'We Decided Not to Be Invisible Anymore'

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Pro-Immigration Rallies Held Across U.S.
In a powerful show of grass-roots muscle-flexing, national rallies are held to sound a battle cry over Congress's failure to reshape immigration laws.

The fast-growing Hispanic population now accounts for about 14 percent of the U.S. population, but only about 8 percent of the voters in the last presidential election. For years, experts have predicted that Latinos were on the cusp of significant political power, and with this week's rallies, Latino advocates said they have turned a corner. "I think it's a watershed moment," said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute in Los Angeles.

Whether the rallies spur greater participation at the ballot box by the many Latino citizens who are not registered or who vote only irregularly will not be known until later, but there seemed to be little dispute yesterday that the demonstrations were the most significant public expression yet on political issues by the Hispanic community, which is now the largest minority group in the United States.

Hector Flores, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, said that part of the movement is unfolding. "The message is 'Today we march, tomorrow we vote,' " he said. Organizations registered thousands to vote at Sunday's march in Dallas.

Flores said he could answer the people who ask, "Why now?" The House bill introduced by Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) "is touching a nerve, man," he said. "It's raw." Flores said the bill threatens to tear apart the family unit, the fabric that holds Latinos together.

"How do you tell the children of undocumented workers who are fighting in Iraq that we're going to deport your parents and your grandparents?" Flores said. "I'm a fifth-generation Mexican American -- there's no distinction between them and me."

Still, along march routes yesterday there were some voices of those opposed to illegal immigration. In Phoenix, state Rep. John Allen (R) held a sign that said "Governor, I'll hold them off, you get the National Guard."

"The question is, when do we stop this activity of illegal immigration?" he said into a battery of cameras. "Right now, it's like Groundhog Day. You wake up every day and there's more of them. It will be this way until we have a closed border."

Many of the organizers said Spanish-language radio, television and newspapers were instrumental not just in helping attract big crowds but for influencing the look and tone of yesterday's rallies.

In Dallas, El Hispanic News covered plans for the march closely. In Los Angeles, Eddie "Piolin" Sotelo, the city's top-rated disc jockey, and also a Mexican immigrant who entered the United States in the trunk of a car in 1986, joined with rival disc jockey Renan "El Cucuy" Almendarez Coello and others to pump up the volume for the rally. They told people where to go, what to wear and what to carry.

Alvaro M. Huerta, who helped organize the Los Angeles rally, said disc jockeys helped spread the word to carry American flags and to wear white shirts as a symbol of peaceful protest.

"We have to give the community credit," he said. "They saw the TV, heard the radio. We expect most people to come with the American flag. We're also here to show our love for the country."

But labor, church and community organizations also helped put together yesterday's nationwide demonstrations. "It was not an overnight thing," said Maria Elena Durazo of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and an organizer of rallies there yesterday and last month.

The Rev. Michael Kennedy of La Placita Catholic Church, which was ground zero for yesterday's candlelight vigil in Los Angeles, drew a parallel between the recent marches and the civil rights movement in the South in the 1950s and 1960s.

"It's the same thing when Rosa Parks got arrested," he said. "People have been offended, their dignity has been offended. I've been around here since 1984 and I've never seen anything like it."

Kennedy's church prepared a PowerPoint presentation on the House bill that church officials showed to parishioners and shared with unions and immigrant-rights organizations. They also organized fasting and prayer vigils, and with the help of hundreds of volunteers put out the word about the rally and yesterday's vigil.

Among labor unions, the Service Employees International Union played a central role in helping to organize rallies in a number of cities, including on the Mall. "I think part of the message that is being sent to members of Congress and both political parties is that people are organized and they're paying attention," said Avril Smith, an SEIU spokeswoman.

Amelia Frank-Vitale, a march organizer with the labor union Unite Here, said local groups worked for months to organize a march in Phoenix two weeks ago that drew 20,000 people. National organizations got involved after the success of that march, she said.

"I do believe the last series of events really changed the discourse in Washington from being solely about enforcement to issues of humanity," she said. "Today, most legislators are back in their home towns. These marches are to speak to them. We're not going away."