May Day is traditionally a day of demonstrations, particularly for the underrepresented. In Watsonville it is the day of the annual immigration rights protest at City Plaza. Given the situation in Arizona, and comments by several key candidates in the state (such as Steve Poizner in his Sunday debate with Meg Whitman) in support of the new policy there, it was no surprise that this weekend’s demonstration took on extra urgency.
May Day is traditionally a day of demonstrations, particularly for the underrepresented. In Watsonville it is the day of the annual immigration rights protest at City Plaza. Given the situation in Arizona, and comments by several key candidates in the state (such as Steve Poizner in his Sunday debate with Meg Whitman) in support of the new policy there, it was no surprise that this weekend’s demonstration took on extra urgency.
“I think a lot of people are scared that their communities are going to follow suit and were here to protest that,” said one of the 400 participants in the rally. Santa Cruz Councilman Tony Madrigal told the gathering that the new law has reignited fear among the community. Many Mexicans in Santa Cruz have strong ties with Yuma, Arizona. Victoria Banales, who teaches English at Cabrillo College, said that, “It’s really depressing to think that the natives and Mexicans who were inhabitants of California, Arizona and the Southwest, people who were here for years, can be kicked out.”
The rhetoric reached new heights on the signs that people carried and the shirts that they wore: “The Pilgrims were illegal and they stayed,” read one sign, while some people wore shirts saying, “Welcome to Nazi-zona.”
The demonstrators paused briefly at Japanese Town for a chance to remember how another local immigrant community was mistreated during World War II. Read more at KSBW and Santa Cruz Sentinel.
