Hey guys. I want to share a really disturbing and interesting story with you. Let me start off by introducing myself. My name is Tania Castaneda and I am 20 years old. I attended the Summer Mummers concert for the first time last night. And boy was it a crazy FIRST experience. I was invited to attend with some very prominent Hipanic Leaders of our community. VERY IMPORTANT PEOPLE!!!! Anyways, there was a very very large group of us. When I entered the Yucca Theater I was thrown back by how many people were there and all the differnet kinds of stuff they had. We were waiting in the front of the theater for some friends so we could get them their tickets. When all of a sudden a older Anglo man, who was an employee there said in a rude tone, "Can ya'll move from the front of the door, there are "other" people walking in!" We were kind of blocking the door, but he could have asked us nicely, especially becuase he was an employee there. This was not the first time someone has spoken ugly to me, so I shrugged it off and we proceeded to move on to another area of the theater. Let me explain something, going to the Summer Mummers is not a cheap date. We dropped A LOT of money on drinks, lights and other things that they had there. We all got our tickets and moved to the seating area of the theater. When we sat down we were approched by a girl selling popcorn. At the Summer Mummer concerts it is a "Thing" to buy popcorn becuase of course you get to throw it everywhere. Well just four of us together bought $30 worth of popcorn. The other members of our group bought large amounts of popcorn as well. I am not sure how much they spent but it had to have been quite a bit. For about 15 minutes we sat there throwing popcorn having fun, laughing at the actors, and listening to the music coming from the pit. All of a sudden a young Anglo girl walked up to us, with a rude and prissy attitude she told us. "You guys are going to have to move. These are our seats." We kinda looked at her crazy and wondered if she was talking to us! She was very persistent in getting us to move out of our seats. She told us that the box office had to told her to tell us that we needed to go to the front to fix the problem. One of my friends had told her if she wasnted us to move she was going to have to get an employee to move us. She stormed away and we thought she was gone for good. But she came back with her same story! One of the leaders of the group told us "Hey guys come over here." We grabbed all of our popcorn and moved to the lobby. Supposidly the management had double booked the seats and that they were going to fix the problem and move us back a little. They did not move us back A LITTLE!!! The entire group was moved to the top of the balcony in the very back!! It was hott up there, we could not hear, and we could not see. Plus all the popcorn we had bought down stairs, was no use due to the fact that you can not throw popcorn in the balcony. We couldn't enjoy the show and we did not have a good time! THIS IS DISCRIMINATION!!! They let the Anglos keep their seats and the Mexicans moved to the back.
We were there early and had taken our seats first they showed up about 5 minutes before the show. SUPPOSIDLY they had reserved the tickets before we did. I really don't care who reserved thier tickets first. It was the managements fault that they double booked us. The management could have handled the situation differently. They could split our group in half and let half of us stay at the bottom and half of us move to the back. TO MAKE IT EQUAL!!!! That still would have not even been fair just becuase we got there first. It was embarrasing being removed from our seats in front of all those people. It was a horrible experience. I do wish to take action. I want to file a discrimination act against the Summer Mummers and I WILL! I really don't know what exactly I want to do yet but like I said before I want to do something about this. I never want anyone to feel the way I did last night. If you are interested in helping me start something or have suggestions leave me your comments or e-mail and I will be contacting you. This is 2009 and discrimination is still alive in Midland, TX. HOW FREAKIN SAD!!! I learned about discrimination in elementary school, but never did I think it would happen to me. To get kicked to the back becuasee of the color of my skin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well it turns out that I talked to someone about what happened last night and apparently there was a misunderstanding in reservations. They could not find our reservation so therefore they gave us that girls tickets and told us that if she came we would have to give up our seats and we would be seated somewhere else. But still these people were making really bad business decesions and things could have been handled differently. Pretty much the bottom line is Bad Customer Service. Sorry if this confused anyone, trust me I was confused to find out all this extra information as well. I do not wish to file a discrimination act against the Summer Mummers any more due to the fact that there was no discrimination involved. Thanks!
Tania Castaneda
Tania,
I am sorry this happened to you, but it sad to say that it happens all the time in good ole Midland, TX. I think you should still write a letter to the summer mummers board and maybe a letter to the editor. Too often us Hispanics do not fight back and therefore we are mistreated. It is time we take a stand; as you said it is 2009 and this should not happen!
Hey Tania, we know how it is out there in the real world. Your just 20 years old though, we've lived thru it for many years already. It's a bad habit that people have to get rid of. Sad to say, but discrimination is a word in the dictionary, and it's gonna stay there til the end of time. To have our voices heard is another thing.
If there is something bothering you and you think it's because of the color of your skin, than do something about it. There are many of us that are going thru the same things. Lets not be quiet no more. It's time that we let them know that we can stand together and that we can conquer!
You are a beautiful woman Tania, and to let other people treat you like nothing is a slap in our faces. You are the most respected entertainers here in the Permian Basin, for the Hispanic community that is. We will no let you go down quietly Tania. Let us know what we can do to make this right. VIVE LA RAZA!
Go on with your Bad Self Girl and don't let know one stand in your way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for ya'lls responses. I really appreciate it. I still do inted to write a letter to the editor regarding the situation becuase it was still wrong in every way. So thanks for ya'lls support! God Bless!
Tania Castaneda
