Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Okay, I don’t actually know if it was 10,000. A buddy of mine said that he thought at the very least 5,000; but my brother claimed it was 10,000. If you really wanted to know, you should have been there.

I hooked up with some folks from SEIU and walked with them. The line of folks at one point went from 12th Avenue and Veterans, west along the north side of Pueblo High School’s Football Field, along the back of the bleachers, three quarters of the way along the track around the field, then all the way back deep into the campus. Quite a long, long line of people.

This was all done in memory of César Chávez, and the procession was led by Raúl Grijalva and Dolores Huerta. They processed to Rudy Garcia Park where another rally was held.

Each person was handed a small American flag, but many brought their own too. As much as ethnic pride is important (I saw Mexican flags and one Honduran flag, and I was wearing a Solidarność pin), I also think the message we should send is that we are Americans. The thing that concerns me most about the rhetoric thrown around on the right is that they claim that they are only concerned about illegal immigration, but they and their supporters seem to use it as an excuse to go after everyone, illegal aliens, legal immigrants, or that family named Sanchez down the street that has been here three or four generations. Reminding people that Latinos have been an important part of American culture for most of our country’s history is a vital tool to counter the hatemongers.

Most of the people marching were not immigrants, legal or otherwise, but were regular folks who were there to honor someone who stood up for the rights of working people.

The local media seemed to ignore the whole thing. KOLD, for example, didn’t see fit to cover thousands of people marching, but could go to a rally of 200 Minutemen. If you check the website, the Minutemen rally is given a prominent place, but you would be hard pressed to find anything about the march. The worshipful coverage that our local TV has given the Minutemen and their unquestioning repitition of even their most bizarre charges are some of the reasons I stopped watching local news entirely.

I checked the other station’s sites, nothing on any of those sites either. They covered the student walkouts, and were more than happy to take the time to find the most uninformed students, or in one case on KVOA, the group throwing gang signs, to feature. I suppose if the rally got ugly it would have had prominence on all the local stations.

C. T. Revere of the Tucson Citizen was there, but the rally failed to rate a spot in the updates of local news on their site. Hopefully, we will see some coverage in both our local papers tommorrow.

Ah…I always see the glass as half-empty. I’m cynical. All in all, it was a great event, and a wonderful way to remember César.

NB - Michael Marizco has his take on media coverage of the Minutemen and last week’s protests on his blog.