Multi Ethnic Rally Meets Pre-March
By AlexIsaHerbach
Rafu staff writer
Saturday, May 3, 2008

Photos by MikeyHiranoCulross/Rafu Shimpo
Thousands of marchers walk down Broadway in a May Day rally for immigration reform on Thursday.

UCLA student Lucia Lin hoists a sign with slogans such
as “Equal pay for equal work,” in Chinese.

An immigration rally was held at the UCLA Labor Center in MacArthur Park attracting hundreds of protesters before the May Day march through Downtown Los Angeles.

Several organizations were rep­resented, including members from the “Legalize LA” campaign and a large contingent from the Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Worker Organizing Network (MIWON), an alliance of four immigrant advocacy groups that includes the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of L.A. (CHIRLA) and the Koreatown Immigrant Work­ers Alliance (KIWA). Together, the group hopes to show that immigra­tion reform affects more than one community.

“We formed because even though we work with different ethnicities our bases face similar immigration is­sues,” said Strela Cervas, a community organizer with MIWON and the Pilipino Workers Center. “We formed MIWON to fix our broken immigration system.”

“It really affects everyone. Ever since Sept. 11, immigrants have been terror­ized, called terrorists, targeted. It’s not just happening to the Latino community but the API community as well.”

There was a wide array of people and personalities at the rally. Many carried pickets or handmade signs, while others chose to wave flags—an American flag in one hand and a different country’s flag in the other. One man cradled a Chihuahua in his arms, while above him, a picket proclaimed, “My Dream. The American Dream.”

Another man wore a T-shirt declar­ing, “I don’t want to be an alien. I want to be legal.” He stood clutching a doll of a green space alien in one hand and winked to fellow protesters that expressed their appreciation of the ironic gesture.

The mood was jovial. Young and old alike gathered before a live raggaeton band playing from the bed of a parked truck. The crowd danced and sang for about an hour before coming together to walk en masse down Beverly Boulevard toward Broadway Street, the epicenter of this year’s May Day march.

A sense of togetherness was visible throughout, something that organizers had been trying to cultivate since they started planning the event in January.

“We came together to speak our voice,” said Young Hui Kim of KIWA.

“The 21st century is a global age and sthere can be no more war between the races. We are one.”

“I’m so happy to see the march become so big.”

Other organizers are eager to see the event continue to grow, especially amongst members of more underrepresented communities that they feel are also affected by immigration.