Students march for labor rights in San Jose rally

By Katherine Tolentino

"El Pueblo Unido jamás será vencido! A people united will never be defeated!" A group of 20 Santa Clara students from MEChA and the Labor Action Committee chanted their way down Story Road last Sunday, along with thousands of others in San Jose's annual march for immigrant and laborer rights.

"It's food for my soul," said junior Jose Dorador, co-chair of MEChA-el Frente. Dorador, who moved to the United States at age ten. Dorador called the march strengthening, and said that being there, "you see that even though there's people working against immigrants, there's also people working for immigrants."

Like many others at Santa Clara, Dorador saw the Senate blockage of the DREAM Act, which was intended to help immigrant students in the U.S. acquire an education, as a huge slap in the face from a country he calls home. "For me, it's just the thought that there are people out there that don't want immigrants to work, don't want immigrants to go to school and get a higher education. I'm an immigrant, I'm a human being, I go to SCU, I want to get an education, get a Ph.D. There are people actively fighting against that, people who actively don't want me to do that."

Yet Dorador and others refuse to lose hope. Though the Dream Act was blocked back in December, these students have not put away their megaphones.

Freshman Mayra Garcia-Hernandez said, "it's really important to keep these kinds of movements going."

Junior Natali Rodriguez agreed. "I see right now how imperative it is not only for students but just young people and anyone," she said, "who has a voice in this issue to get involved, to make a difference, because right now it's really what's needed, is a change in the system."

Several students expressed disappointment about the drop in numbers compared with last year's march. "Last year," said Rodriguez, "we shut down all the streets that we were coming down in San Jose, and it was really overwhelming." Rodriguez said that may have had to do with Arizona's infamous SB 1070 law, which had passed just days before.

Despite this year's drop in attendance, junior Agustine Perez said the level of energy at the event was nonetheless a revitalizing force. "It was amazing — we were chanting, we were all together as one. We were the loudest ones there."

Along with issues surrounding immigration, workers' rights, especially the plight of the Benson workers, were also heavy on students' minds this Sunday.

LAC and MEChA were also able to network with other student groups around the Bay doing similar work. Tim Carlson, programming coordinator for LAC, says that along with the sense of community empowerment he got from the event, "it's also good for just meeting others in the county who are doing the same things you are."

For Garcia-Hernandez, the most inspiring moment of the rally was hearing a lone marcher raise his voice during a lull in the chanting. "All of a sudden... he start[ed] to chant on his own, without a loudspeaker. There was so much desperation in his voice for this to happen, it was just one of those moments where you have to step back and listen," she said, "That's the voice of the immigrant, and he embodied it so well. I was so honored to be there in that moment."

Contact Katherine Tolentino at ktolentino@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4546.