Today marks the 1-year anniversary of the historic gran marcha for immigrant rights in downtown Los Angeles. I have an op-ed in the L.A. Times (it was assigned before the Andres Martinez meltdown) that discusses the legacy of the marches, a sort of revision on the "requiem":
By fall, writers everywhere, including this one, felt compelled to pen somber "requiems" for the immigrant-rights movement, bemoaning a missed opportunity to fundamentally shift federal policy and maybe even all of American society. The movement, we declared, was dead.
But we were wrong. Yes, the marches themselves may not have directly changed federal policy. But in our bloated expectations after such monumental days, we failed to notice that the marches did have a huge effect on the way immigrants see themselves and the way L.A. — and this nation — sees immigrants.
Here's the view of L.A. Times editorial board on the anniversary. One thing I don't mention in my piece is the actual ongoing activity and campaigns by the various immigrant advocacy groups in L.A. such as CHIRLA and Hermandad Mexicana that continue through to this day. La Opinion on Thursday ran a story headlined, "Los latinos son el futuro," or "Latinos are the future," on a United Way conference on quality of life in L.A. It quotes Henry Cisneros saying that Latino racial gang violence against African Americans is "totally unacceptable." The paper also notes a few events honoring the March 25 anniversary. Pilar Marrero, in a piece titled "Mixed results from the movement," notes that in the first six months of 2006, naturalization applications jumped more than 60%. Here are some Flickr photos from 25 March 2006 to jog the memory. Got any good shots? Or pages with good shots?
* And, looking back, here is my coverage in the LA Weekly of March 25, April 10, and May 1. And my meditation on the flags, which led to this.