Fired San Antonio poet laureate sues the city over his removal

Celebrated Chicano writer Nephtalí De León has sued the City of San Antonio and the director of its Arts & Culture Department, alleging they violated his free speech rights by firing him as poet laureate.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Antonio, comes after city officials removed De León last summer for sharing a poem on his personal Facebook page that included a Chicano slang word often considered a derogatory term for Black people.

De León argues the city and Arts & Culture Department Director Krystal Jones violated his First Amendment rights by retaliating against him for posting the poem, a eulogy for friend and educator Roberto “Cintli” Rodríguez. While the poem did include a slang term that can have multiple meanings — including use as a racial slur — the suit argues De León didn't intend it to be insulting.

Neither San Antonio officials nor attorneys for De León were available for immediate comment Wednesday.

In his suit, De León alleges city officials defamed him and harmed his professional reputation by booting him from the position of poet laureate. What's more, the suit argues the city breached its contract with De León by giving him no chance to explain himself.

A statement the city issued last summer to explain the firing “immersed Mr. De León in a nightmarish media frenzy, in which countless news and media outlets reported on the termination of San Antonio’s former poet laureate for his use of a ‘racial slur,'" the suit alleges.

City officials learned about the poem — which De León shared via Facebook — from a pair of letters, one signed by city and state poets laureate and another by a group of poets and educators, the Express-News reported at the time. Commenters also flooded De León's Facebook page, many questioning his use of the word but others defending his right to use it.

De León's termination as poet laureate came roughly two weeks after he first shared the eulogy.

In last summer's statement on the firing, the city said it expects its poet laureate to uphold values, "which include denouncing racism among other oppressive barriers, while using creative poetic expressions to unite our community."

De León's poem was contrary to those values, the statement continued.

De León's suit asks for the $7,000 he would have been paid had he been able to fulfill his three-year contract as poet laureate and for the city to retract the statement explaining his firing. The poet also is seeking attorney’s fees and symbolic damages of $1 for the alleged violation of his free speech rights.

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