The May 1 immigrants’ rights march is a hard event to describe to a 12-year-old who is debating whether or not it will be worth his time. It is a historic, enormous event—the outcome of the cataclysmic, politically churning forces of globalization, and the erosion of political certainties such as “national boundaries.” Most of those things, though, pale when compared to the allure of online Pokémon.
Jose, originally from Mexico City, came here five years ago with his dad. His dad works in landscaping, often until late hours, and so Jose, who lives across the street from our office, comes to us precisely at 2:30 p.m. on weekdays and usually plays online video games for hours. I had been anxious to bring him to the march, because as a young immigrant without his papers, this was his march more than anyone’s.
He gets bored with protests, so we told him it was a party for immigrants’ rights, which, in retrospect, was probably the most accurate description of this year’s march. Without impending national legislation that would criminalize the undocumented and those who assisted them, as in 2006, this year’s May 1 march was almost all celebration, defined more by drumming and dancing than chants and speeches. And despite being a fraction of its size from previous years, the march cemented a certain legacy for itself, and showed an evolution of the immigrants’ rights movement to become once again youthful, organic, and unafraid.
The week before the march, many of us wondered how the law of diminishing return might impact the largest singular display of immigrant power in US history. Consider blockbuster movies: sequels sometimes work, but triquels usually bomb and can look like a desperate attempt to replicate past greatness. Would a third year, which aspires to establishing itself as a “tradition,” trade off some of the original integrity? Would we see a sort of uninspired, feet-dragging, obligatory march? Or worse, a corporate cannibalization of what could be looked at as a great marketing opportunity? (Think: people carrying posters that have Toyota and Budweiser ads on the back.) The true concerns were never quantitative (lowered numbers is common sense), but, rather, qualitative.
San Jose marches went from over 100,000 people in 2006 to 2,000 in 2008. Observers may equate the drop in numbers as a sign of the movement losing steam, but try telling Jose that. He was having a blast, and for all he knew, the entire world was marching with us. He led songs on the bullhorn, danced with the drummers, and made faces behind the newsman when the cameramen filmed. Unique to the immigrant marches is the family characteristic of it all. Jose would leave us, bounce around the crowd, and everyone took care of him like he was their little brother or son, protecting him from straying, and buying him ice cream from the paletero man. Someone gave him a huge US flag that he draped around himself like a cape. In San Jose, 2008, it makes perfect sense that Captain America would be reincarnated as a 12-year-old boy from Mexico City.
The reality is when you are in a sea of people that goes from sidewalk to sidewalk, and you can’t see the front or the back of the group, it doesn’t matter if it’s in the thousands or hundreds of thousands. The point is you feel powerful, part of some unstoppable force, and can allow your isolated, individual voice to fold into a larger chorus. That experience changes people, and the perception of themselves. It is why 2,000 people still returned a year later to march, despite an increase in raids and anti-immigrant city and state legislation across the country.
This was underscored by the timing of when people arrived and when they left. Unlike the previous two years, most people joined the march once it was in progress and left before the speeches at the end. Marchers came for the feeling of movement, that feeling of taking over the streets, rather than hearing about plans for policy changes or learning who to vote for. The march route itself was the political message. It is a course that begins at the corner of Story and King, a Little Mexico of sorts in east San Jose, and arrives at the political seat of power in San Jose, City Hall. It is a march path—an assertion that immigrant communities will come to the front door of civic discourse to become visible—that did not exist until they made it themselves three years ago.
And while lower numbers may not diminish that sensation of strength, it does become easier to see who is not there. In San Jose, that meant the unions and larger immigrant advocacy organizations that “organized” the march last year. Due to their absence, there was a familiarity of that original, organic march that defined 2006. That was the one that came directly from the undocumented community, from the Spanish radio DJs, and from the decisions made at kitchen tables by families. That march, like this one, followed none of the rules orderly protests are supposed to abide by. It had divergent march courses, allowed anyone to speak on the microphone, and had no trained internal security—which just means volunteers who show up an hour early that are given an arm band, and, thus, feel entitled to tell people where and how to walk. But what can be perceived as a lack of order from the outside, can feel like a sense of collective ownership from the inside. It was the same spirit that allowed Jose to lead chants, even though he was not given a chant sheet, and was not on the speakers list.
Of course, while the judgment of how successful the march will be based on May 1 itself, it will not show the real impact of the immigrant marches on the rest of the 364 days of the year. It does not show the actual organizing infrastructure that was built in its wake— emboldened mothers who are now community organizers, immigrant student groups that didn’t exist a few years ago, and strengthened neighborhood associations, who all see their own possibility of making history because the legacy of the immigrants’ rights marches that still persist.
On May 2, immigrant youth, lead by a group called MAIZ, an organization essentially born from the original May 1 march, held a follow-up concert called, “Enchandole Mas Chile,” (“put more spice on it”) at an eastside high school, that brought together Latino youth to do reflections on the march and talk about the Dream Act, legislation that would allow undocumented youth to go to college. As unique and unprecedented as the May 2 event was, it never would have happened without May1. Most of these youths, from various high schools and community colleges, met in a Target parking lot right before the march. They were going to march as a “Youth of Color” contingent, a strategy used in the anti-war and anti-globalization marches that are usually dominated by older white crowds. Here, at this march, the idea seemed ridiculous, in that most of the people were brown and young, or youngish. That automatic political critique that so plagues most progressive movements in this country, that those most affected by the issue are not the actual protestors, was irrelevant. So instead, they just gathered more people for the concert.
Jose couldn’t go to the May 2 event; it was a Friday, which is laundry day with his dad. His father was working during the march, and I wonder how Jose described his first May 1 march.
Little Jose here illegally all the way from Mexico City – isn’t that sweet.
Raj, next week can you do a story about how the millions of little illegal Jose’s and little illegal Jose’s parents are impacting the US citizens that are currently on the bottom rung and having to compete with the millions and millions of illegal parents of little Jose’s.
The week after that, can you do an expose on La Raza and Mecha? http://www.mayorno.com/WhoIsMecha.html
The week after the week after that, can you do an expose on how the illegal immigration marches are organized by communist organizations like International ANSWER?
And after that, can you do an expose about endemic Mexican racism and intolerance towards blacks and gays?
You could even throw in a contrast and compare piece on how Mexico enforces it’s southern border and how it treats illegal immigrants from Honduras and Guatamala.
“Everything for the race. Everything outside the race, nothing.” right Raj?
Jose, who lives across the street from our office, comes to us precisely at 2:30 p.m. on weekdays and usually plays online video games for hours.
Perhaps if this story said how his parents make him do his homework for hours after school it might have generated some sympathy for his plight.
Raj,
It is important to teach children the importance of respecting and following the laws of this country. I understand why people sneak into this country, but I also work with children who come here illegally, break the law and are not deported. It is very difficult to explain to a young teenager why it is wrong to steal from someone, when his or her parents are here illegally and are using fake IDs etc. to live and work here. Never mind trying to explain to the victim of a car accident why this illegal immigrant, without car insurance or a driver’s license can not pay them back for driving under the influence and smashing into them and totaling their car.
Honestly, I’m tired of hearing about this issue because my Mom and sisters came here legally from Germany. I have many friends from Vietnam, India, Iran, and other countries that came here legally too. They all followed the process, paid the money to come here, waited in line, so I don’t want to hear any more sob stories or excuses about why these folks think they are above the law, and can come here and demand rights they are not entitled to.
I’m also very offended when I hear sob stories about how hard they work, as though none of the rest of us work hard. I see families working two and three jobs just to pay the rent and feed their kids, but I guess because they aren’t all Hispanic the media doesn’t care to write about that. I’m also irritated when I hear that illegal immigrants will do the dirty work no one else will. I know many white, Vietnamese; Indian etc. folks who are scrubbing toilets working in restaurants and washing floors, and MANY of them have a college degree. The bottom line here is that we need to stop ignoring the plights of human beings period, and stop this separatist poor me mentality.
I want to see immigrants from Mexico fight for change in their own country to make it better there, so they don’t have to flee here and leave their children and families behind. I want to see them apply for work visas so they can come here legally. I also want to see them STOP having so many children. I think they need to realize how bringing children into the world while they are here illegally is just plain wrong. When they are arrested and on the rare occasion that they are made to leave here, they use the “you are separating me from my children,” card. No we are not! They made the choice to procreate knowing full well the chances they were taking when they decided to bring a child into the world under those conditions.
Our government should redo the immigration process as it is outdated and ridiculous. But that isn’t an excuse for lawlessness. Our children should never be led to believe that breaking the law is okay in some instances and not in others. Our children should be taught to follow the law and to strive to change it if they don’t like it. Our children should never be smuggled into a country illegally, nor should they be brought into the world when we know we could be separated from them because we broke the law~
Back in the sixties they use to hate African Americans and they use to call them names and dehumanize them now they hate Illegal Immigrants and they called them names and they dehumanize them. Sam Cooke said change is gonna come… But honestly I doubt it, because racist white people they’re always going to hate the next minority.
Racist white people?
Dearest self-loathing summer-of-love moron,
Kindly point to anything in posts 1-3 that is even slightly racist.
While you’re waiting for the 20 watt bulb to warm up, here are some gems for you.
“The Mexican government issued a series of stamps yesterday depicting a dark-skinned Jim Crow-era cartoon character with greatly exaggerated eyes and lips, infuriating black and Hispanic civil rights leaders for the second time in weeks.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/29/AR2005062902831.html
“Considered felons by the Mexican government, they fear detention, rape and robbery. Police and soldiers hunt them down at railroads, bus stations and fleabag hotels. Sometimes they are deported; more often officers simply take all their money.
While Mexico demands the humane treatment of its citizens who migrate to the U.S., it appears to be unable to guarantee similar rights for Central American migrants to this country.”
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/20060418-1004-mexico-mistreatingmigrants.html
“Reports by the U.S. State Department have found that violence against gays remains widespread in Mexico…”
On a lighter note – anybody know if Dave “Sí se puede” Cortese was at the “Immigration” rally?
Every so often we hear a story about some couple who has adopted a dozen or more children and have devoted thir lives, and their homes, to all these children who were not even their responsibility. They revel in the chaos and find true happiness in the knowledge that they are helping so many people who need help.Most of us admire the selflessness and sacrifice that these people give but deep down we think they are a bit nutty. Few of us would open up our own homes to others in this manner.
This is similar to the situation the United States is facing today. There are many, Mr. Jayadev included, I presume, who believe that it is our responibility to open up our country to whoever decides they want to come here- that we should abandon enforcement of our borders and our laws. The important distinction is that in the case of the couple who adopts all the children, BOTH husband and wife agree that this is what they want to do. It is not a unilateral decision made by one or the other. In the case of our country, there are many who simply want to shove unrestricted, illegal immigration down our throats. Is it any wonder that some of us may resent it? It is as though my own spouse has invited many strangers to live in our house and she never even asked me what I thought. And does it really mean that those of us who are in favor of legal, LIMITED, immigration must be racists?
If you really believe that then it is you who is the real racist.
#4- It sounds to me like you’ve had some pretty bad experiences to make such a statement. If someone has hurt you, or discriminated against you i am very sorry for that. Having said that, I must say that I think you are trying to re-writing history here. Thousands of white people marched along side Martin Luther King Jr. and many lost their lives, their jobs, and were badly beaten for fighting for the fair and equal treatment of African Americans. The first person to form the NAACP in San Jose was a WHITE person. The list of white people who have fought for civil and human rights is endless. It is unfair and remiss of you to clump ALL whites or ALL of any race into one category just because they feel strongly about being a law-abiding citizen. Hundreds of WHITES marched along side the immigrants in ALL the immigrant marches in San Jose, or did that escape your view?
We are all concerned about human rights. Look at how many WHITE people protested China’s treatment of Tibet! Look at how many races came together to protest the horrific practices of torture and abuse by China. We all care about anyone who is suffering, but we have LEGAL citizens, families of all cultures, and economic status losing their jobs, their homes, their businesses, and disabled, elderly people are going without food and proper medical care every day. We have soldiers coming back from this useless war, young soldiers committing suicide in numbers higher than in the history of the US.
We have children going without health care, an education, and without food. I honestly believe that before we can save another country from it’s self or take on it’s citizens, we really need to help ours first. I think we need to send money and aid to other countries to ensure that they can stand on their own two feet and be self sufficient, and we need to educate them in farming and other technological ways to do just that.
There are no free rides here. The US was built on hard work and dedication to freedom. It was not built on lawlessness, or charity. And it is one of the few countries in the world were you can speak your truth and live to see another day~
Awww poor little American’s have to compete for jobs that they most likely would not want and perhaps be able to do.
Jose still has an innocence to him and like millions of immigrants coming from ALL over the world in sight of a better life, his only crime is doing something that humans have been doing for thousands of years. Seeking a better life.
We all like to speak about much of a nuisance undocumented immigrants are to our society but when it come time for us to go to lunch and get fed by immigrants or when it comes time to was our over sized over priced suv’s, or even get out lawns and households kept clean we have no problem overlooking the unlawful existence of the “Jose’s” of our country!
Oh the hypocrisy. Oh the cognitive whiplash.
1. The left continuously bemoans the plight of the ‘Katrina poor’. Yet amazingly, the left sees no problem with giving citizenship to tons of illegal’s that will compete directly with the ‘Katrina poor’ thus ensuring that they remain on the bottom rung.
2. Listen to any garden variety leftist zombie and you’ll find that “diversity”, “tolerance”, and “inclusion” are their reason for being. Yet somehow these same leftists demand that citizenship be granted to millions of illegals that, as shown in the examples cited above, carry *much* racist, sexist, and homophobic baggage.
3. The left bemoans to no end the lack of a living wage and demands ‘social justice’. And then in the next breath the left demands citizenship for millions of illegal latinos.
Here’s a news flash – a never ending supply of cheap illegal labor guarantees that there will *never* be a fair wage paid to those on the bottom rung and ensures that those US citizens on the bottom rung never make it to the middle class.
4. Last I checked, resources and support services and are in high demand and short supply these days – so what does the left do? They set up ‘sanctuary cities’ for people who are here illegally. Please do not insult our intelligence by saying that the millions and millions of illegals in this country are not competing directly with poor US citizens for scarce public resources and social services.
5. This whole notion that our economy is going to collapse if you have to pay more to get your yard mowed is absurd. If goods and services get too expensive, you can bet your bottom peso that free markets, entrepeneurs, and innovation will be brought to bear on the problem to bring the price down.
Any business model that is based on exploitation of a cheap and illegal source of labor deserves to fail. Period.
The solution?
– Build the wall.
– Perp walk CEO’s and business owners hiring illegals.
Illegal immigration problem solved. Not so hard was it?
Finally, #8 please highlight the ‘bigotry’ that you find so ‘shocking’ in the above discourse.
Its just shocking to read the discourse of biogotry on this blog in the most diverse city in the US. Not a single poster acknowledges the reality of exploitation and discrimination that undocumented migrants face, nor role of the US government in promoting the free trade policies that pushes Latin American migrants to the US in the first place. Our economy is dependant on the sweat of this underclass of low wage workers made possible by their second class status as undocumented workers, but somehow this is all absent in your comments. Lastly, across the US immigrant rights coalitions have included broad cross sections of the progressive community including Asian, African-American, Middle-Eastern, faith based and even gay rights organizations. I guess knee-jerk reaction is just a more convenient line of thinking though. Good luck.
This link might be a good start for you all:
http://tinyurl.com/3kc9oc
Nothing like the old illegal immigrant question to polarize things.
Some points:
There were a lot fewer illegal immigrants before NAFTA. A few people got rich from that, but how about the average person, either side of the border?
There are millions of illegal immigrants here. How would it be physically possible to get them all to leave?
Forty years ago, your local supermarket bought cows and they were cut up in the back by a union butcher and put out for sale. If there was any kind of health problem it affected only a handful of people.
The supermarkets destroyed the butchers’ union and now meat is processed in giant plants in the midwest employing thousands of illegal immigrants in conditions replicating Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” (from the early 20th century). Any health problems now require destroying thousands of tons of meat.
The supermarket chains will now tell you that without illegal immigrants they will have to go out of business.
If you’re opposed to illegal immigrants, did you support the butchers’ union against the supermarket chains? Are you willing to pay more for your meat in order to pay a living wage to American butchers?
This is hardly the only industry where this question arises. If you’re a Republican, and you’re wondering why your party never quite manages to come to grips with the question of illegal immigration, it’s because some big money interests are making big bucks off illegal immigrants.
If you really wanted to get rid of illegal immigrants, how about mandatory jail terms for employers of illegal immigrants? And that includes you and your nanny, your gardener and the guys who fixed your roof. From now on, you can hire unionized American workers to do those jobs.
I don’t want to single out the Republicans here. The Democrats have not come up with any better plan to handle the problem.
In California we can look at our big agriculture industry. Can the prosperity of this industry be separated from the illegal immigration question?
At one time California had the “bracero” program, that brought a lot of agricultural workers in from Mexico on temporary work permits. The argument was then (in the 1940s), and today, that Americans will not do those jobs.
President Bush has proposed reviving this program, while others have maintained that it is tantamount to temporary slavery (since the braceros are brought in by one employer, they cannot complain about conditions without losing their jobs).
I’m not trying to score points off anyone here. I’m trying to point out that it’s a very complicated issue and there are no simple arguments.
I don’t see anyone who is seriously saying “Let’s let everybody in.” If you claim that, that is a straw man argument, and you are excluded from the discussion for reasons of fallacious reasoning.
I can see that from the individual point of view, those people who come here are just trying to make a better life for themselves. Probably a lot of them would be happy to stay in Mexico if that were possible, but here is where the money is. I have to admit if I were in their place I would probably do the same. Wouldn’t most of us be willing to make sacrifices to help out our families?
On the other hand, if just anybody could come in, we would be overwhelmed. I don’t think that anyone would seriously argue that we would be able to cope with what would happen.
I’ll leave the last paragraph unchanged, but I suppose what would happen would be something like Rio de Janeiro. Major cities would be surrounded by huge areas full of squatters who build slums on land stolen from the legal owners. If the Brazilians can cope with it, who am I to say that Americans couldn’t cut the mustard?
Right now we sit at a fragile compromise. Barriers to illegal immigration are set high enough that only a certain number get in. Some people benefit from it, not only the super-rich, but you, the person who had your trees trimmed cheap. But illegal immigration hasn’t yet caused enough unemployment that people are rioting in the streets.
Any movement either way threatens to upset the equilibrium, so there is some sentiment for “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. The long-term solution is clearly to improve the economies of Latin America so that people are happy to stay at home (not a problem that could be solved by the US alone). But how to deal with the in-between state?
Note: I mention Mexico, for brevity’s sake, but the same arguments apply to other Central American countries as well.
#8- What is shocking to me is that you find “bigotry” in people wanting citizens to be law abiding, for children to be protected from selfish parents who do something as dangerous as smuggling their innocent children across borders illegally, or give birth to children they can not support in the first place, including subjecting them to the horrors of being separated from their parents, if on the rare occasion they are deported! It is shocking to me that you can be so close-minded to think that the rich profit-mongering businesses in the U.S. are exploiting only immigrants. Look around you and start talking to people in all kinds of professions and you’ll get a reality check fast quick and in a hurry! I think your scope of vision is clouded by your own personal bias and unwillingness to see that this is something that affects us ALL not just one race.
#10- You do make a very excellent point about how this countries huge corporations outsource jobs for cheap labor. I’d like to add to that they not only screwing the Unions and driving down the living wage by doing that, but the American people and the market as a whole. And the real kicker is these idiots get BIG tax breaks for it!
Immigrants aren’t the only ones who are exploited by huge profit seeking companies! Look at how many people who went into debt to get a college degree are making a very poor salary compared to the huge cooperation they work for. It is just appalling to me! But it is NOT limited to immigrants I can tell you that.
#11- I honestly don’t mean this in a rude way, but it seems to me your statements are based on your limited personal experiences. I guess you limit where you eat, or do business to an area that doesn’t employ white service workers. I guess you have never been exposed to privileged /whites that scrubbed toilets, worked in fast food, cleaned houses, or worked as an aide to an elderly person. I did all of these jobs, my friends did, and some still do.
I want to go on record here saying that I personally blame the leaders of this country, and Mexico for this mess. Our borders haven’t been secure for a very long time, nor have our immigration procedures been properly updated. (Hence 911.) The President of Mexico, which none of you have mentioned at all, should be ashamed of himself for allowing his people to starve, go without work, health care and a million other things a human being deserves to have a decent life. This guy is just unbelievable but he is smart. He wants immigrants to come here, work their fingers to the bone and send their money back to Mexico so HE doesn’t have to do anything to help HIS own people. Sickening!
Secondly, our leaders in this country have allowed huge cooperation’s to enslave the working class to the point of disgusting. Novice is correct about one thing for sure, if illegal immigrants were run out of this country and were not allowed back in, some very smart, very wealthy pinhead would fill those jobs in a hot second because it is not about legal or illegal immigrants, it is about something much simpler, it is all about “The Money!”
Small business owners, regardless of color, are being driven out of business, and unless we support them they’ll be a thing of the past. The cost of living is going through the roof and more and more jobs are being lost. So cast your votes carefully in the coming months, and stop using the immigration issue as a ruler for who and how you’ll vote because there is much, much more at stake here than that.
#12- Not surprisingly you didn’t get any takers on your challenge to point out evidence of bigotry. These people don’t need any evidence. They just know they are right and that you and I are bigots.
#8- You are right. This country IS dependent
on the sweat of low wage workers. I admire the work ethic exhibited by these people. It is lamentable, however, that the jobs that they do will remain low-paying since there is a gigantic army of workers competing with one another for the same jobs. This is basic economics- supply & demand. It is the existence of this permanent, self-renewing labor force that is keeping the poor poor and making the rich richer, all the while destroying the middle class.
I’m on your side, #8. You just haven’t figured it out yet.
In a society that values profits at the cost of cheap labor, immigrants are treated like just another commodity that’s bartered across borders but the conversation around it is centered around “legality”. If that’s what we want to start with, then great—let’s question the legality of the trade itself. Let’s question the companies that move from the United States to other countries for the sake of cheap labor and less stringent regulations that add to and force poverty. Those are the real illegal immigrants.
On another note, thank you for writing this piece. Thank you for voicing what it feels like to be in the inside of a march and a movement. Obviously, it touched a nerve in other people who write here that they would go as far as to personally attack you and accuse of you being a racist, but it only reveals their own racist prejudices and feelings of inadequacy that they want to deflect onto you. Instead of talking about being brown, I hope they think about what it means to be white and/or privileged. I hope they let down their defense mechanisms and really read your piece instead of being so accusatory. Raj never said no one else works hard, or that people who favor legal limited immigration were racists. Raj told a story of the march and its significance for the people who were there, who led it, and who were affected by it.