Sebastian de la Cruz Performs National Anthem, Responds to Racist Remarks (VIDEO)
Sebastien de la Cruz sang the national anthem before game 3 of the NBA finals in San Antonio, but the sight of the 11-year-old Mexican-American in a Spurs themed mariachi outfit sparked a wave of negative and racist comments on the social media site Twitter.
Cruz, who was born in San Antonio, showed maturity beyond his years when he asked people to ignore the negativity and to "never judge a book by its cover."
There was wide consensus that Cruz, who was a former contestant on "America's Got Talent," gave a resounding rendition of the "The Star-Spangle Banner" but unfortunately appearance trumped talent.
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"A barrage of tweets Tuesday night included insults and disparaging language aimed at Mexican American immigrants," according to the Houston Chronicle.
"There should be an AMERICAN singing the national anthem not this illegal," one person wrote on Twitter.
Added another: "No disrespect but a Mexican kid signing [sic] the national anthem makes it unamerican. #nothappy #americansforamerica."
During a press conference Cruz said that he loves living in a free country and that he is not hurt by someone's racist opinion.
"I'm a proud American and I live in a free country … It's not hurting me. It's just your opinion."
"With the racism remarks, to be honest, it's just the people how they were raised. My father and my mother told me that you should never judge people by how they look. You should judge them on the inside. And the saying that I go by is never judge a book by its cover."
"I was very proud of him,'" said Jaime Martinez, founder and chairman of the César E. Chávez Foundation. "But it shows we still have a long way to go. There's still a lot of bigotry in this country."
