Latest news with #ElizabethTorres
New York Times
6 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Some L.A. Protesters Are Marching for Neighbors and Family Members
Some of the people demonstrating in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday said they were first- or second-generation immigrants showing solidarity with their neighbors or family members, and a few expressed anger that their neighbors had received deportation orders. 'This is a real threat, this is not just talk,' said Zander Calderon, 36, a protester from northeast Los Angeles. He said he knew several people who had received such orders, as well as one neighbor who had self deported. 'He didn't want to live in fear,' Mr. Calderon, who wore a poncho with an image of the Virgin Mary and the colors of the Mexican flag, said of the neighbor. Others said that although they were not regular protesters, the federal government's recent immigration raids had motivated them to take action. 'This morning I couldn't stay home anymore,' said Elizabeth Torres, 36, who was carrying a Mexican flag outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday morning, as a crowd of protesters began to swell. 'If the people that are detained can see me through the windows, just know that you're not alone.' Martín Hoecker-Martinez, a physics professor who was waving an American and a Colombian flag, said that he had traveled about an hour and a half to join the protests because he could not stay home in good conscience. 'I'm an American citizen, and I think that one of the greatest points of pride of the United States is that we are a country of immigrants,' said Professor Hoecker-Martinez, whose mother came from Colombia. 'I bristle when people deride the U.S. government as the embodiment of our collective will.' Nicole Garcia, 35, attended the protest with her teenage son. She said that while she worried about the safety risks of bringing him along, she wanted him to understand 'what it looks like when community comes together.' Ms. Garcia, who described herself as Mexican American, was veiled and wore a floral wreath and face paint symbolizing the Mexican Day of the Dead. Brianna Vargas, 24, who was standing on an overpass above the U.S. 101 highway with a megaphone in her hand, said she was protesting for her parents, who had emigrated from Mexico and El Salvador, and for others who were too afraid to leave their homes. Reposting messages of solidarity with victims of immigration enforcement raids on social media is one thing, she said. 'It's different when you're actually here.'
New York Times
13 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Times
The Mexican Flag Has Become a Potent Protest Symbol
Elizabeth Torres, 36, held a Mexican flag outside the detention center in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday morning. 'I am a very proud American,' said Ms. Torres, whose grandparents immigrated to the United States. 'But I have to show support also for our Mexican brothers and sisters.' Throughout this weekend's protests, Mexican and other Latin American flags have emerged as protest emblems, which has angered the Trump administration's officials and supporters. Trump officials have cast flag wavers as insurrectionists and seemed to assume that they are not U.S. citizens. Stephen Miller, a top White House adviser, called out ' foreign nationals, waving foreign flags, rioting and obstructing federal law enforcement attempting to expel illegal foreign invaders' in a social media post on Sunday afternoon. But for many protesters who are American citizens, the flag signifies pride in their roots, as well as solidarity with immigrants who are being targeted for deportation. 'They're the children and grandchildren of immigrants,' said Chris Zepeda-Millán, a professor of Chicano studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has studied the immigrants rights movement in California. 'They have no doubt in their own citizenship or their own belonging here, but they understand the racial undertones of the attacks on immigrants,' he said. 'So you're getting this reaction of 'We're not going to let you make us be ashamed of where our parents and grandparents came from,'' Mr. Zepeda-Millán added. On Saturday afternoon in Paramount, Eric Torres, 30 and no relation to Elizabeth Torres, waved a Mexican flag in front of sheriff's deputies in riot gear. Mr. Torres wore an oversized white T-shirt and baggy jeans, typical attire for many Chicanos in Los Angeles. 'I came out here to support my people and show them where we came from,' Mr. Torres said. 'My parents are immigrants. Most of the people right here have immigrant parents, so I'm here to support, show them our love.' The appearance of foreign flags at immigration protests is not new, nor is the outrage by those who deem it un-American. But American flags have been flown by protesters in Los Angeles, too, as they have in past protests against immigration crackdowns. And in Los Angeles this week, fusions of the American flag with that of another country, such as Mexico or Guatemala, have regularly been seen waving among the demonstrators. Some immigrant coalitions in the past have discouraged the waving of foreign flags, lest it feed anti-immigrant backlash. But Alfonso Gonzales Toribio, an ethnic studies professor at the University of California, Riverside, who has written about Latino immigrant rights movements, said that right now, immigrants 'feel attacked.' He added, 'I don't think we are going to be able to dissuade people' from flying the flag of their homeland. 'It gives people a sense of pride.'
