Young People Bring New Energy to Immigrant Rights Movement

Praising Our Parents

By Hector Gonzalez

SAN JOSE, Calif.--As a Salvadoran immigrant who works in the United States and pays taxes while pursuing a green card, I felt it necessary to be among the 15,000 who came together to protest here in San Jose on March 25.

We began on the east side of San Jose at the Mi Pueblo Super Market, across from the Tropicana shopping center, in the middle of a sea of taquerias and a few blocks from Mathson Middle School, where 75 percent of the student population speaks Spanish. We walked eight miles, from King Road to Cesar Chavez Plaza and back again, then walked the same route again. Men, women, young children and elders covered 16 miles without flagging. One man walked holding his toddler in his arms the whole time, yelling with all his might "Si se puede." His arms would not give out.

When people's legs began to get tired, a young girl reminded the group that only lazy people get tired quick, and we were not lazy, so we kept marching with no complaints. As thousands of people marched together, hundreds of cars cruised behind the group. There was a sea of flags in the air, mostly Mexican but also American, Honduran, Guatemalan and Salvadoran.

As I looked at the protesters' faces, I thought about our common stories. We carried stories of leaving our families behind to find opportunity in a foreign place. Ours were the stories of poverty and hunger, and the stories of hard work with little pay. I thought of my father, and how many of the young people in the crowd were there in honor of the hard work our parents do. Seeing mothers reminded me of my own mother, and how it's been 17 years since my father and I left El Salvador to find opportunity, while she stayed behind.

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