Heat Street – by Jillian Kay Melchior
A Colorado history museum has come under attack after a group of activists renting its facilities hung a Donald Trump piñata, promising attendees “a chance to strike.”
Pueblo County, long dominated by Democratic voters, nonetheless voted for Trump last November by a margin of fewer than 400 votes, the local news channel KOAA noted.
Many of those voters were offended by the piñata, and some have even called for the director of El Pueblo History Museum to resign; a Facebook page denouncing her gained more than 100 likes over the weekend. So strong was the social media backlash elsewhere that the museum stayed shuttered Monday, citing security concerns.
The museum is a nonprofit, prohibited by the federal government from participation in political campaigns. The museum also received nearly $17,000 from the Pueblo City Council and Board of County Commissioners in 2016.
Reps for the museum repeatedly told local media that they didn’t know about the piñata, adding that they were “led to believe this was a fiesta, a celebration of diversity.”
But even the chair of the local Democratic Party expressed unease about the piñata, though her own group had donated $200 for the fiesta.
“I am not a Donald Trump fan,” chair Mary Beth Corsentino told the Pueblo Chieftan. “On the other hand, hand, hanging someone in effigy was, to me, reminiscent of the awful things they did in the South. That’s not right either.”
GOP organizer Brian Mater went even further, initially telling the Chieftain the piñata constituted a criminal threat against Trump.
Though the Pueblo piñata may be the most controversial, several protests and events featured whackable Donald Trumps over the weekend.
In Ithica, New York, protestors gathered vegan candy after demolishing a piñata of the new president’s head atop a very small, suit-clad body. Piñatas were also whacked during protests in Phoenix, Los Angeles and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Connecting California columnist Joe Mathews recently admitted he has a piñata of the new president hidden in his closet, although “Trump’s presence in such an intimate space carried a psychic weight.”