Scenes From The Rallies

Published: May 2, 2006

'We Have Dreams'

ORLANDO - Tears stream down Alberta Cortez de Gomez's face as she recalls the life she left behind in Estado de Mexico.

Twelve years ago, Gomez, 38, crossed the Mexico border with two of her brothers. They went to Miami first and then Orlando, where she works as a house cleaner and child care worker.

"Life in Mexico is very, very hard," she says, eyes welling with tears. "I left my family behind to come to the United States to make a better life for me and for them. To be called a criminal is very hurtful."

Monday, wearing a T-shirt with a U.S. flag on one side and a Mexican flag on the other, she waved a small U.S. flag and chanted, "Si se puede" (Yes we can).

"We want to work," she said. "We don't want welfare. We don't want handouts. We have dreams just like everyone else, and we want the opportunity to be able to work hard to achieve our dreams. What's so bad about that?"

Cloe Cabrera

'Illegals Are Criminals'

ORLANDO - It took only to age 15 for Eduardo Lima to decide he had no future in Guatemala.

Adventurous, he crossed the Mexico border and found jobs in Pico Rivera, Calif., working at a warehouse and bodegas as a stock boy.

"At that age, you are never scared," he said, walking with demonstrators in Orlando.

Now 47, a citizen and an Orlando bus driver, he said those memories faded. The resurgence of immigration issues has made them vivid again.

"History tells us that when there is need for change, people have to do it," he said. "You have Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Cesar Chavez and others. We don't forget what we've been through. That's why I'm out here."

He became a legal resident 15 years ago. As he marched on Magnolia Street, he smiled and shook his head at a scene on one corner.

A man held a sign: "ILLEGALS are CRIMINALS." Next to him stood a woman, a young Hispanic, holding her own sign with an arrow pointing to the man: "IGNORANCE is BLISS."

Chris Echegaray

'My (Heart) Is In Mexico'

PLANT CITY - You could still get a Big Mac on State Road 39, but only at the McDonald's drive-through window; the lobby was closed.

Parking lots at local shopping centers had plenty of empty spaces. Hispanic businesses closed their doors in support of the cause.

Everywhere in Plant City, where Mexican labor is the engine that drives everything from fast food and construction to carwashes and farms, their absence was felt in varying degrees.

"We don't want to close anything down. We just want to be noticed. And we just want to work," said Ruben Rubio, who took the day off from his job at Advance Auto Parts to rally.

Rubio and his family, including two sisters and three children, waited at El Rincon Mexican restaurant, where buses and cars transported immigrants to a demonstration in Tampa.

Rubio, 28, has lived in the area nearly two decades. It took him 10 years to earn his residency.

Rosie Garcia, the mother of his 2-year-old twin sons and 8-year-old daughter, says she has lived here 13 years but still has no legal papers. Still, she said, "I am not a criminal," a sentiment emblazoned on the back of a white sleeveless shirt. Imprinted on the front: My (heart) is in Mexico.

Jan Hollingsworth

Student Absenteeism Jumps

TAMPA - Boycott organizers called for immigrant families to keep their children home from school, and thousands did.

Absenteeism in Pasco and Hillsborough counties depended on schools' demographics.

In Pasco, districtwide figures weren't tallied late Monday, but officials provided a snapshot. At Cox Elementary, a Dade City school where 62 percent of the 514 students are Hispanic, 250 children were absent. The average is 35.

Pasco Elementary, a Dade City school with a 36 percent Hispanic population, Pasco Elementary, had 175 of 753 students absent. The average is 50.

In Hillsborough, 23,518 students were absent, compared with 14,985 the previous Monday. As in Pasco, individual schools saw varying attendance. Plant High, in south Tampa, saw 92 percent attendance Monday. Plant City High, in an immigrant-heavy area, saw 78 percent attendance.

A Pinellas spokesman said district figures won't be available until today, but nobody reported overwhelming absenteeism.

Ronnie Blair

'This Is Historic'

TAMPA - Sandro Aranzabal wouldn't have missed Monday's manifestation of immigrant numbers and impact for anything.

"This is historic," he said, wearing a soccer jersey from his native Peru. "I want to be a part of history. I want to tell my children and grandchildren that I was a part of it."

Aranzabal, 43, came to the United States a year ago on a tourist visa. He is a cashier at a Tampa convenience store and plans to become a lawyer, like he was in Peru.

And, of course, he would like protection under the law while he does that.

His biggest influences are siblings who came here first and, in a short while, achieved goals that are difficult to reach in Peru. It's hard to purchase a home there because jobs are unstable, he said. In Peru, the major employer is the government, he said. When one party loses an election, the new ruling party brings in its supporters to fill jobs.

With Monday's demonstrations, politicians here will be hard-pressed to oppose giving undocumented workers rights, he said.

Jose Patino Girona

'We Know What They Go Through'

ORLANDO - People from Puerto Rico did not have to show up, but they did.

After all, they are born U.S. citizens, free to come and go as they please. The immigration debate has nothing to do with them, directly.

But the Orlando area's largest Latino group turned out to show solidarity with undocumented Mexicans, Colombians and Guatemalans.

"This doesn't affect us," said Elizabeth Benoit, taking a breather from the protest. "But we're Latinos, and we want to support the immigrants who are out here. We know what they go through."

Chris Echegaray

'The Protests Are Good'

CLEARWATER BEACH - On any given day, the Red Roof Inn on Clearwater Beach usually has six housekeepers cleaning its 118 rooms.

On Monday, two of those didn't show up, and the rest were on a mission to finish quickly. The women had somewhere to be - Tampa, at the immigration protest.

"The protests are good," said Gregoria Caramaya, formerly of Hidalgo, Mexico, which provides hundreds of Clearwater's service industry workers. "They make others take us into consideration."

Caramaya came to the United States illegally 10 years ago but plans to get a green card. With the immigration restrictions in place, it will take years.

When word spread about the rally, Caramaya, 29, said her boss gave them the opportunity to go to the protest as long as they finished their work.

"Our boss has always been good to us," she said. "We wanted to do our job."

Angela Delgado