Texas cemetery refuses minority widow's request to bury husband
NORMANNA, TX - A Texas cemetery is coming under fire for allegedly denying a widow's request to bury her husband there because of his Hispanic heritage.
Donna Barrera, who was married to Pedro Barrera for more than 40 years, said she has hired an attorney and will fight to make sure people of all races and ethnicities are allowed a final resting place at the San Domingo Cemetery in Normanna, just north of Beeville on Texas 181.
"I am going to sue him I'm going to sue him and I'm still going to fight for the rights of my husband and I'm going to fight for the rights of the other people if they'll join me, if they'll join me in a march I'll march with them," Barrera said.
"It takes all of us to correct it and get this racism out of the way I'm sorry (pause) that's just the bottom line," Rosetta Green, a Bee County Resident said.
"Everybody in this country should in uproar about this I'm shocked appalled I knew that racism wasn't dead but I didn't know it existed to the point a man can't be buried in a cemetery," Eric Tarver , a Bee County resident said.
It is illegal to enforce a" whites only" cemetery based on the 1948 Supreme Court case - Shelley vs. Kraemer. The ruling outlaws racial covenants on real estate.
Cemetery officials say they do not allow any Hispanic or African-Americans to be buried there.
State Senator Judith Zaffarini released a statement Friday in support of Dorothy Barrera's efforts to have her husband's remains buried there.
State Representative J.M. Lozano contacted the State Attorney General's Office and they are investigating.