***Update Thursday June 13: Sebastien will once again sing the anthem at Game 4 of the NBA finals tonight. Go Sebastien Go!***
Last night, minutes before the Spurs demolished the Heat in Game 3 of the NBA finals, San Antonio’s 10-year-old mariachi singer Sebastien De La Cruz offered a wonderful rendition of the National Anthem at AT&T Center. While he may be used to adoring audiences, as seen in last year’s America’s Got Talent, not everybody liked his performance — he was met with applause in the stadium and scorn on the internet. Apparently, other “Americans” were none too pleased that a “Mexican” was performing the national anthem, a privilege they only consider theirs.
See a few of the comments below.
Sebastien answered his critics today:
While these comments were made by a small group of ignorant individuals whose illiterate comments should simply be disregarded as bigotry and stupidity, as a Mexican-American myself I do find them absolutely mean and unwarranted, especially for a 10-year-old kid. Not only is he representative of the predominantly Mexican culture in San Antonio, but also representative of the boiling pot of cultures that America is. As fars as I’m concerned, Sebastien is as American as apple pie. So am I, and so are many of you reading this.
If you support Sebastien, show him some love and leave your comments below.
This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2013.