A Latino man spoke out on Tuesday after he was in a viral video that showed a woman unleashing a racist rant against him and his mother in the Lake Arrowhead area.
Esteban Guzman, a 27-year-old systems administrator, previously said he confronted an unidentified woman after she yelled “Go back to Mexico” to his mother.
“She started going off, saying I’m a rapist and I’m an animal and I’m a drug dealer,” Guzman said to KTLA on Tuesday. “You can see it on the video.”
Guzman said he was “very angry” about the incident but experienced a mix of emotions. He said he holds no animosity toward the woman in the video, and hopes she becomes more accepting of people from different backgrounds.
He added his mother came to the U.S. illegally but he was able to earn a college degree through her hard work.
“I just want to make it clear there’s no room for racism in today’s world,” he said. “It will not be tolerated. It will not be ignored.”
A Lake Arrowhead-area resident said the local community was experiencing “shock and outrage” over the incident.
“That people think it’s OK to treat people that way … it’s definitely not the majority of what we see here on a daily basis,” said Jaime Stiansen.