“IT’S IMPORTANT … TO SHOW WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS”
She had walked for three months from Peru to Mexico, then crammed into a truck container with 110 people, to clean nursing-home bedsheets in Denver.
On Monday, she showed up as usual at 5 a.m. at the Holly Heights Nursing Center. But when her shift ended, she planned to hop a bus to downtown to catch the end of a pro-immigrant rally.
“It’s important for us to be there,” she said in Spanish, “to show we are human beings in this country.”
She spoke from a semicircle of seven women in the basement laundry room, surrounded by pink bed pads and the hum of clothes dryers. The others are from Mexico. None wanted their names published, even though one has lived in the United States for 15 years and gave birth to four children who are U.S. citizens.
Though working, they shared the sentiments of others celebrating the international labor day. “We’re not going to the stores today,” one said. “We’re all wearing white shirts.”
The woman from Peru left two sons behind, 18 and 17 years old. She said she would not want them to follow the long, perilous journey, but she sometimes sends money home and hopes they have a chance for good careers.
LOSS OF WORK CUTS DEEPLY
Monday morning, Lynn Jensen stitched a heart-shaped emblem with a U.S. flag theme onto a red sweatshirt. In the middle, the Lakewood grandmother added this message: “I Lost My Job To An Illegal.”
“I lost two jobs to them,” she said.
The first, she said, was an advertising job in Denver. “My company hired an illegal Mexican to take my position because he would do the job for less. The second was a greenhouse – guess who they hired.”
She sat on a wall at Civic Center, hoisting a sign: “It’s Not Immigration, It’s Invasion.” Around her, counterprotesters chanted, “USA, USA, USA,” and “Deport, deport, deport.”
A young man paraded before them with a sign declaring, “I Took Your Job Because I’m Better.”
“They’re willing to work for $3 an hour,” Jensen retorted. “Every carpentry and building person has lost work because of them. So have dishwashers.”
WORKER CENTER CLOSED FOR THE DAY LABORERS
“We Are Open,” the sign on the day-labor center said.
The padlock above it said otherwise.
Harold Lasso, program director of the Humanitarian Center for Workers, had shut the place down for the day to join an immigrant-rights march from northwest Denver to the Capitol. So had men and women who regularly show up at his office at 6 a.m., hoping to spend a day landscaping, housekeeping or passing out fliers.
“We are in solidarity with all the workers in the world,” said Lasso, who wore a T-shirt advising, “Mow Your Own Lawn.”
Most immigrants who come to Lasso’s center are Latino, but he sees immigrants from the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa as well. “We don’t ask, don’t tell (about immigrant status),” he said. “We’re not an employment agency.”
Gilberto Velazquez, one of the center’s day laborers, said he has worked in several states since 1982, as a pipefitter and construction worker, at power plants and ethanol plants, without gaining citizenship. He wears a Washington Wildlife Coalition cap, his home state for 11 years.
“I raise my children the best I can,” he said of his 10 boys and six girls. He said he sends money back “to every state of Mexico.”
He keeps in touch with telephone calls. He said he hasn’t seen his children in 24 years.
SALESMAN SEIZES DAY BY WHEELING IN “LUNCH CART”
Even at a rally where an estimated 75,000 people skipped work and stopped shopping for a day, lunchtime arrived.
And at that hour, Miguel Gomez was one of the busiest small-business men in Denver.
He had corn – in a cup or on the cob – smeared with Parkay, parmesan and chili powder. He had bags of flour chips called chicharones and bottles of salsa picante to pour over them. He had sno-cones. He had a mob around him.
Gomez transported his entire business in a single Sam’s Club shopping cart, parked strategically at 14th Avenue and Broadway.
By 1:30 he was out of everything but sno-cones. Countless customers had paid $2 for an ear of corn or a bag of chips. Singles, fives, tens and twenties bulged from his stuffed jeans pockets.
He had “a lot” of customers, he said in Spanish, “no idea how many.”
He reached for change, and money spilled onto the street. A frantic lunch business paused for a moment as he bent to retrieve it.
One quarter escaped. A passer-by spotted it, picked it up and discreetly placed it on Gomez’s cart.
WHAT THEY SAID
Comments about Monday’s national day of action from Colorado and around the nation:
“I have to support my dad for everything he’s done. He came to the U.S. for opportunity, and he wants me to have that opportunity too. My dad is not a criminal; he’s a good person.”
– Nicole Portillo, 22, Littleton, assistant restaurant manager
“I was praying that this many people would show up. These are our brothers and our friends, and they’re deserving of equality just like the rest of us.”
– Susana Anderson, 68, Denver, retired teacher
“I’m not taking work away from anyone. I’m doing the work that’s left over, the work that no one else wants to do.”
– Alberto Mejia-Castro, 33, Denver, pastry shop worker
“This isn’t just a march. These are people saying they want to be legalized. They don’t want to be illegal anymore.”
– Inge Wuchenauer, 45, Aurora, small-business owner
“If you can’t read this, get out of my country.”
– Sign displayed at a counter protest at Civic Center
“I took your job because I’m better.”
– Sign displayed by a Denver marcher to a group of counter-protestors.
“This is going to scare the daylights out of the American middle, the ones who can vote. What (marchers) did with all their Mexican flags, they sure know how to help my side.”
– Richard Waters, 53, Castle Rock, sales manager for a construction-products company
“We don’t want them here. If they can’t come (into the United States) legally, then they should go home.”
– Lynn Jensen, 58, Lakewood, retired
“I want my children to know their mother is not a criminal. I want them to be as strong I am. This shows our strength.”
– Benita Olmedo, a nanny who came to the U.S. illegally from Mexico in 1986 and pulled her 11-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son from school to march in San Francisco
“You should send all of the 13 million aliens home, then you take all of the welfare recipients who are taking a free check and make them do those jobs.”
– Jack Culberson, a retired Army colonel who attended a counterprotest in Pensacola, Fla.
“Our heroes understood that they had to fight for freedom and democracy, and we are here doing the same.”
– Ernest Calderon, a Mexican-born concrete worker who came to the Chicago rally with a sign listing the names of his heroes: Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Pancho Villa
“These demonstrators here today do not speak for law- abiding Latino American citizens.”
– Republican national committeeman Randy Pullen, outside a home-improvement store in Phoenix
“We’ve got orders to fill. Losing a day in this part of the season causes a tremendous amount of problems.”
– Mike Collins, none of whose 175 seasonal laborers showed up Monday to work his 500 acres of Vidalia onion fields in southeastern Georgia
“If I lose my job, it’s worth it. It’s worth losing several jobs to get my papers.”
– Jose Cruz, an immigrant from El Salvador who protested in rural Homestead, Fla., rather than work his construction job
DENVER POST STAFF AND WIRE SERVICES
