A Woman Yelled 'Go Back to Mexico' Seconds Before a Laguna Beach Proposal

The clip from Crescent Bay Point Park has topped 10.8 million Instagram views, and the police she said she'd called never came.

The mariachis had started playing at Laguna Beach's Crescent Bay Point Park when a woman walking her dog told a family to go back to Mexico. Seconds later, on Friday, Oct. 2, Emmanuel Banuelos got down on one knee in front of white roses and candles and asked Hayley Lugos to marry him.

She said yes. The woman had already told the crew she'd called the police to make them take the whole thing down. Police never came, and by Monday afternoon the video of her tirade had passed 10.8 million views on Instagram, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Banuelos had spent two months looking for the right place to propose before settling on the clifftop park and its ocean view, NBC Los Angeles reported. He hired mariachis to play the songs his girlfriend loves most and asked her sister, Trinity Lugos, to film it. Trinity and the crew were tucked out of sight so the bride-to-be wouldn't spot them, Patch reported, and she was recording on a pair of Meta glasses when the woman walked up.

In the clip Trinity posted to her Trinity Films account, the woman complains that "the park is for people that live here to enjoy" and says she's sick of setups like this every weekend. A crew member promises they'll be out soon and tells her they weren't there the weekend before. Then the music starts, the couple walks toward the roses, and she turns on them: "This isn't Mexico either," she yells, before a curse and a final order to go back to Mexico.

Banuelos said the woman showed no respect for the family or its culture. "We live here. I've lived here all my life," he told NBC Los Angeles, adding that the couple would welcome an apology. He told the Times his Mexican roots run deep, which made the words sting more. After the proposal they drove home to Ontario, where he'd planned a surprise engagement party, the Times reported.

Laguna Beach's spokesperson, Lauren Ezell, told Patch that hateful words and behavior don't reflect the city's values. The city also pointed to its rules: it told the Times that a documented proposal needs a professional photography permit and that proposals with setups or structures aren't allowed, though it wouldn't say whether this one broke them. Banuelos didn't think he needed a permit, since the person filming was family and they used no amplified sound or temporary structures. Trinity told the Times the setup, the proposal and the cleanup took less than an hour, and the Laguna Beach Police Department didn't tell the Times whether a call about it ever came in.

Trinity said she posted the video because she wanted the woman held accountable, and she never expected millions of people to watch it. Her sister is glad they did. "It shows that you can't be doing this stuff anymore," Hayley Lugos told the Times.

Source: Los Angeles Times, retrieved October 6, 2026. Other sources: nbclosangeles.com, patch.com.