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Latin Palace tranquil, not troublesome, supporters say

Baffled by the charges, suspicious of the process, patrons come out to offer their help to the club following liquor-license suspension

Above: Antoine Chambers and Janet Arce, two of the supporters who came Tuesday to the Latin Palace.

Most knew little about the specific violations that prompted the Liquor Board to shut down the Latin Palace for two months, but the supporters gathered at the club last night uniformly declared it non-violent and a cultural oasis for area Latinos.

Its proprietor, Jose Enrique Ribadeneira, was described as a force for good in the community.

“It’s very sad that this has happened. He’s been in the community for years and years and this has always been a peaceful place,” said Antoine Chambers, who said he lives in the county but has been coming to the Latin Palace in Fells Point  since it opened 17 years ago.

Janet Arce, founder of community resource center Fundacion Arce in Highlandtown, said Ribadeneira generously hosted events aimed at raising funds to buy toys and school supplies for children in Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Friends of the Latin Palace stopped by to show their support. (Photo by Fern Shen)

Friends of the Latin Palace stopped by to show their support. (Photo by Fern Shen)

“He opened his doors and put out food so we were able to use all the revenue from the fundraiser to send the toys to the children,” Arce said.

She and Chambers were among about 50 people who showed up over the course of an evening at the club, whose liquor license suspension last week has been at the center of an increasingly ugly controversy as Ribadeneira has accused other community leaders of racism.

After Ribadeneira’s remarks before the board last week insinuated racism and his subsequent signage on the shuttered club alleged it explicitly, new signs point the finger even more sharply. “Fells Point Community Organization = racist,” one reads.

“There’s so much REAL racism in the world, that I feel frustrated when some people use it as a way to deflect away from what they did,” wrote Joanne Masopust, president of the Fells Point Community Organization, in a Facebook comment about the controversy.

Fells Prospect’s Victor Corbin, an Hispanic supporter of Masopust, warned he is taking Ribadeneira’s remarks personally: “He’d better not pick a fight with me.”

Amid the incendiary charges, some guests Tuesday night were not ready to make a comment. “I’m just here to listen,” said Luis Larin, an organizer with United Workers. “I want to get some information at this point.”

No Place Like It

Behind the bar serving up plastic bottles of water, Ribadeneira appeared by turns genial and besieged.

He said he plans to appeal the suspension via a new lawyer, former Liquor Board Commissioner Edward Smith Jr., but declined to provide a cell phone number for him. (Smith has not yet replied to a phone message left at his office.)

Asked to confirm he was served yesterday with an eviction notice for the property at 509-13 South Broadway, Ribadeneira replied, “Yes, I think that may be happening.”

Supporters said they had no idea where 1998 restrictions against live entertainment and dancing at the Latin Palace came from, seemed to have little familiarity with the various groups representing Fells Point  neighborhoods before the Liquor Board and were baffled about why restrictions were being enforced against a club where they have gone salsa dancing and socialized for years.

His liquor license suspended, Jose Enrique Ribadeneira was carefully to serve H2O only last night. (Photo by Fern Shen)

His liquor license suspended, Ribadeneira was careful to serve only H2O last night. (Photo by Fern Shen)

“I come here for fun, to salsa dance and to be with other people like me in the only place in town that is like this. Other salsa places in the city mostly cater to a white audience,” said Michelle Gomez, program coordinator for the Latino Providers Network.

“I think it’s ridiculous to close him down for two months for minor violations,” said Robert Abrahams, who said he has been coming to the club to dance for 15 years.

“I’m not fully knowledgeable about what laws he may have broken,” said another loyal patron, Javier G. Bustamante. “But this place is centered on live entertainment. This is the right place for live entertainment.”

He passed around a copy of an email Masopust had written to Ribadeneira, focusing on a sentence in which she spoke highly of the “new [Liquor] board” and encouraged him to come see them in action.

Bustamante highlighted that part with a yellow marker and passed the paper to Ribadeneira, saying suspiciously, “I think this is very telling – what does she mean ‘new board’? Who is she talking about?”

What About the Drunk White People?

Although none of the guests alleged racial motives as baldly as Ribadeneira has, several raised the issue of race and class implicitly.

The latest sign outside Latin Palace. (Photo by Fern Shen)

The latest sign outside Latin Palace. (Photo by Fern Shen)

“There are bars that have a whole lot of problems, that have live entertainment when they are not supposed to and they don’t go after them!” said Angelo Solera, executive director of the Latino Providers Network.

“There are many drunk white people in the bars in Fells Point that come out and piss in the streets and yet they don’t shut them down. Why?”

He and others said community organizing and Liquor Board actions aimed at the Latin Palace stem from real estate pressure pushing northward and eastward from more affluent white areas in Fells Point and Harbor East.

“This is about gentrification,” said Solera.

Outside the Process

Asked why his group and other Latino organizations have not supported Latin Palace at the Liquor Board or worked with Masopust’s group or others to negotiate  an agreement, Solera was dismissive.

“I’m not in the business of trying to figure out what’s going on in the Liquor Board,” he said. “Why don’t they come to us? Why don’t they come to our community?”

“He’s always supported events, he’s always been been here for us,” Patterson High School teacher Kelly Flores said. (Photo by Fern Shen)

White interests are trying to “choke” Latino businesses out of the area said a combative Solera, who vowed to resist: “We have been here for 30 years. We are not going anywhere.”

Ribadeneira, meanwhile, when asked why area Latino groups had not represented his point of view at the Liquor Board, said the groups have not been too active in recent years.

“The Hispanic Business Association wants to get re-established,” he said. “Maybe this will get them to come back together.”

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