Make California Post a Preferred Source A California couple accosted by a furious neighbor during their engagement at an idyllic park has said being told to “go back to Mexico” cut deep.
Emmanuel Banuelos organized a mariachi band for girlfriend Hayley Lugo at Crescent Bay Point Park in Laguna Beach last week before a woman walking a dog tried to ruin his proposal.
As the mariachi band began playing, the woman told the pair to “Go back to Mexico!” Lugo told ABC 7 the words stung.
“It hurts a lot because it’s not just us there. She’s being mean to the whole Mexican culture, the whole Hispanic culture, like everyone’s felt it,” she said.
Banuelos said Lugo had “fallen in love” with mariachi music and he “really wanted” her to hear it during the proposal.
Lugo couldn’t believe she was hearing the lady harass them. The couple said the woman, who has yet to be formally identified, had actually approached them first before unleashing her verbal assault on video.
Haley’s sister and the engagement’s videographer, Trinity, said the woman rounded on them and her camera setup and began complaining.
“The park is for people who live here and enjoy the park and have picnics,” the woman says in the video. As the couple arrived and the mariachi music played, she began escalating her verbal tirade.
“Bulls–t. It’s f–king Mexican. This isn’t Mexico either, you motherf–kers,” the woman is heard saying. As she walks past the couple, she yells: “Go back to Mexico.”
Trinity said she could not believe what the woman was saying. “I could not believe that I was being told those words. At first I thought, you know, she was just a normal Karen,” Trinity Lugo said. But she didn’t want to disrupt the proposal, so she chose not to escalate the situation, Trinity said.
Hayley Lugo said she would not want to be the “racist Karen” as the video has gone viral and waves of commenters blast the hateful woman.
“You can’t be doing this anymore. Like it’s not right. You never know like if you’re going to be in the next viral moment, like if you could take anything from this, you do not want to be this lady,” Hayley Lugo said.
The city of Laguna Beach said it rejects the hateful language and behavior shown in the video.
“The City of Laguna Beach is aware of the video from Crescent Bay Point Park on October 2. Laguna Beach has long been a place of acceptance and inclusion.
“We reject hateful language and behavior of any kind as it does not reflect our community’s values,” they told The Post.
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