In a hippie crowd everybody has a sign, and everybody has their own slant on what's going on. The speakers are sort of murmuring background noise. It wasn't like that with these people. A lot of attention was paid to those on the stage. When the speaker said something everybody wanted to hear, everybody clapped. There was a very strong "we are paying attention" vibe.

     

One guy was walking around passing out fliers explaining basic Constitutional rights in Spanish. Another guy was passing out bottles of water. Several vendors were selling ice cream from pushcarts. Most people were just listening.

  

Most of the speakers spoke Spanish. Some of them had translations in real time, so I got a good idea what was going on, even though my Spanish is really bad. Over and over people denounced Washington's anti-immigrant policies. Over and over it was pointed out that Latinos work hard for their money, and ask little in the way of Government services.

Some speaker said something like "I've never seen Ellis Island. We were living right here in the southwest when those guys came over. Why is that illegal?"

     

Supervisor Kniss was a bit unsure but she managed to say that she is with people in their struggle against the horrible policies coming out of Washington.

     

Maria was the MC. She runs the Day Worker Center, and she kept things moving along quite well.

     

The gay rights activist said "we know what it's like to be forced into a closet." She then explained that anybody that has fear of being seen by the law is "in the closet". She said "My community stands with you in your struggle."