Sebastien de la Cruz
De la Cruz sang an encore of the national anthem before the start of the Spurs-Heat Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
By H. Nelson Goodson
June 14, 2013
San Antonio, Texas - On Thursday, the Barack Obama Twitter account run by an organization with 32.6M followers reminded Americans by tweeting, "Don't miss @selcharrodeoro's encore performance of the national anthem at the #NBAFinals in San Antonio tonight." Sebastien de la Cruz, 11, a popular Mariachi style singer known as "El Charro de Oro/ Golden Charro" did a spectacular encore of the national anthem at the AT&T Center before the start of the Spurs-Heat Game 4 of the NBA Finals basketball series. De la Cruz was introduced to the public by San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro who acknowledged the teen Mariachi as, "...my phenomenal young man El Charro de Oro Sebastien de la Cruz."
Last Tuesday, De la Cruz sang the national anthem before Game 3 of the NBA finals and soon after a barrage of Twitter postings by anti-immigrants appeared with racial slurs and derogatory comments against De la Cruz's ancestry. De la Cruz was born in San Antonio and considers himself as an American or Mexican-American.
By Wednesday, most of the posted racial slurs were removed by the same anti-immigrants after a national backslash against them went national.
