May-Day News Ping!
Tweety Bird and the Babboon? Say what?
Posted on 05/01/2006 6:58:18 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Normally they chatter, joke and play music with a driving beat but on Monday "Tweety Bird" and "The Baboon" helped fill the streets of Los Angeles with hundreds of thousands of immigrants demanding to become citizens.
The Spanish language radio personalities of southern California and many other regions have been the de facto leaders of a Latino call to protest on immigrant rights.
And their listeners -- in the United States both legally and illegally -- have been paying close heed as they drive from job to job, a group united by their car radios.
"Latino media, both print and broadcast, have played an important role (in bringing people out), especially when you consider that there is no single leader like a Cesar Chavez or Martin Luther King Jr. of this movement," said University of Southern California journalism professor Felix Gutierrez.
It is Latino media -- led by radio personalities like Ricardo "El Mandril" ("The Baboon") Sanchez, Renan "El Cucuy" ("The Boogeyman") Almendarez Coello and Eddie "El Piolin" ("Tweety Bird") Sotelo -- that helped turn a Los Angeles immigrant rights protest in March from a rally expected to draw 20,000 people into a demonstration of 500,000.
The protest turned heads in Washington and suggested that a sleeping political giant was about to awaken -- an impression reinforced by Monday's "Day without Immigrants" demonstrations and work boycotts across the country.
"Usually these radio personalities give advice, give the weather and play music. Now they are working together as a community sounding board and getting a huge response," Gutierrez said.
ANGERED BY HOUSE BILL
Disc jockey Sotelo, known to his listeners as "El Piolin," says he knows what it is like to be an illegal immigrant.
"I was working three different jobs every day, and I know the feeling when you got fired just because you don't have a green card ... they (employers) make you feel like you're not worthy," he told Reuters.
Sotelo, whose show "Piolin in the Morning" emanates from KCSA in Los Angeles and is syndicated in 15 other regions, said it was up to each individual to decide how he wanted to protest.
"I've been telling listeners that before they protest they have to first talk to their family. Everybody has a different opinion," he said.
"I've told them if they can't get off work, ask the owner of the business or their supervisor to write letters to senators telling them how much they need and appreciate immigrant labor ... One of the things I would like to see is that people know we are not here to do damage to anyone."
Los Angeles disc jockey Nico Jones said that the moment of truth came to him when he learned the details of a bill passed by the House of Representatives which would make undocumented immigrants and those who help them felons.
"I was making jokes and playing paying music on air and then I realized how outrageous that bill was and I said we need to bring this to light," he said.
He added that he never told listeners what to do but what they should know.
Tweety Bird and the Babboon? Say what?
By all means, let's just trash our immigration laws so Tweety'll feel better.
---I've told them if they can't get off work, ask the owner of the business or their supervisor to write letters to senators telling them how much they need and appreciate immigrant labor---
Dear Senator Boxer, I love my illegal aliens. They work almost for nothing and when they get sick I just get new ones, and let the government take care of the discards. The tax saving is great, too. I pay them under the table and if they so much as look at me cross-eyed out they go. My friends and I enjoy ordering them about in Spanish. It's so ethnic! The crime problems don't bother me, since I'm out of reach in Bel Air. Go ahead and make them citizens, just don't close the border. That way I'll be able to get more.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.