Immigration Debate Wakes A 'Sleeping Latino Giant'
From washingtonpost.com - washingtonpost.com - US government, national security, science and national news and headlines.:
Drawing on fear of restrictive immigration proposals that have awakened hundreds of thousands of Latinos to political activism, organizers are using popular Spanish-language radio and networks of community organizations to mobilize protests in Washington and scores of other cities Monday.
The demonstrations are planned to expand on a groundswell that attracted about 30,000 largely Hispanic protesters in the District last month, about 100,000 in Chicago and as many as 500,000 in Los Angeles, a surprising display of political muscle from a population that makes up a substantial portion of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants.
In Chantilly, Elsea Pineada and Esperanza Fernandes stir ingredients for making tamales for a fundraiser for disadvantaged families in El Salvador.
"The sleeping Latino giant is finally awake," Contreras said.
The movement has emerged as a loose coalition of immigrants rights groups, unions and religious and student organizations.
Organizers are eager to draw other immigrant groups, including Asians and Africans, into Monday's protest.
But we are happily stunned," said Cecilia Muñoz, vice president for policy at the National Council of La Raza, a civil rights organization based in Washington.
"We're all very aware that this is history in the making, and the country will be transformed by it."
Now that Rivas and other members of the association have decided to become involved in U.S. politics, the network of contacts they developed through their years of community work is coming in handy.
Once relatively rare, the number of Spanish-language media outlets across the nation has grown greatly over the past decade.
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