Reply-To: Avi Chomsky
To: North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee
Date: May 2, 2006 10:12 AM
Only a few people from Salem State made it to this rally--I've never felt the town-gown divide quite so strongly as yesterday, when the dramatic events downtown were utterly invisible from the campus. While other colleges actually sponsored events and activities related to immigrant rights yesterday, Salem State would not even allow a message about the activities to go out on the ssc-community e-list.
Avi
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Stores close, students miss school for national rally
By Tom Dalton
Staff writer
SALEM — It was unusually quiet yesterday on Lafayette Street as many Latino-owned businesses closed their doors in support of the national "Day Without Immigrants."
The lights were out even at Reymira's Market, normally one of the busiest stores on the street. There was a homemade sign on the door in blue lettering: "May 1 we are going to be closed due to our support of the immigrants' causes."
Steven Nova, the store's owner, spent most of the day in Salem's Riley Plaza with his wife and children, holding signs and waving at passing motorists to show solidarity with immigrants across the country who stayed home from work, refused to shop or skipped school to demonstrate the contributions that immigrants — legal and illegal — make to the United States.
"We know we are going to have a lot of loss," said Nova's wife, Reyna Ramirez, "but we don't think about money. We just think about the community."
By 1 p.m., around 100 people were standing in Riley Plaza, a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who demonstrated across the country. The Salem rally was organized hastily on Friday and advertised over the weekend on Spanish radio stations.
Many of the sign holders said they were not supporting illegal immigration but do believe strongly that the laws should be changed to make it easier for those who are already living, working and attending school in this country to become U.S. citizens.
Yesterday's rallies and demonstrations were held as the U.S. Congress debates what to do with the estimated 11.5 million illegal immigrants living in this country.
"Those who are here, let them stay," Antonio Santiago, 77, a U.S. citizen from the Dominican Republic, said with the help of a translator.
"We don't find jobs in our country, we are hungry, we got kids," said Raquel Garcia, 56, who works at the Wal-Mart in Danvers. The mother of six children, she said she came here illegally from Mexico 30 years ago and became a legal resident under a general amnesty in the late 1980s. She said she worked for years in the laundry room of a Route 1 hotel before becoming a manager at Wal-Mart.
"They try to tell us we are criminals," she said. "We aren't criminals. We come for work."
There was one counter-demonstrator in Riley Plaza. Bob McClory, 63, of Beverly held a sign on which he had written, "Illegal immigrants take Americans jobs and drive down wages. Go home and wait your turn. Do it right."
McClory, a firefighter, said he is "not a bigot," but a person who supports laws and fairness.
"I was in the civil rights movement in the 1960s down South," said McClory, dressed in a dungaree jacket and wearing a hat that with the word "Choppers" on it. "I'm a member of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). I just believe in controlled immigration."
Not every Latino-owned business in the city closed yesterday. Los Amigos, another popular market on Lafayette Street, was open and doing a brisk business.
"The owner is on vacation," said Angel Guerrero, an employee. "If I was the owner, I would close down the store."
School absences up
Many schoolchildren stayed home yesterday. Salem public schools reported 842 absences, which was about 18 percent of the student body and higher than usual, according to a school official.
'My husband says the bus stop was empty," said Altagracia Gomez, president of The Point Neighborhood Association.
'There were a lot of kids who wore white today to support the cause," said Raquel Pena, a senior at Salem High School.
Domingo Dominguez, a community leader who closed his business, said two of his children stayed home and two went to school.
"We didn't want to push," he said of the children who went to school. "They had projects they didn't want to miss."
In Peabody, high school Principal Patrick Larkin said the school "definitely had a significant number of students out," but he did not have actual figures. While administrators expected some absences, they were surprised by the magnitude, he said.
He said one student came to him last week to let him know that she would not be at school yesterday because she wanted to show solidarity with family members who are illegal immigrants.
Several people at the Salem rally said they demonstrated because they are worried about what could happen to legal immigrants like themselves if they help an undocumented friend or family member.
"That is a big problem," said Yoleny Ynoa of Salem. "If I have my brother in my house ... we both will be sent" back.
Ynoa, one of the organizers of the rally, said about 30 employees at his Peabody company missed work yesterday.
"We got a good boss," he said. "He lets us not work today."
While not condoning illegal immigration, several people said the U.S. government should recognize that illegal immigrants are here, and most are contributing members of society. Something should be done, they said, to help them become legal citizens.
"We support all kind of immigrants who come here with a dream," said Ramirez, wife of the Salem market owner. "The dream came true for us. ...We just want some kind of law to give these people the dream come true."
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North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee
