Las Banderas: Images from Yesterday's Immigration Demonstration

[saavedra77]

It was all about the flags.

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered for yesterday's "Day Without Immigrants" demonstrations--in New York, Washington, Las Vegas, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles,San Francisco, Atlanta, Denver Phoenix, New Orleans, Milwaukee, and here in Seattle. The largest demonstrations appear to have been in Chicago and L.A., where 300,000 - 400,000 marchers turned out. In Seattle, the crowd appeared to at least equal the 20,000 - 30,000 who rallied for a similar demonstration, three weeks ago--although organizers of course claimed that much higher numbers were present, this time. And flags--particularly U.S. flags--were everywhere. Some at the Seattle march went so far as to wrap themselves en la bandera:

Invocations of the civil rights movement were common, with speakers at the Seattle rally (like King County Executive Ron Sims, who gave quite the stemwinder ...) citing the examples of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Many signs rejected terms like "illegal immigrant" and "illegal alien," with some calling for total amnesty and a North America sin fronteras--much more than Iwould ever advocate, and I suspect much further than the U.S. political system could ever possibly allow. But that's political rhetoric, for you.

One humble placard sought to gently, humorously assuage the fears that many have about Hispanic immigration. This made me laugh almost as much as the guy who was carrying a chihuahua with a tiny sign reading "quiero un green card" hanging from its collar.

Alas, I suspect that these fears will not be easily calmed. (I hear that Minuteman recruitment has gone up, since this wave of demonstrations started.)

Major political gatherings always seem to bring out the extremists, don't they? This one had LaRouchies, various kinds of socialists, and antiwar activists supporting the marchers, and, yes, two Nazis, among the handful of counterdemonstrators.

Flags were obviously important to these guys, too--including a version of the Stars and Stripes with a black swastika in the middle. (Talk about the "dustbin of history" ...)

And, no, the Brownshirts were not representative of the opposition--most of whom were extremely polite people worried about jobs, law enforcement, borders, and precedent.

Surely the most evocative image of the day was that of intertwined Mexican and U.S. flags: of course, lots of people besides Mexican immigrants are affected by this issue--demonstrations in Chicago and New York apparently brought out Chinese and Polish immigrants--but especially for those of us living in the South and West, this image is totally emblematic of the fears and hopes surrounding this issue. Are the new, overwhelmingly--but not only--Latino, overwhelmingly Mexican immigrants just the latest flavor in the melting pot? Or, as some overheated rhetoric would suggest, are Latinos conspiring to "take over"?

All I can say is that I hear strong echoes of long-ago Nativist rhetoric about how the Irish would overrun "us" and ruin the republic. Personally, I'm still counting on the melting pot.

Comments

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

Wonderful pictures, Tony --thanks so much for sharing them!

[aztecson23.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all this. I appreciate the pictures and the commentary.

You sure you don't want to change careers and become a journalist?:-)

Let's see . . . I've had you pegged as a future lawyer. What next?

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

Lawyer, no, I don't think so--ever. But I'd take a journalism job in a New York minute if I could find one that paid the rent!