"La Huelga" a Huge Success in Alta California
by
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, Alta California - December 12, 2003 - (ACN) Hundreds of thousands of Mexicans, Mexican-Americans and other Latinos participated
in today's work stoppage, economic boycott and school walkouts making it the most successful "Huelga" in the history of Alta California. Visible signs could be observed from San Francisco to Los Angeles to San Diego of the impact of "La Huelga". Thousands of businesses had to shut their doors for lack of workers and customers and some predominate Latino schools reported 2/3 of their entire student body absent even though school administrators utilized a variety of threats against the students to keep them in school. The economic loss as a consequence of Latinos not buying any products or services is yet to be determined. Future "Huelgas" will only become more effective as the movement gains momentum.
La Voz de Aztlan received some reports from students concerning the underhanded measures utilized by White teachers and administrators to force them to not participate in "La Huelga". One disturbing report came from Jose Cardenas, a Mexican-American student at Overfelt High School in San Jose where Latinos constitute about 60% of the student population of about 1600 students. He reported, "I just wanted to say that I am supporting La Causa by not attending school tomorrow but wanted to make a comment on what was announced today. Our principal is white and he announced many consequences for not attending school tomorrow. He is just using a scare tactic because he knows it will greatly affect our school because of the large Hispanic population. There are also many racist teachers which made fun of the boycott and other racist comments. I know this is going on in
many other schools and wanted to know if you guys could bring this to the
attention of everyone, that law states that students can miss school as long as they have their parents' authorization and cannot be punished."
The above scare tactics were also utilized in the Los Angeles Unified School District and other large school districts throughout the state. The Santa Ana School District in Orange County, one of California's districts with the largest percentage of Latino students, the administration utilized "bribery" to keep students in school to no avail. They sent out letters to the parents that they would be raffling, for free, "large screen Television sets" today. Whether the raffles were actually held is unknown.
Gloria Hernandez, a member of the Coalition for Immigrants Rights of the San Joaquin Valley, said that a large number Latino students boycotted school in the Porterville Unified School District.
Many large manufacturing companies were affected with large employee absentee rates. Smaller shops had to close their doors. San Jose's downtown area showed that many small businesses that cater to Latinos were closed for the day. Others reported a drop-off in customers. "We're really affected," said San Jose jewelry store owner Luis Romo. "We need business, especially in downtown... it's terrible."
Hardest hit were restaurants throughout the state. In San Francisco, Bill Higgins, co-owner of Real Restaurants, a group of 10 Bay Area restaurants that includes the Fog City Diner, Betelnut and BeauCoup had to organize a non-Latino standby workers group and the entire Latino staff of Acme Chophouse walked off the job today, using the sick time that the restaurant offers hourly workers. On St. Helena's Main Street, Armadillo's restaurant will close for the day said owner Jose Velazquez. Closing the restaurant cost him $2,500 in daily gross revenue.
Also, in San Francisco, Santiago Ruiz, executive director of the Mission Neighborhood Centers, which runs many Head Start programs said that eight of the locations had to be closed today. Ruiz said that while he supports employees participating in the boycott, he showed up to work because he needs to ensure that needy families continue to get support. He said he bought gasoline and milk on his way home Thursday to avoid making any purchases today.
The above events repeated themselves in hundreds of cities and smaller towns throughout Alta California. It will be difficult to estimate the total economic impact "La Huelga" had in the state, but one thing for sure, future "huelgas" will have increasingly greater consequences for those who would deny basic rights to Mexican and other immigrants. With better organization and increased participation by organizations, "La Huelga Solidarity Movement" will become a powerful political and economic weapon
to be used in the struggle for equal civil and human rights. The National Huelga Committee looks forward to the day when this weapon can be deployed throughout Aztlan.
Si Se Puede!
