First Annual Customized Vehicle Exhibition And Family Picnic Held At Milwaukee County Wilson Park

Car and vehicle enthusiasts around the tri-state region gathered at Wilson Park in Milwaukee for their 1st Annual Lows Picnic in Southeastern Wisconsin.

By H. Nelson Goodson

August 3, 2014

Milwaukee, WI - On Sunday, more than 153 car and vehicle enthusiasts gathered at Milwaukee County Wilson Park to exhibit their customized vehicles, motorcycles, Lowrider bicycles and hold their first annual picnic. More than ten vehicle enthusiast groups sponsored the event and was opened to the public to check out their unique customized vehicles.

Ricardo Hernández,  Vice-President of the Good Times Car Club said, that it was a multi-group effort to organize the event and had received a large response by other groups as well to participate. Groups from Milwaukee, Illinois and Indiana participated in the one-day picnic event.

Some of the groups indicated, that they won't participate at the three-day annual Mexican Fiesta 2014 this month as they usually do. The reason, last year Rafael Hernández,  a member of the Good Times Car Club was escorted out of the event for just having body art on his face. Hernández was banned from the three-day Fiesta event by police and organizers, despite doing nothing wrong at Fiesta other than having body art. 

Last September, Mexican Fiesta 2013 organizers confirmed that this year certain body art will be prohibited and those festivalgoers caught with tattoos will be banned or kicked out from the event. Mexican Fiesta is sponsored by the Wisconsin Hispanic Scholarship Foundation, Incorp. (WHSF). Their projected message, not everyone from their Latino, White, Native American and Black communities are welcome to their event, if they have tattoos not suitable for the family orientated festival. Most Latinos in the Southside community wear tattoos to portray cultural tradition, art and lifestyle. 

No cash refunds were given last year to those innocent victims that were profiled by Milwaukee Police Officer Alexander Ayala, president of the Latino Peace Officers Association (LPOA-Milwaukee chapter) who does voluntary security for Mexican Fiesta and the Milwaukee Police Department who used their "Intelligence Center" for non-criminal activity to profile suspected past, present and future gang members, according to Ayala. Most likely, victims profiled, targeted and kicked out from Fiesta this late August for having undesirable tattoos, won't even get refunds either. 

Mexican Fiesta is held at the Summerfest grounds, which Milwaukee World Festival, Incorporated rents the grounds to Fiesta and other ethnic festivals. Mexican Fiesta is the only festival at Summerfest that discriminates against people who wear tattoos. World Festival rents the grounds from the City of Milwaukee. Today, Mayor Tom Barrett, Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn and the Milwaukee Common Council seem to support Mexican Fiesta's discriminatory policy against tattoos, because they haven't publicly addressed the issue. Hispanic News Network U.S.A. (HNNUSA) has informed Barrett, Flynn and the Milwaukee Common Council of the discriminatory tattoos policy that Mexican Fiesta will continue to enforce. Mexican Fiesta has not released any information since September, if they will stop discriminating against their own community for wearing certain tattoos. 

Last year, the Milwaukee Police Department issued a statement to Telemundo Wisconsin indicating, that they work with Mexican Fiesta to enforce their policy to discriminate for security reasons. What a disgrace and blatant discriminatory practices by both the Milwaukee Police Department under Chief Flynn, Mexican Fiesta, and the WHSF Board of Directors.

The current Wisconsin Hispanic Scholarship Foundation, Inc. (WHSF) Board of Directors who operate the annual Mexican Fiesta are;

● Antonio Guajardo Jr. (President)
● Gregorio Montoto (1st Vice President)
● Ricardo Ruiz (2nd Vice President)
● Arturo Martinez (Secretary)
● Ernesto Baca (Treasurer)
● Teresa Mercado (Executive Director)
● Ray Bacalzo
● Frank Gonzales
● Woody Welch
● Marjorie Cervera
● Oscar Cervera
● Julio Maldonado
● Luis Gonzalez
● Julio Guix
● Lupe Martinez
● Ruben Burgos
● Jason Hyland
● Diana Moreno
● Asael Ruiz
● Darryl Morin

WI LOWs 1st Annual Picnic 2014; hopping vehicles video courtesy of Jo Ann (FB): http://youtu.be/o9Gx-be2y8E


News video in Spanish about kicking people out of Mexican Fiesta 2013 at link: http://bit.ly/17mNzCt