Posted on 02/13/2006 10:17:24 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
SAN JUAN — A human rights organization sympathetic to undocumented immigrants celebrated the end of 100 days of collective fasting Sunday in response to the “unwelcome presence of hatred on our border” by the Minutemen, a group that aims to stop illegal border crossings.
From a 78 year-old woman to a 10-year-old boy whose grandmother drowned in the Rio Grande, 165 people participated in the 3-month-long protest by taking turns not eating for 24 hours at a time.
“When we are really honest with ourselves, we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us,” Juanita Valdez-Cox, local director of La Unión Del Pueblo Entero, or LUPE, told a crowd of 150 residents, lawmakers and children, quoting César Chávez, the late labor activist who lead the United Farm Workers.
“So, it's how we use our lives that determines what kind of people we are,” she said. “When you have people come together who believe in something very strongly, things happen.”
The Minuteman group has raised eyebrows and generated international headlines by doing its own version of collective, nonviolent protesting.
Members have set up patrols along the border with Mexico because they are fed up with the federal government's efforts to stop the flow of illegal immigration. They say this has been harmful across the Rio Grande Valley in the form of damaged private property, and throughout the U.S. in the form of lost jobs for Americans.
“They are knifing the American people, and most people are completely oblivious to it,” Al Garza, former head of the Texas Minuteman organization, said by phone from Tombstone, Ariz. He now is the second in command of the Texas group's national counterpart, the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.
He blames the U.S. government for not aggressively prosecuting employers that hire undocumented workers. As part of “Operation Spotlight,” he said, Minuteman members are currently searching for such employers in Austin, Houston and Phoenix, among other cities.
Aristeo Orta, 42, a construction worker from San Antonio who participated in the fast, read for the ceremony the words of the song “Mojado,” or “Wetback,” written by Guatemalan singer Ricardo Arjona.
“The wetback is wet because of the tears that are born from his nostalgia,” he read in Spanish. “The wetback, the undocumented, carries the weight that legal people will not.”
Antonio Carrisales, 56, a bricklayer from Donna and a former migrant worker, added to the point of the song, as he stood in line to eat his first meal in 26 hours — a hamburger and a cup of beans.
“Maybe they don't understand that undocumented people have built the economy of the United States for a long time,” he said. “There should be more ways to make (the work) legal. We are all immigrants in the United States. Ancestors of the white people also came here. It's the same for Mexican people.”
Garza, of the Minuteman organization, who grew up near here in Raymondville and whose ancestors are from Spain and Italy, said immigrants should enter the country legally. He added that undocumented immigrants take not just undesirable jobs, but coveted ones too, such as those in construction.
“They don't stay picking strawberries,” he said. “They graduate. They pick up a hammer.”
As for the U.S. being a giant melting pot of bloodlines, he said that 120 years ago immigration laws and immigrants were different.
“They had dignity. They had honor,” he said. “Now they don't give a (expletive). Wherever they go, there is destruction.”
jbogan@express-news.net
Rat's ass, Al?
Exactly.
Finally someone gets it.
No, no, no, folks. If you want to impress us, you have to fast for the entire 3 months. Fasting for a day isn't even noteworthy, though apparently what's important to you is that you feel good about what you did.
Please start your 3-month fast today, all of you. I'll be cheering you on (and making sure you don't cheat--you want to be pure, right?).
"165 people participated in the 3-month-long protest by taking turns not eating for 24 hours at a time."
This is a hunger strike not even Jenny Craig can take seriously.
Fasting is just so silly. Why don't they just hold their breath and make the point more quickly?
In other words, they are not prepared to take anywhere near as much personal risk for their cause, as the Minutemen take for theirs.
Please tell me that's not really fasting protestor.
Oh, give me a (expletive deleted) break!
She looks like she could do the whole nine yards by herself and still have plenty to go.
She looks like she could do the whole nine yards by herself and still have plenty to go.
I would like to see the before and after photos of these fasters. Did they loose much weight? It might proove that eating less or eating nothing causes you to loose weight. It also might proove that they really didn't fast. What a bunch of hooey!
"From a 78 year-old woman to a 10-year-old boy whose grandmother drowned in the Rio Grande, 165 people participated in the 3-month-long protest by taking turns not eating for 24 hours at a time. "
So many jokes, so little time.
Come on guys! you can do better than that! You should be fasting for at least six months. Drop the water intake while your at it if you really want to make an impact.
She should have volunteered to take a few extra days on behalf of the cause.
LOL How lame.
24 hours? It's a fake!
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