LA merchants fight to save 97-year-old cross as lawyer warns of nationwide stakes

A legal battle over a nearly century-old cross tradition and longstanding Nativity display in the historic heart of Los Angeles could threaten generations of Mexican-American traditions and leave religious monuments across the country vulnerable, an attorney representing local merchants fighting to preserve the displays told Fox News Digital.

"If the cross and nativity were taken down, it would just be the first step in unraveling the vibrant community cultural celebrations, a lot of which have their roots in Mexican-American Catholic history and really decimating this tight-knit community," Andrea Butler, counsel at Becket and lead attorney for the merchants, told Fox News Digital Thursday in an interview.

A cross has stood at the head of Olvera Street since 1929, when the original was raised to celebrate Los Angeles' 148th birthday, while a life-size Nativity is displayed each December as part of the community's traditional Las Posadas celebration.

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Last year, according to Becket, a resident sued the city asking it to remove or cover the cross and stop the Nativity display, arguing the display "offends [him] and makes [him] feel excluded as a non-believer."

The religious-liberty group said merchants have helped preserve those traditions since the area was revitalized in the 1920s, with some current vendors belonging to families that have operated at the market since it opened in 1930. Merchants also help organize annual cultural and religious celebrations, including Día de los Reyes, Día de los Muertos and Las Posadas.

In its Monday filing, Becket asked the Ninth Circuit to allow the Olvera Street Merchants Association Foundation to join the legal battle over a nearly century-old cross and longstanding Nativity display at El Pueblo in Los Angeles. Becket said the merchants are seeking to defend religious and cultural traditions their families have helped preserve for generations.

According to Becket, El Pueblo attracts millions of visitors each year to its Olvera Street marketplace, historic sites and cultural events celebrating the neighborhood’s Mexican-American heritage.

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"El Pueblo and Olvera Street are some of the most historic areas in Los Angeles," Butler said. "They are very near the site of the original founding of the city back in the 1700s, and the area has had a long and sometimes bumpy history throughout the history of LA. It… went through substantial decline for centuries, and then in the 1930s, the historic and cultural value of the area was really recognized, and there was a concerted effort to restore the area, preserve the city's historical and cultural history through designating it as El Pueblo Historical Monument. And at the time of the 1930s when the restoration efforts were really underway, that's when the Olvera Street Market took shape, and our clients, the merchants, are members of families who have been selling their goods on the market on Olvera Street since the 1930s."

Butler added, "Most of them are third or fourth generation members of this community. And so the cross and the nativity are really vital components of long-standing history and tradition, most of which, in the context of El Pueblo, is Mexican-American history really celebrated in Los Angeles culture."

She said the case is about whether the First Amendment will be upheld in protecting the displays.

"At the Becket Fund, we believe that religion is a natural part of human culture and history, and it's something that should be celebrated just like any other part of our heritage, history, culture, and it's not something that needs to be basically thought of as kind of a dirty word or something that needs to be taken down because some people might find it offensive," Butler said.

"It's something that is a natural part of human culture and should be part of the displays that we see celebrating our culture throughout the country," she added. "And the idea that the founders would have thought a passive religious display celebrating a historical moment in time needed to be taken down because it violated the First Amendment is really absurd."

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In a statement to Fox News Digital, Valerie Hanley, treasurer of the Olvera Street Merchants Association Foundation, said, "Olvera Street is not just a part of our families’ heritage, it’s at the heart of Los Angeles’s history. One offended bystander shouldn’t get to decide which parts of our City’s story we can tell."

Fox News Digital reached out Jack Gerritsen, one of the plaintiffs in the case, for comment.