SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — State Sen. Steve Padilla and Assembly Member Chris Ward have condemned an ofrenda honoring leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas on display at the Centro Cultural de la Raza in San Diego.
In their statement, Padilla and Ward called the display "reckless incitement" and called for its immediate removal. They distinguished between honoring what they called the "honorable dead" and memorializing what they described as terrorists.
The full statement can be read here.
I visited the Centro Cultural de la Raza today, and the ofrenda was still up this afternoon at noon.
Alongside photos of children and a journalist are at least two identifiable photos of Yahya Sinwar, a former leader of Hamas. The display also includes a prominent Iranian nuclear physicist who was killed in Israeli strikes on Iran in 2025, and a former spokesperson for Hamas, among other figures.
The ofrenda also features a child holding up a sign honoring Aaron Bushnell, an active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force who set himself on fire in front of the U.S. embassy in protest of the Israeli-Hamas war.
I reached out to Centro Cultural de la Raza, visited in person, and provided my card. In an email, I asked if they would consider taking down the exhibit as the statement requested, who approves ofrendas, who was behind this specific one, and what the overall message of the ofrenda was. As of now, I have not received a reply.
Adam Maslia, the senior director of Secure and Resilient Community with the Jewish Federation of San Diego and the Director of the Finest Community Coalition, also responded to the display.
"I was shocked and disgusted, to be honest with you," Maslia said. "Ofrendas honor our loved ones and our ancestors, not mass murderers ... we have a large Mexican Jewish community here in San Diego. That seems to have been completely ignored in all of this, and they deserve a voice in this conversation."
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