What's scarier than scurrying cockroaches closing Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant for a day? For petitioning activists, the answer is Knott's Scary Farm's Día de los Muertos-inspired “Fiesta de los Muertos” scare zone!
“I hope you join me in asking Knott's Scary Farm to discontinue this sacred holiday as a theme,” writes Hesperia resident Armando Cruz Velasco on Change.org. “Please sign this petition with me, letting Knott's know that, until they change once and for all this 'Scare Zone' to something less culturally insensitive and offensive, you will not/no longer be a patron–and will encourage others to do the same.”
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The Weekly is seeking comment from Knott's. In the meantime, Fiesta de los Muertos has gone on for years and there's no denial from the theme park that it's modeled after Day of the Dead, an indigenous rooted traditional holiday celebrated mostly in Mexico and ever-increasing in popularity stateside.
“Fiesta De Los Muertos fuses dance music, colorful costumes, and larger-than-life stilt walkers in a dance party scare zone with even more characters than last year,” reads the website for the attraction. “It's the ultimate late night celebration of Dia de los Muertos.”
Activists say the Scare Zone appropriates the holiday rather than honors it. “Scareactors” with Día de los Muertos face paint spook theme park goers like their Halloween ghoul counterparts, though the two don't really share anything in common. Scarier yet, there's a dance floor with giant calaveras decorating the stage while EDM music thumps into the night. Yikes!
Though the petition is still under a thousand signatures, beware, Knott's Berry Farm! Mad Mexis beat back Mickey Rat last year when Disney tried to trademark Día de los Muertos ahead of a similarly themed Pixar film!
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!