Getting the Word Out on Immigration
LOS ANGELES, March 30, 2006 — -- The enormous turnout at immigration rallies in Los Angeles took this city, the country, and much of the media by surprise -- but not the Spanish-language media, because they played an active role in getting the word out.
The turnout in the demonstrations on Saturday was estimated at half a million people, a number not seen here since the protests against the Vietnam War.
"Never in our city have we had so many people come together," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said.
Latinos, including the mayor, are fighting federal legislation that would make illegally entering the United States a felony. To cheers, the mayor said, "We will defeat the legislation, and we will because it's un-American."
Some who marched at the rally echoed the mayor's sentiment.
"We were united, and we all came for a single cause," said Maria Huertas, a 27-year-old single mother from Colombia.
In Washington, politicians have long known that Latinos have the potential to be a major political force, but they have rarely been able to unite for any length of time.
Despite that, community activists and Latino journalists say Saturday's large turnout was expected.
"All the Latino community knew about it -- especially those Latinos who don't even know English," said Gustavo Arellano who writes the column "Ask a Mexican" for the newspaper Ocean County Weekly. "They knew what was going on in Congress and they weren't going to stand for it, so they went out there and rallied.
"You have these protests and somehow everyone's surprised. I wasn't surprised. I'm a member of the media. Latino members of the media were not surprised because we have our ear to the street," he said.
Activists planned Saturday's rally in just a few weeks and tackled it much the way politicians would go about a campaign. They began meeting in December and determined their goal -- influence the debate in Washington. They scheduled the rally two days before the U.S. Senate took up immigration legislation. "We wanted to impact, really impact," rally organizer Javier Rodriguez said.
