The City of Santa Ana held two events on the Fourth of July weekend.  One was called the “Defenders of Liberty.”  It was held at the Santa Ana Main Public Library and featured veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces.  The other was a big carnival and public fireworks show at Centennial Park.

Defenders of Liberty was an event at the Santa Ana Public library with about 100 people attending.  The event started off with a potluck from the community and with the Pledge of Allegiance being led by United Mexican-American Veterans Association Sergeant of Arms Ralph Colin.  Ralph was featured in the Defenders of Liberty presentation, which was a historical review of Santa Ana residents that served in various wars (from the Civil War to the Vietnam War.)  The photo showing Mr. Colin when he was a soldier in 1968 is shown below.  The 30 minute presentation will be placed on the City’s Library website to show how so many Santa Ana residents did their part.

Private First Class Vince Fenno-Bustos, who served a year in Afghanistan and is stationed in Germany introduced the Santa Ana Archivist Manny Escamilla who conducted the presentation.  Private Fenno-Bustos grew up in Santa Ana and was one of the founding teens some years ago when the Teen Club started that led to the Library’s successful TeenSpace program.  Picture of Manny Escamilla and Private Fenno-Bustos is attached.  Also attached is a picture showing the audience enjoying the Defenders of Liberty presentation.

Last year this same event went haywire as known Minuteman Lupe Moreno chaired the event and brought in Minutemen from as far away as Yorba Linda.  The Minutemen are a racist offshoot of the Republican Party.  One of Moreno’s pals went as far as to call a Santa Ana resident a “wetback,” but it was an epic fail as the moment was caught on video and it went viral after we posted it here.

Santa Ana Councilman David Benavides got caught up in the scandal, which came to be known as “Hatergate,” when it turned out that he worked with Moreno and her Minutemen – and we caught him trying to honor this bunch at a Santa Ana City Council meeting.  His peers refused to honor them – leaving the Council Chambers.

Because of the Hatergate scandal the City of Santa Ana took over the Library event and brought back the public fireworks show – after seven years of having no such program.  The event was totally privately funded.

Over 1,000 people attended the event at Centennial Park which also featured the Santa Ana High School Marching band.