Fired San Antonio poet laureate sues the city over his removal

Celebrated Chicano writer Nephtalí De León has sued the City of San Antonio and the director of its Arts & Culture Department, alleging they violated his free speech rights by firing him as poet laureate. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Antonio, comes after city officials removed De León last summer for sharing a poem on his personal Facebook page that included a Chicano slang word often considered a derogatory term for Black people. De León argues the city and Arts & Culture Department Director Krystal Jones violated his First Amendment rights by retaliating against him for posting the poem, a eulogy for friend and educator Roberto “Cintli” Rodríguez.