This Immigrants Rights March: Still A lot of People, But Less Anger and More Celebration
Story by Shana White
Photo by Seth Hemmelgarn

It felt like this May 1 st was celebration to me, rather then an act of protest.   Although I know that it was much more than that, it was about thousands of people fighter for workers rights, anti-immigrant raids. But looking around at the march, it felt like it was a celebration of last year's march, a remembrance of sorts. My expectation of the march and rally was that it was going to be the same as the last one, nothing more. But it felt different. Last year I felt people's anger, and what they were marching about had a direct political aim, HR4437, but this year there wasn't a clear of a target. Also, I felt a lot more police presence this year.

As we walked to City Hall from King and Story, I overheard a few people talking about the last march and how that was a lot more people that came out then expected. Yeah, that's true, but I don't think that should have been the center of conversation.   What should have been the topic is since now this movement has a significant amount of community support, what will be proposed to stop ICE raids? One thing I was hoping for was that I wanted to see if other ethnic groups would represent.

During beginning of the rally, San Jose Council member Dave Cortese was introduced to speak. When he spoke his first words in Spanish I thought, wow, I didn't know he spoke Spanish, but he spoke to the crowd by chanting. While I appreciated his presence, it is hard to take him serious, especially when he said,   “People of San Jose you are safe.” I thought, well is he willing to get ICE out of the Bay Area? He ended his 10-second speech with, “si se puede.” The crowd still respected and cheered when he was done.

Leaving the march, I wondered about next year. What will the drive be behind the march, since it will be the three years since the HR4437 angered everyone? Will we have made progress in real immigration reform? Also, will we be able to start getting larger presences of other ethnic groups? I hope so, and that if politicians do speak to the crowd again, they will be able to back up their word about people here being safe.

  For more coverage on related stories and photos
Click Here