I got there late. I was expecting them to start at 5:30 or something like that. Unfortunately, the flier said "5 PM" and they started marching at 5:10, according to the woman that was at the start. She told me to walk up Rengstorff and catch the march as they passed that point. I did that, and waited for a few minutes for them to get there. It was a loud crowd when they did show.

     

For a while after the head of the march passed I marched along with everybody else. There was lots of noisy chanting (Call: What do we want? Response: IMMIGRATION REFORM! Call: When do we want it? Response: NOW!) and stuff like that to participate in. There was also something of a language barrier since my Spanish is not good.

  

A year ago this lot was a burned out motel. Now it looks like the kind of pit they put under huge buildings.

  

It wasn't the kind of march where we take over the streets. It was more of a long line of friends using the sidewalk in a law abiding manner. We had to wait for the lights like everybody else.

  

I think that respect for human rights is a key demand for the organizers. Once we got to the end of the route at City Hall plaza I got pictures of all the signs I missed while walking that I could.

     

        

     

        

     

Before too long they started having speakers come up one at a time to talk to us.

        

Laura Macias, Mountain View's former Mayor, said that so many people taking so much time out to march for immigration reform makes a huge difference in the political system.

I vividly remember the guy in the blue shirt talking about how U.S. Military backed dictators in the Philippines caused a lot of disruption that forced people like his parents to come here as refugees. He felt that immigration reform starts with ending such disruptions.

By this time a lot of people had left, but there were still many on the plaza paying close attention to the speakers.

     

The band took a turn to do "De Colores", which inspired quite a few people to dance.

This guy said he is a lawyer specializing in immigration law. He talked about a few cases he had seen where the law worked to separate families. It sounded unnecessarily cruel.

           

Margaret talked about her campaign for City Council. She said she stands with the rest of those assembled calling for immigration reform.

Maria from the day worker center was our hostess. She thanked us all for coming and asked us to help pick up the plaza so we can leave it at least as good as we found it. I seem to remember her ending by inviting us to come back next year so we can do it again.

Father Bob (I think that was his name) said a few nice words. He was clearly very popular with the Catholics among us, even though I don't remember hearing of him before.