'Whoa. We can do something'
Using 21st-century technology, young Latinos join forces, discover power of protest
By Scott Gold
LOS ANGELES TIMES
LOS ANGELES - Shuffling her feet in her Garden Grove home last weekend, Mariela Muniz stared into the carpet and suffered, as teenagers do, the silent deliberation of her parents. Soon, her father nodded and her mother uttered the words she'd been waiting to hear: "Lo puedes hacer."
You can do it.
The next morning, the 15-year-old sophomore at Garden Grove High School in Orange County -- with the permission of her parents, both of whom are factory workers and Mexican immigrants who became U.S. citizens after entering the country illegally -- skipped school for the first time in her life.
Following in the footsteps of those who led the first of the student walkouts on March 24 and the adults who organized the massive protest March 25 against proposed immigration legislation, Mariela became one of a few dozen students in Southern California on the front lines of a national exhibition of civil unrest, one of the largest and most boisterous since the civil rights movement four decades ago. By the end of Friday -- in Fresno, in Monterey Park, in San Diego -- more than 40,000 students in California were estimated to have walked out of their schools to protest proposed immigration reform.
There is little question that some students took advantage of the protests to ditch school. Some acknowledged they had little idea what all the fuss was about. Others took the opportunity to throw bottles at police and to shut down freeways. Law enforcement officials criticized them for diverting resources from more pressing needs, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told them to go back to school.
But for the small group of students who instigated the walkouts, most of whom hadn't been politically active but merely smart and popular, it was a transformative week.
Using modern technology -- mostly their communal pages on the enormously popular MySpace Web site -- they pulled off an event with surprising speed and dexterity. Planned in mere hours on little sleep, lacking any formal organization, the protests were chaotic and decentralized and organic.
They were also a reminder that there are more than 35 million Latinos in the United States, about 40 percent of them in California. At least 8 million are in the country illegally. But many of their children -- including many of the student leaders -- are citizens by birth. And they represent a voting bloc that could help shape the politics of the West for years.
"I think it is the beginning of something," said Louis DeSipio, a professor of political science at the University of California at Irvine. "You have the foundation for a new kind of Hispanic politics."
Many of the student leaders attended last weekend's Gran Marcha, which brought 500,000 demonstrators to downtown Los Angeles, stunning even the event's organizers, and said they were awed by the event.
"I've always been proud to say that I'm Hispanic," said Rafael "Ralph" Tabares, 17, a Marshall High School student and an organizer of his school's walkout. "But on Saturday, I thought: Whoa. We can do something. And we can do it right."
The protest staged by Mariela and two friends in Orange County was typical of the student leaders' efforts.
They had heard about the March 24 walkouts at several high schools in Los Angeles and decided to launch a protest of their own. Last Sunday they posted a bulletin on MySpace announcing that anyone wishing to participate should stand up at the 8 a.m. tardy bell on Monday morning and "meet in front of the school."
On the Internet site, which serves as a free-of-charge, virtual gathering place, users can send bulletins to all of their MySpace "friends." Word can be passed along in seconds.
It didn't take long before most of Garden Grove High School's roughly 2,200 students knew what was coming, without the knowledge or involvement of teachers or parents.
Soon, the bulletin crossed over an invisible but critical line between teens who were friends but attended different schools. Students began posting phone numbers, and soon dozens more pledges to participate were obtained through phone calls and instant text messages.
Still, when the tardy bell rang Monday morning, Mariela had no idea what to expect. She waited in front of the school. Soon, the doors opened, and scores of students -- most of them Latino, but a handful of whites, blacks and Asian Americans, too -- joined her. They marched through Garden Grove and Anaheim, picking up students at several other schools as planned through MySpace bulletins. By 1 p.m. they had walked 10 miles. An estimated 1,500 students had walked out. Mariela was a truant and, to her friends, a hero.
School administrators have since informed her that she'll have to perform community service as penance. Back at her home, a humble ranch-style house with family photos on the wall, she said it was worth it.
"Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in," she said. "We did. And it worked."
By Scott Gold
LOS ANGELES TIMES
LOS ANGELES - Shuffling her feet in her Garden Grove home last weekend, Mariela Muniz stared into the carpet and suffered, as teenagers do, the silent deliberation of her parents. Soon, her father nodded and her mother uttered the words she'd been waiting to hear: "Lo puedes hacer."
You can do it.
The next morning, the 15-year-old sophomore at Garden Grove High School in Orange County -- with the permission of her parents, both of whom are factory workers and Mexican immigrants who became U.S. citizens after entering the country illegally -- skipped school for the first time in her life.
Following in the footsteps of those who led the first of the student walkouts on March 24 and the adults who organized the massive protest March 25 against proposed immigration legislation, Mariela became one of a few dozen students in Southern California on the front lines of a national exhibition of civil unrest, one of the largest and most boisterous since the civil rights movement four decades ago. By the end of Friday -- in Fresno, in Monterey Park, in San Diego -- more than 40,000 students in California were estimated to have walked out of their schools to protest proposed immigration reform.
There is little question that some students took advantage of the protests to ditch school. Some acknowledged they had little idea what all the fuss was about. Others took the opportunity to throw bottles at police and to shut down freeways. Law enforcement officials criticized them for diverting resources from more pressing needs, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told them to go back to school.
But for the small group of students who instigated the walkouts, most of whom hadn't been politically active but merely smart and popular, it was a transformative week.
Using modern technology -- mostly their communal pages on the enormously popular MySpace Web site -- they pulled off an event with surprising speed and dexterity. Planned in mere hours on little sleep, lacking any formal organization, the protests were chaotic and decentralized and organic.
They were also a reminder that there are more than 35 million Latinos in the United States, about 40 percent of them in California. At least 8 million are in the country illegally. But many of their children -- including many of the student leaders -- are citizens by birth. And they represent a voting bloc that could help shape the politics of the West for years.
"I think it is the beginning of something," said Louis DeSipio, a professor of political science at the University of California at Irvine. "You have the foundation for a new kind of Hispanic politics."
Many of the student leaders attended last weekend's Gran Marcha, which brought 500,000 demonstrators to downtown Los Angeles, stunning even the event's organizers, and said they were awed by the event.
"I've always been proud to say that I'm Hispanic," said Rafael "Ralph" Tabares, 17, a Marshall High School student and an organizer of his school's walkout. "But on Saturday, I thought: Whoa. We can do something. And we can do it right."
The protest staged by Mariela and two friends in Orange County was typical of the student leaders' efforts.
They had heard about the March 24 walkouts at several high schools in Los Angeles and decided to launch a protest of their own. Last Sunday they posted a bulletin on MySpace announcing that anyone wishing to participate should stand up at the 8 a.m. tardy bell on Monday morning and "meet in front of the school."
On the Internet site, which serves as a free-of-charge, virtual gathering place, users can send bulletins to all of their MySpace "friends." Word can be passed along in seconds.
It didn't take long before most of Garden Grove High School's roughly 2,200 students knew what was coming, without the knowledge or involvement of teachers or parents.
Soon, the bulletin crossed over an invisible but critical line between teens who were friends but attended different schools. Students began posting phone numbers, and soon dozens more pledges to participate were obtained through phone calls and instant text messages.
Still, when the tardy bell rang Monday morning, Mariela had no idea what to expect. She waited in front of the school. Soon, the doors opened, and scores of students -- most of them Latino, but a handful of whites, blacks and Asian Americans, too -- joined her. They marched through Garden Grove and Anaheim, picking up students at several other schools as planned through MySpace bulletins. By 1 p.m. they had walked 10 miles. An estimated 1,500 students had walked out. Mariela was a truant and, to her friends, a hero.
School administrators have since informed her that she'll have to perform community service as penance. Back at her home, a humble ranch-style house with family photos on the wall, she said it was worth it.
"Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in," she said. "We did. And it worked."
posted by idtics at 12:17 AM
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