It looked to me like there were 2500-3000 people doing it here.   The news says the organizers (mainly Southwest Organizing Project and its satellites) estimated 5000 and the cops said 1500. We went to a rally and then walked 5 or 6 miles.  The marchers were 10-12 abreast and it stretched for 6 to 10 blocks.  The local TV news called it "a show of force." The news also said 6 or 8 skinheads had a brief counter-demonstration and then asked for a police escort to get outta there (the 3000 demonstrators I saw seemed extremely gentle and friendly but you know skinheads and other racists are especially cowardly).  The news said that all these big demonstrations today might hurt the immigrants' cause; really, give us a break, come up with a less tired line.

There were 8 or 10 times as many white people as black people, together totaling less than 10% of the demonstrators.  Very few Hispanics (a term that to us means Mexicans who deny they're Mexicans and whose family has been here for more than a hundred or two years, like the Democratic candidate for Congress who by staying away from the demonstration made it clear she's gonna lose to the perennial Republican winner in this Democratic district).  Usually at a march the passing traffic is a good bit more supportive than conventional wisdom would have it.  But here, although it was mostly stopped by the march, it was massively, wildly supportive, horns blowing, people waving, thumbs up, Mexican flags, other banners including shirts people took off to wave.  No motorists were overtly hostile though there were a few ugly expressions on white and Hispanic faces.

A lot of the demonstrators were young, high school age and young workers.  A lot brought small children.

A white anarchist on a skateboard and wearing a Che Guevara banner as a cape went back and forth.

There were Aztec dancers.

The organizers discouraged national flags, recommending white flags instead, but there were some at the rally anyway, a few more U.S. than Mexican and a scattering of others from Latin America.  During the march more Mexican flags sprouted.  Mexicans have a strong sense of national identification.  It seems to me to be of a different quality, stronger and healthier, from what we here call patriotism, but I might be wrong about that.  In both countries, or at least this one, there seems to be a propensity to worship woven images; the organizers of this event weren't able to get that put aside.

The chants during the march, all in Spanish, were pretty standard stuff.  There were the venerable "Si se puede," and the classic "Pueblo unido, jamas sera vencido".

There were a few interesting posters.  "Es mejor morir de pie que morir de rodillas" might have been the inspiration for a forgotten '60's rock and roll band's signature song "On Your Feet or on Your Knees."  There were several on the theme of "No Somos Inmigrantes. Somos Indigenos" (let us not forget that the U.S. started a war against Mexico in 1845 in order to annex half of that country, now the U.S. Southwest).  "Alta las redadas".  "Unidos sin fronteras" (exemplifying my own idea that solving these immigration problems will require a lot of cross-border coordination, much or most of it outside of government channels).  Some hand lettered T-shirts played with the UPS ad campaign about what brown can do for you.  Some presented thoughts more complex than our usual posters; I liked "I speak English.  I go to school.  I work.  I pay taxes.  It provides your retirement and medicare.  So why am I not as good as you?  OOPS, I forgot, I'm ILLEGAL."

It's not, it never is, just the excitement of being in the streets.  There are now strong discussions of what we really want and what we're going to do next.  Beyond the irreducible minimum of opposing the horrific House immigration bill and its criminalizing and deporting 12 million and more, there are several directions people would move in.  Opposing things that would keep wages down and hamper union activity, such as "guest worker" programs, is pretty close to the irreducible minimum too.

It truly is a civil rights movement.  That's partly because of the way it's defined in racist, jingoist, elitist, and just plain stupid and ugly terms by its enemies.  Its enemies, pretty much the same enemies the last civil rights movement had, use the same kinds of rationalizations as before.  And there are plenty of enemies, quite vocal, very powerful, with vicious violent acolytes as the enemies in our past had the assistance of the Ku Klux Klan and the White Citizens Councils.  And there's the "go slow, so you don't hurt your cause" crowd, too.  Plus red baiting (does that still count?).