Group Recruits Latinos for March on Washington

Los Angeles organizers announced plans Tuesday to bus as many as 2,000 residents to a massive Latino civil rights march and rally Oct. 12 in Washington.

The rally, which will include a demand for a new, expanded amnesty program for illegal immigrants in the United States, is expected to draw 100,000 Latinos from across the country, organizers said. That would make it the largest political gathering of U.S. Latinos, surpassing the crowd of 70,000 that rallied here against the passage of Proposition 187 in 1994.

“This is a historic effort to empower all Latinos--Mexicanos, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Cubans and Central and South Americans,” said UCLA history professor Juan Gomez-Quinones, a member of the Coordinadora ’96 organizing group in Los Angeles.

Speaking at a news conference in Boyle Heights, the organizers were quick to discourage comparisons to last October’s “Million Man March,” organized by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, which drew 800,000 African Americans to Washington. “We’re happy to be copycats in the civil rights struggle, but we have our own struggle” on Latino-oriented issues, Gomez-Quinones said.

In addition to seeking an expanded amnesty program, Latinos going to Washington will seek an increase in the minimum wage to $7 an hour, and a commitment to public education for all children and to affirmative action programs.

Unlike the “Million Man March,” in which only men were invited, women will be welcomed in Washington for the Latino rally and march, organizers added.

Thirty buses have been reserved to carry Los Angeles residents, and they will depart Oct. 8 for Washington. The round-trip fare is estimated at $150, with accommodations and food not included. Donations are being sought to defray the expenses of those who cannot pay for the bus trip.

To drum up interest, one caravan of buses will stop in San Antonio and Little Rock, Ark., the capital of President Clinton’s home state, before proceeding to Washington. Another will follow the old Route 66 to Chicago before arriving in Washington.

Additional information can be obtained by calling the One Stop Immigration & Educational Center in Boyle Heights at (213) 268-8472.