Baldwin Park

by KWENTO Sunday, May. 15, 2005 at 1:23 PM
kwento@hotmail.com

El PUEBLO unido

I will leave all the hard reporting to more qualified newspeople on here but just wanted to say I was at this demo and it was amazing! They had like 30 racists, we had about a 1000 counter-demonstrators, more. We shut down the intersection where they had set up so that no cars could go through and we surrounded them. I think they were sending out SOS signals haha. Now we know where they got their name. Finally they left, escorted by police.

This was a great victory but it's just the beginning. Like my pops used to say, "Ahora, hay que ponernos MAS trucha." Stay organized and mobilized and aware of what these groups are upt to, and at the same time, watch out for other lefty groups trying to appropriate and redirect the struggle.

Today it was el PUEBLO unido that defeated these racists over these contested spaces and words. The people, the town, the place.

At one point, we had two options: stand at a yellow police line way down the block from the racists, or go back to the monument and listen to speakers scheduled by the organizers of the rally. Neither seemed adequate--most binaries aren't. Then people started flowing into Jeremie Avenue, down the block and around and back up again around the line of cops. A third way opened up, and soon everyone was gathered at the intersection creating a new space of resistance there. It's always that third way, seek it out, don't let ANYbody box us into either/or.

I think Gloria Anzaldua would have been proud; I think we did her words justice.

If anyone wants a copy of the Anzaldua zine I was passing out at the demonstration, shoot me an email with your mailing address.

KWENTO