6,000 March to Protest Beating of Immigrants

Chanting for justice, praying for peace, and sometimes just sobbing, an emotional crowd of 6,000 marched through downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to protest Monday’s videotaped beating of two Mexican citizens at the hands of Riverside County sheriff’s deputies.

The marchers’ outrage and sorrow seemed to intensify as word spread that seven suspected illegal immigrants had died just hours earlier when the truck they were riding in crashed near Temecula. Many blamed both incidents on what they said was an increasing intolerance of immigrants in the United States, and immigration policies that lead to desperate and dangerous border crossings.

“As long as our California economy is built on sweatshop labor and the exploitation of farm labor in the field,” state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) told the crowd, “we will continue to see the kind of human desperation that makes people leave their homelands and risk their lives to work for little pay and less dignity in America.”

A crying woman named Maria, referring to both the couple that was beaten and the crash victims, said simply: “All they wanted was work. That’s all, just work.”

Dubbed the “March for Dignity and Pride,” the protest was organized by a coalition of civil rights organizations, immigrant advocates, labor unions and liberal political groups. Marchers began gathering under a virtual canopy of red, white and blue U.S.flags and green, white and red Mexican flags about 9 a.m. on North Main Street.

In addition to the flags, they came with bugles and drums, fliers and flowers, and hundreds of banners and placards decrying the beating of Enrique Funes Flores, 30, and his companion, Alicia Sotero Vasquez, 32. The couple, who had illegally crossed into the United States in a pickup truck jammed with at least 19 others, were beaten by deputies after the driver of the truck led authorities on an hour-long chase.

“Justice for Alicia,” read one placard, in Spanish. “Christ’s parents were immigrants,” declared another.” And a third, referring to the video image of one deputy dragging Vasquez out of the pickup’s window by her hair, warned, “Pull my hair, I’ll kick your. . . . “

Lead by the whistle blasts of organizers, the blocks-long stream of marchers began to move about 11 a.m. Within 20 minutes, the fast-moving procession was snarling traffic as it passed south over the Hollywood Freeway and near the downtown Federal Building.

“The people united can never be defeated!” the crowd chanted as it arrived at the intersection of 1st and Spring streets, where a host of fiery, angry speeches were delivered from the bed of a large truck.

“Americans want us to watch their children. Americans want us to wash their cars. Americans want us to make their meals in their fancy restaurants,” Art Torres, head of the state Democratic Party, told the cheering throng. “And what do we get? Injustice.”

City Councilman Mike Hernandez, like several speakers, lambasted Gov. Pete Wilson for his support of Proposition 187, which, if upheld in the courts, would deny education and some social services to those here illegally.

“Pete Wilson,” Hernandez shouted, “we are here, and we’re not leaving!”

While the videotaped beating has made headlines and topped newscasts around the world, many in the crowd said the incident was only the most public example of anti-immigrant racism that is rather common.

Liliana Aldana, 18, said it was the beating of Vasquez that made this incident so outrageous.

“They hit a woman,” said Aldana, who had staked a small Mexican flag into a headband she was wearing. “That is not fair. I don’t think that woman is an animal. They shouldn’t have hit her like one.”

And a man identifying himself as R. Gomez said, “I see racism against Latinos almost every day.”

Although the majority in the crowd was made up of Latinos, several other minority groups and a handful of white protesters lent their support.

“This is not about Mexico,” said Sally Marr, who is white and considers herself a citizen of the Earth rather than any one country. “This is about a Gestapo mentality pervasive in America today.”

Although the downtown protest was the largest held Saturday in Los Angeles, it was not the only one held in the wake of the beatings.

In Westwood, Los Angeles Police Department officials said, 200 demonstrators outside the Federal Building were demanding that illegal immigrants arrested for other crimes face criminal prosecution rather than simple deportation. They also encouraged President Clinton to send military forces to guard the border with Mexico.