What would happen if immigrants vanished from the cityscape? Boycott organizers say more than you could imagine. They hope one day of personal sacrifice will go a long way in the Senate debate on immigration reform. But while businesses brace for the potential economic fallout, some immigrants dare to dream of a more positive outcome. Laura Cavanaugh reports.
By Eric Berkowitz
INGLEWOOD, Calif. — In the harsh morning glare, a woman in red slippers shuffled unsteadily across the Sandman Motel’s parking lot. Carrying a fifth of something in a black plastic bag, she followed a familiar path from the nearby liquor store, climbed the motel’s stairs with effort, and disappeared into the $49 per night desolation of her room.
Here, at the edge of South Central Los Angeles, there is no shortage of despair. An indoor gun firing range abuts a windowless pornography shop, which sits hard by another liquor store. But the business done in those establishments is matched — if not dwarfed — by the area’s underground economy. The people on the street do their own cash-based commerce, selling either themselves or substances that make their customers feel like someone else.
And here, in a motel populated with drunks, drug dealers, and acne-faced prostitutes, a few of the nation’s 12 million illegal immigration problems are being played out in real time. The Sandman’s owners use the cheapest, most plentiful and vulnerable labor available — undocumented Latino women. (more…)
The Los Angeles Times said Monday that 500,000 people turned out Saturday to the rally for immigrant rights in downtown Los Angeles and I was one of them.
As I and a fellow reporter arrived to cover the rally/march the excitement gave me a rush. I saw people marching and turning the corner onto Broadway and First streets. I heard chants, shouts, and cheers. (more…)
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March 25, 2006 - La Gran Marcha [0:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup La Gran Marcha slideshow [0:42m]: | Play Now | Play in PopupOlvera Street, bustles with activity pretty much every day. Lately, its centrality and its location in the city’s historic old town have made La Placita, as it’s known, the perfect rallying point for many recent protests for immigrants’ rights.
The events have periodically transformed the place into a boisterous caricature of itself - and April 10th’s gathering was no exception. (more…)
By Leo Juarez
Charged with filming the April 10 immigration rally in downtown Los Angeles, I spent much of the time jockeying for camera position, checking my audio levels and making sure that people didn’t trip over my cables.
But I took a second to think about how this same passionate show of force has been unfolding in dozens of cities across the country, involving hundreds of thousands of people, and … well, it began to dawn on me that this is a truly historic moment in our nation’s history, on par with the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
