www.RioGrandeGuardian.com
Monday, April 3, 2006
Steve Taylor

LUPE gets message out about immigrants' rights march the old-fashioned way

Saturday's march attraced around 2,000 people

SAN JUAN - What do pro-immigrants’ rights activists do to get out the word about a march when the local media largely ignores them?

In Los Angeles, the students send each other text messages. In the less high-tech Rio Grande Valley they use more old-fashioned methods.

“My uncle, Candito Gonzalez, has an ice-cream round in Mission, Edinburg, and La Joya, so he was able to tell the people in the colonias about the march when he did his rounds,” said young United Farm Workers activist Juan Angel Garcia, from Pharr.

Around 2,000 people marched from Arturo Guajardo Park in San Juan for a rally outside the offices of La Unión del Pueblo Entero, also in San Juan, on Saturday.

Although the march was in honor of UFW founder César Chávez, the focus for most who participated was opposition to HR4437, the U.S. House legislation that curtails immigrants’ rights, and support for comprehensive immigration reform, including a guest worker program, a path to U.S. citizenship, the Ag Jobs bill and the DREAM Act.

Organizers of the rally said they were delighted with the turnout because there had hardly been any advance publicity in the local media. Most years, the annual César Chávez march attracts about a quarter of those who participated in Saturday’s event, said LUPE director Juanita Valdez-Cox.

“This was a fantastic turnout. We printed 700 T-shirts to commemorate the event and we ran out almost immediately. We are very pleased,” Valdez-Cox said. “People feel passionate about immigrants’ rights. As César Chávez said, you can’t oppress a people who are no longer afraid. Somos muchos y seremos más.”

Ofelia de los Santos, executive director of Sembrando Community Economic Development and legal counsel to LUPE, said she helped spread the word about the march by visiting local schools.

“Juanita and I get invited to speak about our memories of César Chávez in the local schools. I was able to give the rally a plug at two or three high schools in Edinburg,” de los Santos said. “Also, the Spanish-language media, particularly Channels 40 and 48, is very good to us,” she said.

Alan Padilla, a high school student from La Joya, said he heard about the march from his mother, who had heard something about it Saturday morning on Univision. “I called the station and asked them where it was taking place. It was worth coming. I thought it would be a small thing but it’s lasted most of the day. It’s been great,” Padilla said.

Felipe D. Silva, a junior at Economedes High School in Edinburg and member of Hidalgo County Young Democrats, said he helped get the message out through the distribution of flyers. “I can’t text message. I don’t even own a cell phone,” he said.

Blanca Hernandez, a young mother from Pharr, said she grew up in the United Farm Workers movement so all of her family was aware of the march. She said she would not expect the Valley to be as passionate about immigrants’ rights as some of the big cities across America because there’s less discrimination along the border.

“It’s more tranquil here because we are the majority. But we still care. When you see an injustice, you want to fight it,” Hernandez said. “We may not have got much coverage but this is a fabulous day.”

Roman Garcia, a young United Farm Workers activist from McAllen, said he was marching to highlight the inconsistencies in the arguments made by anti-immigrant groups. “They don’t say no when we enlist in the Army. They don’t say no when we pick the crops. It is unjust that we are the undocumented taxpayers,” Garcia said.

Rosanna Méndez, a local organizer for the Service Employees International Union, said she was able to get 25 of her union’s members to participate in Saturday’s rally by passing out flyers and making phone calls.

“We represent more immigrants than any other union in the country. The proposed legislation will have a deep impact on our members and their families,” Méndez said. “I am just pleased to see so many young people involved.”

Emiliano Diaz de Leon, executive director of the Men's Resource Center of South Texas, said he told people about Saturday’s march through his e-mail list-serve. “There are a number of non-governmental organizations in the Valley and they are passionate about these causes. They will help get the word out,” he said.

John Lasseigne, a pastor of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in San Juan and a Valley Interfaith co-leader, said he put up a sign outside his church when he heard about the about the march.

Lasseigne said more people would have known about the march if the Valley had a radio talk show host like El Piolin, whose syndicated morning show is broadcast in 20 cities across America. El Piolin, whose real name is Eduardo Sotelo, persuaded colleagues from 11 Spanish-language radio stations in Los Angeles to talk up the March 25 pro-immigrant rally in his city. The rally attracted about 500,000 people.

Nick Braune teaches philosophy and ethics in the Valley and writes a weekly column for the Mid Valley Town Crier. Braune said newspapers in the Valley and San Antonio were wrong to claim there was apathy in South Texas about immigration issues.

“Certain papers seem to want to deny there is major movement on this issue. There are three times as many people here than last year and many organizations are represented,” Braune said. As a keen observer of immigration issues, Braune said he had felt a “vibe” leading up to the Los Angeles rally. “I knew it was going to be big,” he said.

San Juan Mayor San Juanita Sanchez, who spoke at Saturday’s rally, said the large turnout was caused in part by the TV coverage coming out of Los Angeles.

“You could just feel the desperation of those immigrants on TV. You just feel you have to come together and show unity. I think it was time for Texas to wake up and we have,” Sanchez said.

Prior commitments kept U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, D-Mercedes, from attending Saturday’s march but he did get to speak at the very end of the rally. “We could easily have had 5,000 people here if there had been more coverage,” Hinojosa told the Guardian. “People feel very passionately about this issue.”

Valdez-Cox and de los Santos thanked Hidalgo County Commissioners Oscar Garza and Joe Flores for the financial help they gave LUPE for the march.

© Copyright of Rio Grande Guardian, www.riograndeguardian.com; Melinda Barrera, 2006. All rights reserved.