Peaceful Protests in L.A. and O.C.

Hundreds of protesters rallied Saturday in front of Costa Mesa City Hall, raising their voices against local and national legislation aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration.

The issue was also one of the focuses of a Los Angeles march and rally saluting the birthday of the late farmworker activist Cesar E. Chavez.

The demonstrations came a week after a far larger immigration protest in downtown Los Angeles and capped a week of student walkouts throughout Southern California.

Saturday’s Orange County event -- held in Costa Mesa partly to express opposition to a first-in-the-nation city plan to use local police to enforce federal immigration law -- drew Southland residents, students, union members and community groups. The marchers chanted “Si se puede” (“Yes, it can be done”) and waved American and Mexican flags.

Richard Chavez, an Anaheim councilman, and Amin David, president of the Anaheim-based Latino rights group Los Amigos of Orange County, brought 1,000 donated American flags to distribute.

“For me,” Chavez said, “this is an American issue. Immigrants are the fabric of the United States. These people work here. They pay taxes here. Their children go to school here.”

Some protesters carried signs that targeted Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor, who proposed the city’s immigration-enforcement plan, and Sheriff Michael S. Carona, who wants the same training for his deputies.

“People can see we are not criminals,” said Arturo Ayapantecatl, 38, of Costa Mesa. “Using police to enforce immigration law makes us afraid even when we are legal.”

Attendance at the rally, held during intermittent rain, fell short of some organizers’ expectations, which were in the tens of thousands.

The crowd started in the hundreds about 10 a.m. and grew over the next few hours as the weather brightened. Police Sgt. Mike Ginther estimated the gathering at 1,500, while Nativo Lopez, one of the organizers, put the crowd at its peak at 2,000.

Lopez, director of the Santa Ana-based immigrant advocacy group Hermandad Mexicana, said he was not discouraged that the Costa Mesa turnout paled next to last week’s Los Angeles crowd.

“For Orange County, it’s a good turnout,” said Lopez. “We in no way seek to compete with the numbers in L.A.”

Protests in Southern California will continue throughout April, he said, and culminate May 1 in a “Day of Action.” Organizers are calling on participants that day to stay home from school, work and shopping.

“This movement is growing,” Lopez said. “Wait for us on May 1.”

Lopez said the protest reaffirmed his belief that the mayor’s plan “represents only a small fraction of the city,” and he announced the cancellation of a planned boycott of Costa Mesa businesses.

Mansoor, who did not attend Saturday’s rally, responded with a statement: “We have a right to secure our border and uphold our laws, just as Mexico and other nations have done. If that is what they are protesting, then it is a sad day and Americans need to wake up to what is happening.”

“We are against the notion that humans are illegal,” said Carlos Alvarez, 19, a college student from South Los Angeles who was leading chants with a bullhorn. The size of the crowd did not disappoint him.

“Things like this,” he said, “don’t normally happen in Costa Mesa.”

In Los Angeles, hundreds of students, teachers, farmworkers and activists walked from historic Olvera Street to City Hall to honor Chavez, founder of the union that later became the United Farm Workers of America. They returned to Olvera Street for a festival.

One of his granddaughters, Christine Chavez, had welcomed the crowd. Democratic gubernatorial candidates Steve Westly and Phil Angelides were also there.

“He gave us hope for a better future through education and fighting for well-paying jobs for the United Farm Workers and others,” said Teresa Rivas, a teacher at Miles Avenue Elementary School in Huntington Park, which brought 15 students to the event.

The annual march sponsored by the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation teaches kindergarten through 12th-grade students about the legacy of the civil rights leader and promotes his ideas of community service, peaceful protest and social and economic justice, organizers said.

That message wasn’t lost on 9-year-old Zayra Roman, 9, a fourth-grader at Miles.

“We came to defend immigrants’ rights, like Cesar Chavez did,” he said.

Steven Hernandez, a teacher at the School of Arts and Enterprise in Pomona, said he thought participating in the march would be a good educational experience for his students.

“This has been a historic week,” said Hernandez, a Spanish teacher at the high school.

“We’ve been discussing and debating immigrants’ rights and the federal legislation all week, and we wanted students to be able to come out here and participate in a positive way.”

Hernandez said Chavez conveyed a powerful message through the work he did in organizing the farmworkers union.

“He made you believe you could be anything you wanted to be and to always strive to be better,” Hernandez said.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told the crowd before the march that Chavez, who was born March 31, 1927, and died April 23, 1993, should be more than a memory.

“Today is a day not just to remember back when, but to live his legacy, serve your community, stand up for a great America and to celebrate the opportunities and freedoms we have in America,” Villaraigosa said.

Elsewhere, thousands of immigrant rights supporters marched in New York City, forming a line stretching more than a mile long as they crossed the Brooklyn Bridge.

Waving flags from more than a dozen countries, the participants walked to a plaza in lower Manhattan, where the crowd was estimated at 10,000.

“If you hurt immigrants you are hurting America,” read a sign held by one marcher.

Others read, “We are your economy,” and “I cleaned up ground zero.”

In Oklahoma City, more than 5,000 people jammed into the Capitol’s south plaza to protest proposals in the Legislature designed to stop illegal immigrants from receiving Medicaid, food stamps and other tax-supported services and to require state employees to report suspected illegal aliens.

In Orange County, Costa Mesa police had braced for a larger crowd. Police formed a protective cordon around city buildings, with officers on standby from neighboring departments, though they were not needed.

At times, the event assumed a festive air, with protesters wielding noisemakers and cheering on a Korean drum troupe from the Korean Resource Center in Los Angeles.

Across the street from the crowd, about 30 counter-protesters gathered with their own American flags, bullhorns and chants.

“They should go back to their country and establish their rights,” said Ann Watt of Newport Beach. “Go fix your own country first before getting rights from my country.”

Vince Webb, 48, a Costa Mesa man who was part of the counter-protest, said he was upset by last week’s student walkouts. “My dad would have beaten me,” he said.

Standing among the counter-protesters was Daniel Calderson, 20, a student at Vanguard University, who said his parents immigrated legally from Chile. He acknowledged it was “a little awkward” to be standing on his side of the street. “But I’m going to stand up for what I believe in,” he said.

Counter-protesters chanted, “Illegals go home!” Protesters shot back, “Racists go home!”

Police kept the groups separated by a safe distance. No arrests were reported.

Cassandra Hernandez, 20, of San Pedro was unaware of the demonstration when she arrived to attend a nearby swap meet. But she crossed the street and joined the crowd. “I think it’s going to make history for Latinos,” she said. “It’s a revolution and it’s about time. A peaceful revolution.”

Speaking to the crowd from the back of a pick-up truck, state Sen. Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles), author of several failed bills in the Legislature that would provide driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, said the event was intended to remind people of “the better part of our history -- the part of justice, the part of dignity, the part of democracy.”

*

Times staff writers Christian Berthelsen, Juliet Chung and Stephen Clark contributed to this report from Costa Mesa and the Associated Press contributed to this report from New York City and Oklahoma City.