The Brief
A woman was caught on video demanding to know why a Mexican flag was on display outside a Ventura Mexican folk art shop.
The video went viral, and a family member of the woman reportedly went to the store to apologize for the behavior.
The store owner, Patricia Diaz, said the woman's hostility backfired and turned into support for her business.
VENTURA, Calif. - A confrontation outside a Ventura Mexican folk art shop is going viral after a woman was caught on camera demanding to know why a Mexican flag was on display.
The cellphone video, recorded by Leylany Rodriguez, shows the woman asking, "Why the f--- are you flying a Mexican flag in America?"
In the video, the woman continues, "You have no good reason for flying a Mexican flag — a Mexican flag in f---ing California, which is America." Rodriguez responds with "Viva México! Viva México!" as the woman flips off the camera.
Rodriguez’s family owns La Catrina Folk Art on Main Street. She has her own arts and crafts line called La Cantrinita Crafts, which she sells at the multigenerational female-owned store. She said she was outside waving the flag on Saturday to promote a collaboration event with a local coffee company.
"I was showing her my Mexican pride, you know?" Rodriguez said. "I’m proud to be an American, too, but I’m also very, very proud of my Mexican, my Oaxacan culture."
She said the woman flipped her off, threatened her and told her to "go back to Mexico."
"I was just like, you are not going to come in front of my family’s store and try to be racist and try to tell me what to do!" Rodriguez said. "She was flipping me off, telling me ‘you touch me, you die; go back to Mexico,’ so she was disrespectful from the start. But I kept my composure, and I think I handled it pretty well."
Rodriguez added that while she appeared calm on video, she was shaken afterward. "Inside, my blood was boiling. I felt like I was trembling. After…my hands were shaking. They’re still shaking a little right now just remembering it."
Her mother, Patricia Diaz, who owns La Catrina Folk Art, said the woman’s hostility backfired.
"Whatever hate she was trying to send my way — it turned into love and positivity and it turned into people coming in and supporting my business," Diaz said.
Rodriguez called it her first-ever "Karen" encounter, and hopes the woman learned a lesson.
They say a family member of the woman came to the store to apologize for the behavior. FOX 11 has reached out to the family for comment.
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