Immigration fight unites Latinos

Immigration fight unites Latinos

By Brian Knowlton Copyright by The International Herald Tribune

MONDAY, APRIL 3, 2006

WASHINGTON The recent marches in American cities by perhaps a million immigrants and their supporters - a half-million in Los Angeles alone - demonstrated the emergence of Latinos in the United States as no longer quite so silent a minority.
Such numbers have been seen on U.S. streets only in connection with the most iconic of movements - marching for civil rights or against the Vietnam War. A vibrant Spanish-language media scene played a critical role in bringing the mostly Latino protesters together.

"It took on a life of its own," said Richard Estrada, a Los Angeles priest whose church helped begin the March 25 demonstration there, along with social and labor groups.

"It may well be we're witnessing a turning point," said Ilan Stavans, a professor of Latino culture at Amherst College in Massachusetts. "People have been quietly waiting for a moment like this."

The turnout followed a swelling of fear over tough legislation that passed the House in December, sponsored by Representative James Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin. It would turn undocumented immigrants - estimated to exceed 11 million - into felons and make it a federal crime to assist them.

Estrada said that while organizers do not condone illegal entry, immigrants have grown tired of being blamed for many of the nation's ills. "All of this made people say, that's enough," he said.

Word of the bill spread instantly, thanks to Spanish-language media that have grown explosively. Advertising revenue for Latino network television is expected to rise by 10 percent this year, more than twice the overall rate, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

Along with the big networks - the dominant Univision and the smaller Telemundo, now owned by NBC - there are more than 60 Spanish-language cable outlets, 160 local television stations and 300 radio stations.

While English-language newspapers struggle, their Spanish counterparts have thrived, numbering 700. Most carry a constant menu of immigration stories.

A cartoon in the paper Washington's Voz, for example, depicts a Latino lamenting that he pays his rent, utilities, car payments and taxes, "And now they say I might be a criminal. If this is the American dream, somebody wake me up!"

Estrada's church, Our Lady Queen of Angels, draws about 11,000 people to Mass each Sunday, most of them immigrants, and has long sheltered the undocumented, an activity the House bill would criminalize. "We were very, very concerned," he said.
Then Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles issued a national call to action and ordered his own priests to continue helping immigrants. "So we said, let's organize this huge march of the pueblo, of the people," Estrada said.

Organizers originally expected 20,000 people. But then a top disk jockey, Eddie Sotelo, joined the campaign, followed by other Spanish-language disc jockeys who are normally fierce rivals of his.

Sotelo, now a citizen, arrived in the United States in the trunk of a car.

For the audience of Telemundo or Univision, said Stavans of Amherst, "this becomes a referendum on identity, on culture, on politics, on who we are as Latinos." The Spanish-language media, he said, have shown "a talent and a capability to mobilize people" with few historic parallels.

Univision reaches 98 percent of Spanish-speaking households. On many nights, it outdraws even the main English-language networks, ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, among young viewers nationwide.

While Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Cubans and other national groups long stuck largely to themselves, Telemundo and Univision emphasize commonalities, even telling soap-opera actors to speak without national accents.

"Something changed," said Stavans. "People started to feel touched and connected with the idea that we were all Latinos."
A new survey by Bendixen Associates of Miami found that on immigration issues, "there seems to be a consensus position among all Latin American ethnicities," said Fernand Amandi, Bendixen's executive vice president.

Latino immigrants tend to be younger than the American average, and thus more open to such modern technology as cellphones, text-messaging and Web sites that make it easy to organize spontaneous get-togethers.
That happened Tuesday in northern Virginia, when hundreds of students walked out of their high schools to march together, chanting "Si, se puede," "Yes, we can."

"They have been reading the news, watching television about immigration reform, listening to the radio - they get it," said Walter Tejada, an Arlington County board member who joined the marchers.

"They know that criminalizing someone because they're going to sweep someone's house or clean an office - there's something wrong about calling someone like that a criminal. These are their parents we're talking about. The thought that their Mom might be deported is horrible."

Many Latinos were heartened on March 27, two days after the Los Angeles march, when the Senate Judiciary Committee unexpectedly approved an immigration bill to offer the undocumented millions a path to legality, without the House bill's criminal aspects.

Estrada attended the session. "I think we did pretty well," he said.

The ultimate impact of the marches remains unclear, but politicians acknowledge they are not ignoring them.
Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, on NBC-TV, mentioned the "passion" of the marchers.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said on Fox-TV that it would be "political suicide" for his party to block efforts to craft a comprehensive, nonpunitive, solution. "We will lose our majority." A debate by the full Senate continues. Prospects for reconciling House and Senate bills are uncertain.

Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, spoke on CBS-TV of "a chasm" between the two. Sensenbrenner, without retreating, called it the toughest issue in his 37 years in office.