Trump's Election Leads Mexico Student Dance Troupe To Cancel Bay Area Tour
PALO ALTO (KPIX) -- A group of middle-school and high school students from Oaxaca, Mexico had planned to perform traditional Mexican dances at three shows in the Bay Area next spring.
Now, after the surprising election of Donald J. Trump as president, that trip has been canceled.
Bob Wenzlau, president of Neighbors Abroad, a Palo Alto nonprofit which arranges these cultural-exchange programs, received the cancellation letter from the dance troupe's school in Oaxaca. The letter states that the students' parents aren't sure what will happen under the new U.S. government and they aren't prepared to risk sending their children.
"I think it's the fear of a mom or a dad thinking it's their child up here and they're 4,000 miles away, and what's happening here is something that they have no control over," Wenzlau said.
"Of course they know that Palo alto is a safe community but this overlay of the recent election has created a lot of doubt," Wenzlau added.
Proceeds from ticket sales would have raised about $10,000 to benefit an orphanage in Mexico.
Neighbors Abroad is also uncertain whether it will send students from Palo Alto to Oaxaca as part of the cultural exchange.
