The May 1 national strike – dubbed “The Great American Boycott” – is less than a week away.
Organizers are urging Latinos, immigrant workers and their supporters to skip work and not spend money that day.
The stakes are high. What happens that day could alter public opinion for better or worse.
It has the potential to raise awareness of immigrants’ collective contribution to the national economy and persuade Congress to offer a path to citizenship.
Or it could go another way: It could anger the owners of businesses that already support these workers, and turn off people who might have taken their side.
It’s up to the demonstrators.
How do they want America to view them?
Do they want to be seen as courageous, industrious people who love America and are working to make this country a better place? Or as foreigners not willing to assimilate?
Here’s the advice political strategists offer to protesters:
Next Monday, if your boss needs you, don’t skip work. As a compromise, urge him to let you circulate letters to workers addressed to key members of Congress.
Those of you who plan to march or attend a rally, dress in white, but leave the Mexican flags at home. Ditto on Salvadoran, Peruvian, Guatemalan, Honduran or any other foreign flags.
Carrying foreign flags hurts the cause. It turns off many Americans who view it as a sign of disrespect.
AM radio talk show hosts seized on it during earlier rallies, branding protesters as anti-American. Paranoid extremists, who foolishly think there is some master plan to “reconquer” the Southwest, are forwarding e-mails including photographs of marchers carrying Mexican flags as proof.
Americans who have been here several generations don’t have a connection to their ancestors’ homeland and therefore don’t understand why Latinos wave foreign flags. They don’t view it the way you do, as a way to display cultural pride. The see it as allegiance to a country you left.
It explains why Congressman Tom Tancredo told a Denver Post reporter earlier this month he wishes the rallies would continue: “Nothing that I’ve seen in the recent past could have helped our cause more than the display of hundreds of thousands of people waving Mexican flags.”
Instead, drape yourself with Old Glory. Sing “The Star Spangled Banner.” Carry banners that say “I love America!” not “América, te amo.”
The signs must be in English.
This is not a day for confusing Americans who might assume you don’t know English. They feel threatened by that.
They don’t understand that a majority of the marchers are bilingual but prefer communicating in their dominant language. How could they understand, considering most of them are monolingual?
Keep your chants in English. Drop the “Sí, se puedes.”
You have to think about what images will flash on the evening news. Will it be marchers chanting in Spanish? It’s smarter to show America that – just as Latinos were forced to learn Spanish after Spain colonized our countries – you are mastering English.
If César Chávez were alive, he’d tell rally organizers to come up with new chants and new strategies.
Also, reach out to other groups so this isn’t portrayed as a Latino rally. Latinos may make up almost 15 percent of the U.S. population, but less than half of that population votes. To succeed, these rallies must be multi-ethnic.
If you decide to rally, ask your non-Latino friends, co-workers and even bosses to join you. Tell them that you need their help.
They have as much of a stake in helping you and fixing America’s impractical immigration policies.
Cindy Rodríguez’s column appears Tuesdays in Scene and Sundays in Style. Contact her at 303-820-1211 or crodriguez@denverpost.com.
