Organizers Overcome Resistance To Rally

By LINDSAY PETERSON lpeterson@tampatrib.com

Published: Apr 30, 2006

TAMPA - Growing up in rural Florida, the Gonzalez sisters learned early to endure. Classmates called them names. Employers cared only how fast they could pick tomatoes.

So when people began criticizing their plans to stage an immigrant rally Monday in Tampa, they didn't blink.

The "Dear Wetbacks" e-mails, the other Hispanics trying to stop the rally, the insurance company refusals to sell them coverage for the event, none of it slowed them down.

Sisters Blanca Gonzalez and Sylvia Torres have pulled together a demonstration that could bring 20,000 people to the corner of Dale Mabry Highway and Columbus Drive. It's part of a nationwide observation Monday that calls on all immigrants to skip work, school or shopping.

"You can't tell people, 'Don't go out and fight for your rights,'" Gonzalez said. And you don't say that to the Gonzalezes, whose frustration has been building for 30 years, since they were called "dirty greasers" by classmates.

For the Plant City sisters, their time has come. "No way we're going to stop," Gonzalez said.

Beyond The Fields

Born in Michigan, the sisters moved with their family to Homestead, then Plant City when they were in junior high. The entire family worked in the fields. "You name it, we picked it," said Torres, 39.

She and Gonzalez, 40, left the fields in their 20s, Gonzalez to teach English in elementary school, Torres to open an auto repair shop. They also began working with immigrants in Plant City, helping them with tax and immigration forms.

They heard stories of people crossing the Mexican desert to join family, often after waiting years for visa approvals. Then the stories turned to people who were dying on the way, having taken longer, more dangerous routes as border security increased.

They knew how hard the immigrants worked to build their lives in the United States and how much they wanted to become residents and citizens.

But they could also see anti-immigrant sentiment building. In December, when Gonzalez heard the U.S. House had approved a bill to force undocumented immigrants out of the country, she decided that helping people file forms wasn't enough.

"I said to Sylvia, 'This is out of hand. We've got to do something.'"

They made their stand at the Florida Strawberry Festival in Plant City in March, but not as Blanca and Sylvia. They became Immigrants United for Freedom. Gonzalez's daughter Melissa and her husband, David, joined them.

They registered as a nonprofit organization, ordered T-shirts - the letters IUF in white on a red background - and put out the word. Gonzalez estimated that more than 300 people joined them at the Strawberry Festival parade, where they marched ahead of the procession with signs that read, "Who will pick your crops?" "Your strawberries came from our illegal hands," and "We just want to work."

More demonstrations followed. The women made appointments with Florida's senators, Bill Nelson, D-Tallahassee, and Mel Martinez, R-Orlando, getting as far as their aides in Tampa. They called local radio stations with their message: Undocumented immigrants do essential jobs in the United States and deserve an opportunity to become legal residents.

With April 10 designated as a rally day for immigrants nationwide, the Gonzalezes and Torres announced a demonstration on Dale Mabry Highway and Columbus Drive. They expected hundreds of people.

More than 3,000 showed up, filling the sidewalks along Dale Mabry from Columbus nearly to Raymond James Stadium.

Overwhelming Responsibility

Torres quit the group the night before.

"It was just too much," she said. "We were running here, running there. My business was backing up. I was having anxiety attacks at night."

But the next morning, she said, there she was with her family, helping park cars, handing out signs and trying to keep the crowd on the sidewalk.

"Sometimes it's overwhelming," said Blanca Gonzalez, who left the school system four years ago because of health problems, including lupus.

They've received angry e-mails. One began with "Dear Wetbacks" and ended with "you don't know who you're dealing with. We're the ones in charge, not you, Pedro."

Statewide organizers asked them to call off the Tampa rally, trying to designate Orlando as the only Florida demonstration site. The bickering continued through last week.

Then the family couldn't find a company to sell them liability insurance, required by the Tampa Sports Authority for use of its parking lots on Dale Mabry near the stadium. Without insurance, the authority will require each car that uses its lots to pay $5.

"Nothing will stop us," Gonzalez said. "What's happening is so unjust. People are saying something has to be done, and they're looking to us.

"We can't let them down."

TAMPA PROTEST

WHEN: Noon to 4 p.m. Monday

WHERE: Dale Mabry Highway and Columbus Drive