A Day Without Organizers: Youths Honor Their Parents in a Movement of Families

SAN JOSE, Calif.--When people say of the recent immigrant rights marches, "Everyone and their mama was there," they mean it literally. The mass demonstrations held across the country have been remarkable not only for the astonishing numbers -- 30,000 in San Jose, 50,000 in Atlanta, 100,000 in Phoenix -- but for who is represented in those numbers: mothers, fathers, teenagers, grandmothers pushing grandchildren in strollers. This is a movement of families.

Now organizers and advocates are meeting to figure out how to channel this social dynamite. There is a sense that spontaneous social action can last only so long; that "somebody" needs to step in for it to be sustained, and the energy directed. As Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, told the Washington Post last week, "Our challenge is to transform this massive movement of people in the streets into a massive movement of people to the polls."

No offense, but really, who asked her? It is in fact the lack of identifiable leadership and direction from above that is sustaining this new movement. That's what has already taken it further than the advocacy groups trying to "transform" it ever dreamed possible.

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