Excerpts from an interview with Nativo López, president of the Mexican American Political Association, on the May Day Protests.
“You get what you’re ready to fight for”
The three-tier legalization program offered by Hegel-Martinez in the Senate is a codified caste system–a sort of bantu apartheid system that is tacitly un-American and unacceptable. It would result in the complete division of families, and that’s why our families find it so repugnant and unacceptable.
However, our greatest fear is that the Democratic Party will be unwilling to make a complete fight to oppose this version–in its haste to make a deal and impede the growth of this new civil rights movement.
Anthony Sotero fought for his rights and the rights of others, and he was repressed by the school authorities, criticized by the corporate media, sent back to school by political leaders, chastised by adults and patronized by too many other social hierarchies. He was the first victim and martyr of this new movement.
You get from life what you are ready to fight for. This is the message we have constantly conveyed to our base, and they have internalized this. They are ready and willing to fight for the whole enchilada. Why not? They have nothing to lose.
The next possible steps for the movement by immigrants is organization, organization, organization–of a permanent and politically independent character, where leadership can be developed, groomed, and prepared for the future fights that are sure to come.
I’ll be at the L.A. march at Olympic & Broadway today (and maybe the Wilshire march too, who knows) and will have reports and photos upon returning.