Singer performs national anthem in Spanish at Dodger Stadium to protest ICE raids in Los Angeles

Los Angeles is home to a reported 1.8 million Spanish-speaking residents, but rarely do they hear the national anthem sung in that language. 

On Saturday night at Dodger Stadium, with 51,548 fans on their feet and television cameras trained on the field, Vanessa Hernández stood behind home plate and sang the national anthem, which is traditionally sung before every sporting event in the United States. 

Only this time, it was different. 

Known to fans by the stage name Nezza, the Dominican-American singer took the mic at Dodger Stadium and performed “El Pendón Estrellado,” the official Spanish-language version of the U.S. national anthem — apparently against the wishes of the Los Angeles Dodgers. 

The Dodgers told her not to. She decided to do it anyway.

Wearing a shirt adorned with the Dominican flag, Hernández’s voice quivered with emotion as she reached the final line, her eyes welling with tears. But her defiance was clear. It was for her people — para mi gente — a stand against a system that, as she put it, is “ripping families apart” amid a wave of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids that have sent fear cascading through Latino communities in Los Angeles since June 6.

As she later shared on her TikTok, a Dodgers staff member had explicitly told her, “We are going to do the song in English today.” Hernández decided to let her voice respond.

And it reverberated like a thunderclap.

@babynezza

para mi gente ❤️ i stand with you

♬ original sound - nezz

While Nezza was turning the anthem into an act of protest, many of the fans in attendance didn’t know what to think. Some clapped and cheered, others stood with their mouths agape. Others turned to social media to let the world know what was happening, and Nezza’s decision was met with mixed reviews. 

“These people are evil,” wrote one user about Nezza’s act of protest. 

“They should've cut off her mic and apologized to their audience. This kind of inaction, might push away a lot of Dodger fans,” wrote another. 

“Has her legal status been checked? DEPORT HER!,” wrote someone else. 

But the reviews weren’t all negative. Many people applauded Nezza’s courage and bravery.

“Her courage is palpable. So proud of her,” wrote one user on X. 

“I’m obsessed with her! That was beautiful,” wrote another. 

“Awesome,” said a user, summarizing the performance in one word. 

While Nezza was stirring up controversy with her rendition of the anthem, Shohei Ohtani was turning baseballs into souvenirs. The reigning National League MVP hammered two home runs — his 21st and 22nd of the season — leading the Dodgers to an 11-5 rout of the archrival San Francisco Giants. The win catapulted Los Angeles into sole possession of first place in the NL West.

But ask anyone who was there: it was Nezza’s voice, not Ohtani’s bat, that stole the night.

The tension that’s gripped Los Angeles over the past 10 days has reached a boiling point. ICE raids — ordered by the Trump administration in the name of “public safety” — have been tearing through neighborhoods, triggering mass protests and national outrage. U.S. Marines deployed in Boyle Heights. National Guard units in East L.A. Helicopters circling over Pico-Union.

Even California’s highest officials are caught in the chaos. Senator Alex Padilla was arrested after a fiery confrontation with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Governor Gavin Newsom has pleaded for federal forces to back down. LA Mayor Karen Bass has called the raids “a humanitarian disaster.”

A federal judge on Friday ruled that President Donald Trump’s move to federalize the California National Guard was illegal — but enforcement of that ruling has been paused pending appeal.

And in the middle of this storm, the Dodgers stayed quiet.

Until Saturday night.

The Dodgers didn’t issue a statement. They didn’t comment on Nezza’s protest. In fact, they tried to shut it down before it even happened.

But as her voice rose over the stadium, backed by the echo of history — Roosevelt’s 1945 commissioning of “El Pendón Estrellado” — a message broke through. This wasn’t about rebellion. It was about belonging.

But as her voice rose over the stadium, backed by the echo of history — Roosevelt’s 1945 commissioning of “El Pendón Estrellado” — a message broke through. This wasn’t about rebellion. It was about belonging.

“My parents are immigrants,” she said later. “They’ve been citizens my whole life at this point, but I just can’t imagine them being ripped away from me. Not now. Not when I was a kid. Never.”

Though the Dodgers haven’t banned Nezza — and they reportedly don’t plan to — she joked online, “Safe to say I’m never allowed in that stadium ever again.”

The franchise's lone public-facing voices came from individual players. Veteran utility man Kiké Hernández wrote on Instagram, “I’m saddened and infuriated. Our community is being violated, profiled, abused and ripped apart.”

Adrián González, the beloved former first baseman and now broadcaster, called the raids “unconstitutional” and demanded the government stop the separation of families.

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