Fired poet Nephtalí De León is bringing the heat to the city's Department of Arts and Culture. According to San Antonio Report, De León has filed a lawsuit alleging that his First Amendment rights were trampled upon when he was given the boot over a Facebook post that supposedly contained a racial slur. The suit, filed by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, accuses the city and its executive director, Krystal Jones, of unjust termination and defamation.

Notably, this isn't De León's first rodeo with the city. He was entangled in a 2014 code compliance lawsuit, which apparently didn't go his way. Fast forward to now, the complaint describes a terse five-minute conversation with Jones on August 14, 2023, where De León was presented the option to either resign or to immediately be terminated—he went with the latter. Casey Norman of the NCLA was quoted saying the City "has allowed cancel culture to cloud its vision," in a statement obtained by the press. 

The bone of contention here seems to be the nuanced linguistics of Chicano Caló, a concoction of Mexican, Spanish, and American linguistic flavors that De León employs in his poetry. The term in question, as described in the 40-page lawsuit, was reportedly a staple in this vernacular—a detail the poet was not given the chance to articulate before his sacking. The lawsuit also highlights how Aztlan Libre Press publisher Juan Tejeda and former poet laureate Andrea "Vocab" Sanderson objected to the use of this term sparking off the controversy. An upcoming De León feature at local literary nonprofit Gemini Ink was canceled amidst the brouhaha, adding to a list of missed gigs lamented in the lawsuit.

De León's brush with San Antonio's ethical standards allegedly led to a domino effect, causing him to lose a slew of gigs, such as an event at Palo Alto College and an appearance for The Links Incorporated, according to the lawsuit. He even missed out on being the honorary grand marshal for the El Dieciseis de Septiembre parade. De León's suit is seeking to recover the $7,000 he'd have earned as poet laureate and also symbolic damages and attorney’s fees, as well as a retraction of the City's public statement on his termination.