I got back from the La Brea evening protest. This was the second one that wasn’t the early morning’s coercive boycott, but instead a real show of presence for the immigrants who feel most strongly affected by coming Congressional efforts to deal with immigration. It was endorsed by Cardinal Mahony and Dolores Huerta, and reportedly drew about 400,000 people, versus the morning action, which only drew about 200,000. There was probably some overlap of protestors. But by and large, it goes to show that more immigrants want peaceful dialogue and change, not ‘revolucion’ and confrontation endorsed by ANSWER and its confrontational allies.

It was a spectacle to see hundreds of thousands of people, almost all of them wearing white T-shirts. Up and down the hill you could see the vast ribbon of white t-shirts marching in on Wilshire Boulevard from Pico-Rivera. They marched spaced out so it was kind of hard to photograph them effectively up close (the front always looked empty) and I am suspicious my camera did not catch the full effect of them coming over the hill, due to the distance. Many of the t-shirts had American flags. The chuk chuk chuk of at least three police helicopters hovering high overhead completed the sound effects.

I found a great place to park – in the middle of a small road intersecting Wilshire. Since Wilshire was blocked off, there were instant cul de sacs to drive up to and snap up places in in the center of the street. A lot of people caught onto this and were all careful to leave spaces between our illegal third row of cars so that we could all get out and not be hemmed in. (It’s LA! These are the kind of things we think about here!)

It was a friendly, open, welcoming crowd. Some guy was serving hot dogs – I didn’t see any tacos. If you made eye contact with someone, you’d get a friendly smile back. Women pushed strollers and men carried toddlers on their shoulders. The babes were out in force.

One Mexican guy wore a great big tourist sombrero adorned with an American flag. Some people beat drums, some people carried signs saying ‘no guest workers’ and others carried signs saying they were busy paying taxes too. “We are workers, not criminals,” said one very big black and white banner.

Most carried American flags, but there were some flags from Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador, Ecuador, and Honduras. Some carried two-fers, two flags the same size in the same hand indicating their country of origin and the American flag. I saw a priest marching, and an Episcopal group – both had polite signs pleading for help for immigrants. I saw some union t-shirts, some black and white protestors – one hippie had a sign saying he was the grandson of immigrants – but almost all were just the Mexicans you see every day in Los Angeles – suddenly making history. Without a hint of unrest, it was peaceful and majestic.

One guy in an old dark-green truck just outside the protest had two gigantic flags of Our Lady Of Guadalupe. It was an especially appropriate image, because she is a specific symbol of peaceful pan-Americanism; the unity of the Americas, as well as the one image the Catholic Church shares freely with believers and unbelievers of all kinds. She’s accessible to everyone, not just Catholics, in other words. She’s also non-political, and universal, so her image is much more appropriate than a Mexican flag, in my opinion. Anyway, it was pleasing that there were some of these images there, she is the authentic icon of every country in the hemisphere, and there in this time of distress, the image again is there, same as it was at the rubble and ruins of the World Trade Center in 2001.

The shops around this part of Wilshire – Starbucks, Bob’s Big Boy, El Pollo Loco – were all closed. The Starbucks had little green stickers on the front door telling why.

Some Mexican lady was up at the loudspeaker, speaking Spanish, pleading for amnesty for immigrants in a very good speech that it’s a pity wasn’t there for the gringos to hear – they would have been very pleased.

Some wore ‘Si se puede’ t-shirts, which seemed to annoy some people, but I don’t really see why. I saw one guy carry a sign that featured the film, “A Day Without A Mexican,” and he was happy to pose for my camera. There were some bozos, too, I saw two signs that condemned Americans and said the land belonged to Mexico and we were the illegals. Horse hockey.

But they only stood out because they were so rare. By and large, this big friendly crowd wanted to be part of the states and belong to society and the friendliness of them suggested that these were productive citizens who were already assimilating here (those hot dogs suggested this too!) and whose case must be considered with fairness and decency by the rest of the U.S. I was impressed.

***

I listened to KPFK on the way in, and now as I write this.

On the way in, there was an interview with a guy named Jesse Diaz. He may have been affiliated with Nativo Lopez of MAPA. The announcer did not say what his affiliation exactly was, only that he came up with this entire idea for the morning boycott which was less well attended than this march I went to. He was basking in the glory of his success, and said that now the organizers had tasked some lawyers to make explicit demands to Congress for legalization. He said, correctly, that the demands of this group were all over the map. His other task would be a voter registration drive. I would assume, that from his point of view, that he means to register the families of the illegal immigrants. But it distinctly sounded like he wanted to register illegal immigrants for the next election. Definitely a guy to keep an eye on for that. He should have been clearer about his intentions, and I suspect he wasn’t for a nefarious reason.

KPFK interviewed assorted activists this evening, too – one thing that struck me was how many pro-Hugo Chavez activists they managed to buttonhole. At least two or three of them praised what’s going on in Venezuela as if that had any relevance to this immigration debate here. Well, I wonder why they brought that up, then? There was also an intelligent, passionate, high school girl who made a moving case for ‘if capital can move freely across borders, why can’t people?’ She said that if WalMart could come to Mexico, why couldn’t Mexican people come to America to earn a living? Her take was interesting to think about.

***

I called a prominent libertarian thinker in Mexico City who is a friend. I asked him how the May Day was going in Mexico City. He said it was very quiet, but the response was muted because it already was a holiday.

I asked how the immigration issue was affecting the Mexican election. He said it was widely talked about and discussed, but actually, was having very little effect on the election because the consensus was so wide in Mexico that the U.S. needs to lighten up on its immigration laws – that it wasn’t a point of controversy among the candidates. Surprising but true. He said none were reaping any particular political hay from it.

The Chavez issue was another matter altogether, he noted. THAT was affecting the race, and in Calderon’s favor. That momentum would continue, he told me, but Calderon was showing signs of overconfidence now, which could flip things back.

***

If I can figure out how to post photos tonight or tomorrow, I will.