:
The immigrants are actually subhuman, pod people, explains Lupe (which everyone pronounces
Well Gustavo,
The way it was written could have fooled anyone. He should have been more clear that it was not a comment by her. With that I do apologize for getting it wrong and attributing that comment to her.
But I do not retract my demand that she be removed from the Library Commission. You are correct, comparing Immigrants to Nazis is over the top, and I remember that e-mail specifically on the Santa Ana Citizens Yahoogroups. I know just where to find it.
It’s no laughing matter when folks like Gustavo play with quotation marks and such to give the impression someone said something when they didn’t. Then he dismisses it “as a joke.”
It’s no joke when someone is accused of saying something they didn’t, which in turn causes others to call for their removal from a commission based on what they read. Shame on Gustavo and his paper, The OC Weekly, for playing lose with the journalistic rules. The only “Jokes” around here are Gustavo, Art and others who constantly slander and libel others to gratify their own egos.
Poster 10,
That article was not written by Gustavo.
I do agree with Claudio that the article could have been more clearly written – but she still ought to be yanked off the commission for the rest of her comments.
Shame on Pulido for standing by this hateful person. Why is Pulido wasting his political capital on Moreno? Is he trying to kiss up to the Minutemen? What is up with that? Why doesn’t he just go Republican if that is his goal?
The O.C. Democrats ought to go after Pulido and Moreno. This is a black eye to their party. They endorsed Pulido! They ought to be ashamed of themselves.
Claudio –
This is excertped from Southern Poverty Law Center and it contains the quote Arellano cited.
Moreno should still be removed as a city commissioner for her outrageous comments about gays, the Jews and passive Americans, and her strident philosophy dealing w/those who don’t subscribe to her anti-immigration philosophy. And she calls herself an Evangelical Christian?
LUPE MORENO
AGE: 47
SANTA ANA, CALIF.
Lupe Moreno, an evangelical Christian who believes that homosexuals have been taken over by evil spirits and that body-piercing can turn people gay, has been fighting illegal immigration for nearly 12 years. Today, as president of Latino Americans for Immigration Reform, she advocates a military presence on the border and warns that any groups that don’t agree “should be dealt with severely as entities promoting crime, terrorism, and instability against this nation and its citizens.”
For Moreno, the battle is personal indeed. To hear her tell it to reporters and in speaking engagements nationwide, she has experienced nothing but misery at the hands of the undocumented. As a child, her smuggler dad brought a string of illegals into their home who raped and beat her regularly. An illegal shot her nephew, and another one killed a boy she knew. Still another illegal alien urinated on her lawn and made an obscene gesture at her when she protested. Even her husband, who she married at 16 and bore five children to, turned out poorly. The reason? Well, he, too, was a one-time illegal alien, and when Lupe Moreno went whole hog into the anti-immigration movement — meeting up with Mexican-basher Barbara Coe in what she calls a “life-changing experience” — they split. Her ex, Marcial Moreno, told a reporter that Lupe had turned into a racist under Coe’s influence.
Moreno has been involved in the anti-immigration movement since 1994, when Californians passed Proposition 187, a measure that cut undocumented immigrants off from many benefits but was ultimately ruled unconstitutional. But she only met Coe some years later, and the pair has formed something of a mutual admiration society ever since. Moreno compares Coe, who recently admitted membership in a racist hate group, to Thomas Jefferson, John Wayne and Charlton Heston. Coe, for her part, says she wishes for “10 more” of Moreno — no surprise, given the political utility of having prominent Hispanics in the anti-immigration movement.
Moreno is known for her extravagant statements. Not long ago, she compared the plight of Americans facing the illegal alien onslaught to that of the Jews facing Nazi death camps — and worried that Americans were reacting to the threat in the same “passive” way that the Jews allegedly did. “These people start coming into our communities, they live among us, they steal our children’s educations and our children’s jobs and our jobs,” Moreno told The (Riverside, Calif.,)Press-Enterprise last April. “Deport them,” she demanded. “Each and every one of them.”
It’s no surprise Glen and Julie Stroud consider Lupe one of their better friends and comrade in bashing Mexicans.
This is the nut case Lupe is getting all lathered up about.
Tancredo’s comments about the Chinese gov’t trying to export people to the U.S. for the purpose of extedning their hegomony should rile the rackles of the *usual suspects.*
TOM TANCREDO
AGE: 59
LITTLETON, COLO.
As the face of the anti-immigration movement in Congress, Colorado Republican Tom Tancredo has enraged countless members of his own party. In 2002, presidential advisor Karl Rove, angered at Tancredo’s attacks on President Bush’s approach to immigration, told him “never to darken the door of the White House again.” Last April, after Bush called armed anti-immigration Minutemen patrolling the Arizona border “vigilantes,” Tancredo told the Minutemen that Bush should have to write an apology on a blackboard 100 times, then erase the chalk with his tongue. More recently still, Tancredo endorsed three primary challengers to his Republican House colleagues and even, in California, a Democratic candidate.
None of this seems to bother the man who started the hard-line Congressional Immigration Reform Caucus in 1999. In fact, he has gone from what many consider one outrageous action to another. Campaigning for a Senate candidate in Illinois, he warned that illegal immigrants are “coming here to kill you and to kill me and our families.” When a Denver newspaper ran a sympathetic article describing the plight of a high school valedictorian whose family was undocumented, Tancredo sought to have the family found and deported. In a discussion with a radio talk show host last July, he suggested that the United States should “take out” Mecca and other Islamic holy sites if the country is hit by a major terrorist attack launched by Muslims.
Because of his outrageous rhetoric and hard-line views, Tancredo is seen in heroic terms in the anti-immigration world. Barbara Coe, who heads one hate group and belongs to another, says Tancredo is a “gold-plated, card-carrying patriot.” Angela “Bay” Buchanan, a hard-right activist, thinks he should run for president. Tancredo received a hero’s welcome when he keynoted at an anti-immigration conference attended by 400 activists last Memorial Day weekend.
Tancredo often doesn’t sound much different than the activists who spread fears about a supposed secret Mexican plot to reconquer the Southwest. “China is trying to export people,” he told one anti-immigration group. “It’s a policy for them, a way of extending their hegemony. It’s a government-sponsored thing.”
With Loopy’s “nopal en la frente”looks, immigration could mistaken her to be illegal as well.
Art,
Those were not her words (pod people remark) In your posts you have called her a
“It’s no surprise Glen and Julie Stroud consider Lupe one of their better friends and comrade in bashing Mexicans.”
OMG!!! Glen and Julie hate Mexicans? What a shocking revelation. I thought they were concerned and caring residents of the city. They publicly act like they are just lovely people. Am I to believe from your statement that they are two-faced liars?
Cook,
I think not. She also said “deportation- yes we can.” She clearly hates half of our local population. She needs to resign or get booted from the Library Board – the sooner the better.
I’m gonna go with Cook on this one. If, in fact she didn’t make that particular remark, then there is no reason to target her and lampoon her for something she didn’t say.
You may, if you want, criticize her on some of her other speeches, but if it were up to me, I would issue a blogger’s retraction or some form of apology for that particular target.
As far as the commission goes, that
Ryan,
Sooner or later you are going to have to decide where you stand. Either you will do what is right or you will go along with your party machine.
I finally realized how racist most of the Orange County Republicans were and I made my choice – to leave.
Moreno many not have said my people are inhuman, but the record of her insulting and racist utterances is a mile long. There is no doubt that she hates many if not most of the people in Santa Ana.
And no, Lupe’s appointment is not up to the Mayor. It is up to the Council. They can vote her off and he knows it. And if they have any sense of social justice that is precisely what they will do
Maybe Lupe doesn’t hate these people at all.
It could just be that she recognizes the strain on the country’s resources, the overcrowding, the disrespect of flag and country, the dumbing down of the schools to accomodate those that can’t or won’t learn english,or a plethora of other problems caused by the new arrivals to America.
When she talks about illegal immigrants, it is usally generic and not always specific to race, not just Mexicans.
Stop your own hate speech, Art. You talk about “your people” in the previous comment. They’re her people, too. Asking for them to do what they are doing lawfully and respect and be a part of American society is not so wrong.
The fact that our Mayor keeps Loopy Moreno on the Library Commission is a testament to how he feels not just about his border brothers, but also how he feels about himself as a brown person. He hates himself.
Art,
Your comments to Ryan tell the story. Either you support illegal immigration or you’re a racist. And you wonder why some people didn’t want you appointed as a City Commissioner? Amazing!
If the Council allowed you and Sean to be appointed, with your extreme views about many issues and constant public pummeling of City staff and some Council members, then they better not remove someone else’s appointment because of her views.
This is a perfect example of someone living in a glass house throwing rocks.
Memo to Ryan- Art has now put you on notice about the ground rules in his world. You have two choices. His way or the wrong way.
Morning Coffee
Morning Coffee,
Give it a rest. It is unconscionable that an all-Latino City Council would appoint a hate monger like Moreno to the Library Board.
Ryan can go along with his racist party machinery if he wants to – but that will just make him even more irrelevant in Santa Ana.
Or he can rise above the fray and do what is right – call on the Mayor and the Council to oust Moreno posthaste.
Let’s see what El Trabuco is made of…
Come on Art,
Being against illegal immigration does not make you racist.
There is an area out here in Denver where there is drug dealing and most of the dealers are African American. If I call the cops am I racist?
I think most of understand why people die trying to get to the greatest country on the planet.
Laws are what keeps us a civilized society and any society that fails to enforce its laws is doomed to failure.
If an Latino police officer pulls me over for speeding is he racist?
Thomas,
If he pulls you over because you are a big white guy, then yes he is.
This is Derek Olson, the writer of the article. The excerpt that has caused the confusion was just wordplay based on her referring to “Aliens” who “want to replace Americans.” The “sub-human, pod people” was in the spirit of satire. Here’s a Wikipedia excerpt describing the book and movie this was meant to reference.
“The Body Snatchers is a 1955 science fiction novel, which describes Earth being invaded by seeds which have drifted to Earth from space. The seeds take over human bodies and replace them with simulations grown from plantlike pods, perfect physical duplicates who kill and dispose of their human victims.”
I regret the confusion.
“If the Council allowed you and Sean to be appointed, with your extreme views about many issues and constant public pummeling of City staff and some Council members, then they better not remove someone else’s appointment because of her views.”
Morning Coffee,
Would you be so kind as to share with us what “extreme views” to which you are referring?
Do you find it acceptable that the Stroud’s constantly bash Sal Tinajero? Should the council have thought twice before appointing them?
Lupe Moreno is a vile racist and she has slurred the majority of the taxpayers in our city with her hate-filled venomous propaganda. I personally hope that the Mayor keeps her on board. It will be an albatross around his neck.
Can you give me a reason why Art and myself should have been kept off our respective commissions? While you’re at it apply that same litmus test to the Strouds.
I look forward to hearing your reply.
Derek,
There was no “wordplay” in your article; it was an outright attempt to put words in Lupe’s mouth that she didn’t come close to saying. Admit you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar and don’t do it again. Otherwise, your pathetic attempt to explain away what you did speaks ill of you and the paper you work for.
You could have easily printed something like: “Just like the 1955 novel, The Body Snatchers, Ms. Moreno believes illegal aliens are pod-people…” But you didn’t – by conscience choice.
You shouldn’t “regret the confusion” rather, you should apologize for the intentional mis-quote of someone you disagree with, which is an abuse of your journalistic powers. You should be ashamed of yourself on this one. I think you should ask Art to make you a blogger here, you’d fit right in…
Thanks for the clarification Derek, I appreciate that.
I don’t think there was any real confusion.
Claudio and Art have engaged in an ongoing hate campaign against a properly appointed commissioner whose politics they don’t agree with. They thought the Tancredo speech as reported by the OC Weekly would be the enough to do the damage. Now that they have been informed that it was not a quote, they are apparently too embarrassed to recant.
The rants continue, but even after Gustavo cleared up the misconception, Art and Claudio won’t back off.
It’s personal. They don’t like Lupe (even though Art was a campaign advisor on her most recent campaign) and they are willing to trash her first amendment rights to try and remove her.
I have a problem with some of her politics as well, but as an American and a voter, I feel compelled to speak up for her rights as an American. God Bless America.
Art, you know that I am not a racist — far from it actually. In fact, I’m a little more moderate on the immigration issue. But, I digress.
My original point was to not go after Lupe on somthing she didn’t say. That’s just wrong. However, feel free to criticse her on things she has said though. She’s made hundreds of speeches, so write on any one of those.
On the commission, it’s like I said… not my fight. Although, I’ll do you one better… I’d actually be in favor of getting rid of the Library Board altogether.
If the policy of this city is to not engage our city’s residents in education and purposefully keep them uneducated, then why waste the money? If the city is just going to have one library, what’s the point in having a commission for that? Just get rid of it and save the money.
Until the city changes its mind and its policy on education, then they could bring back the commission.
Ryan Trabuco, you hit the nail on the head. Mayor NoNuts’agenda is to keep his constiutents uneducated and uninformed. I’ve opened my eyes, thanks to this blog, and realized that Santa Ana is OZ.
Mayor No Nuts rules as the Wizard (A Little Man with No Real Power), BuscaAmante the Cowardly Lion (Has no Courage), BenaPuppet the Scare Crow (No Brain), Sarmiento aka Pulido’s Water Boy (has No Heart), Martinez is Dorothy (Optimistic), Tinajero is Toto (just going along for the ride) and Finally, Clownia the Wicked Witch of the West.
Art, I’m waiting for the PhotoShop on this one.
Those attacking Art and Claudio are missing the point and doing it consciously.Those like Moreno do not address the immigration problem as a multifaceted issue that it is.
The U.S. government has destroyed entire industries in Mexico by subsidizing them here and underselling the Mexican markets through importing.These U.S subsidized industries then pay the smuggling of workers from Mexico into the U.S.A and employ them .Other small bussiness and private citizens also employ them for financial benefit.All this is ignored by the Moreno’s and focus only on the immigrant.They only target the criminal labeling of the immigrant and demand criminal prosecution only for the immigrant.The U.S industries,The U.S government,the small businesses and private citizens are also breaking the law.Others with differant agendas(political,economic,culture phobia, racist or those that are just ignorant)are friendly and supportive of the Moreno’s because they are all interested in attacking the immigrant in order to move their agendas forward.
Focusing only on the immigrant as the problem is simple minded offensive ,inhumane and is why some perceive this behavior as racist.It could not be racist but you creating the perception results in the response.If that is not your message then change your approach to the immigration issue.Most people are not so ignorant that they can not see through this self power grabbing use of other human’s life struggles.
Some on this blog say that seperating families due to prosecuting the immigrants for breaking the law of crossing the border to work is just tough luck. They say the immigrant broke the law and should be willing to suffer the consequences.
What would these individuals say if raids are done on all those employing immigrants and those smmugling immigrants after destroying their livelihoods in their country.These individuals are jailed and seperated from their families similar to what happens to the immigrants.Why not, the crime is the same. If this doesn’t happen then one can claim that preferential criminal prosecution is occuring .Is it racist behavior? I don’t know.Claudio’s and Art’s arguments don’t sound so crazy.
#24 writes … “Laws are what keeps us a civilized society and any society that fails to enforce its laws is doomed to failure.”
And who commuted Scooter Libby’s sentence?
Thee speak with forked tongue.
Morning coffee
You were absolutely spot on, I always enjoy your taking Art to task, you do it well.
Poster 34,
I suppose you thought Hitler was spot on too?
Art P
#27
I do not find it acceptable that the Strouds consistently bash Sal. I equally find it inappropriate for a husband and wife to serve concurrently on a commission – albiet different commissions for the Strouds.
This loophole should be sewn up. Only one member of a household shall serve as a commissioner. Tidying up the term limit issue for commissioners should be considered as well.
please.
santa ana city council is looking to change the current term limit rules to allow losers like clownia and benapuppet to serve extended terms and continue feeding at the public trough while enriching themselves by approving new development in santa ana.
Ryan,
It is obvious that when Art wants your opinion on something, he’ll give it to you – you racist!(LOL) Looks to me like you’re the next in line to be banned from Art’s ever-changing “inner circle.” Even taking on a new Mexican last name to please him isn’t enough for Art.ROFLMAO!
#39, dude… the name wasn’t to please Art… it was to make me happier… which it has.
Even if I am “banned” from Art’s inner circle, who does that really harm? I do have a more important life outside of this blog, ya know.
2:01 pm,
Ryan is not banned from my inner circle. He was at my house this weekend in fact. He is a friend of mine no matter what.
But I do worry about the company he keeps. There are a lot of nasty people in the OC GOP machine…