By, Daniel La Salle and Kerry Schlossberg
San Diego’s elected leaders have a clear problem: they continue to lease City-owned property and provide public funding to organizations that use those spaces to glorify designated terrorist groups and, in at least one documented case, physically attack a visibly Jewish resident.
The latest and most brazen example is the Centro Cultural de la Raza, whose DĂa de los Muertos ofrenda honoring leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah remained on display even after state lawmakers and constituents demanded its removal.
Compounding the offense, a Jewish-Mexican San Diego resident was physically assaulted on the premises by the Centro’s staff during advertised public hours in an incident captured on video.
This is not a close call or a matter of “artistic and cultural expression,” as the Centro claims. Photographs and reporting from ABC 10News and other outlets confirmed the Centro’s ofrenda features images of Qasem Soleimani, Yahya Sinwar (the Hamas leader behind the October 7, 2023 massacre that killed over 1,200 people), and symbols linked to Hezbollah (the group responsible for the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing that killed 241 U.S. service members).
California Assemblymember Chris Ward and State Senator Steve Padilla correctly labeled the display “deeply antisemitic and hateful” and “reckless incitement,” noting that using a sacred Latino tradition to honor mass murderers is simply wrong. Yet the pro-terrorist ofrenda was still on display a week later, according to news reports, despite complaints to the City.
The situation escalated on November 6, 2026, when Daniel La Salle, a Jewish-Mexican SDSU alumnus wearing a yarmulke and a U.S.–Israel pin, entered the Centro during the publicly advertised hours of a free screening promoted by San Diego Unified School District programs. Promotional materials explicitly described the event as a “PUBLIC SCREENING AND DISCUSSION” with free admission from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
At approximately 1:16 p.m.—well within those advertised hours—La Salle was grabbed, pushed into an altar, and forcibly removed by the Centro’s staff. He has identified SDSU Professor Roberto D. Hernández among those involved.
The physical confrontation was caught on video and aired on Univision. A Centro representative has offered a conflicting account, but video evidence exists and has already been broadcast. The public and the City deserve a full accounting of what that footage shows and why a visitor was told the event was private when it had been publicly promoted as open.
This incident did not occur in a vacuum. In 2024, the Chicano Park Steering Committee posted a sign with the slogan “From the river to the sea” on City-linked property; the City eventually ordered its removal after determining it violated both the San Diego Municipal Code and lease agreement.
The House of Palestine in Balboa Park has faced repeated complaints over anti-Semitic slogans and Lawn Program performers calling for intifada. The Centro now joins a pattern of organizations occupying or managing City property while platforming threats and hate against Jews. Taxpayers should not be underwriting this.
Centro Cultural de la Raza has responded to criticism by accusing lawmakers of “censorship,” “propaganda,” and covering for “genocide,” while defending the right to mourn whomever they choose. Free expression does not include the right to use publicly owned and publicly supported facilities to honor U.S.-designated terrorist organizations, nor does it entitle anyone to physically eject a Jewish visitor during advertised public hours.
City lease agreements and grant terms exist for a reason. They require compliance with the law, nondiscrimination, and proper use of public resources. Those terms have been violated.
San Diego residents and officials should demand immediate, concrete action:
- Terminate the Centro’s lease of City property.
- Impose fines on the Centro and recover any public funds expended.
- Fully defund the Centro organization from City grants and support.
- Conduct a transparent review of other cultural lessees in Balboa Park and elsewhere in the City for similar violations.
- Require SDSU to investigate the involvement of its faculty member in the documented violent confrontation against La Salle.
Assemblymember Ward and Senator Padilla have already spoken clearly. The Mayor and City Council have not. Constituents who have emailed photos, videos, and complaints deserve a public statement and enforcement, not silence. City property is not a free platform for glorifying terrorists who have killed Americans, nor is it a place where visibly Jewish residents can be manhandled while video cameras roll.
San Diego must decide whether its public spaces and taxpayer dollars will continue to subsidize this discriminatory and violent conduct, or whether the City will finally enforce its own rules. The video evidence and the ofrenda are already public. The response from City Hall should be as well.
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Video by Alejandra Estrada. Daniel La Salle and Kerry Schlossberg say they will take their case to the San Diego City Council this week.