May Day 2010 in Los Angeles: Some Photos

If you’ve grown up in the United States as an “other” or you just happen to look like one, you are probably quite accustomed to the regular indignities of not being one of them. Somehow you manage. You just want to get by. But then they do something so utterly outrageous and in your face that yer like “Fuck This, No Mas!” They push the indignities over that line you were hoping to avoid. Arizona did that recently, making any friends and family that look “other” open targets to harassment. It’s not like harassment wasn’t the norm before, its just that now it’s a protected and legal practice.

Fuck that.

Sometimes, enough is enough. Time to take it to the streets to show our collective disapproval.

Warning! Lots of pictures ahead.

Yeah, its almost 11 and I should be in downtown already, but for a protest you have to power up! A breakfast of chilaquiles and huevos will do just nicely. Scarf it up cuz the bus is coming!

Of course you take a bus to a protest. It’s the sensible thing to do.

We get off the bus somewhere on Hill and this sign greets us. Tempting, tempting, but we have a march to attend!

Some dude on his Ipad with signs saying Professional Don’t Care Expert. Dude, you don’t need to advertise what we already know.

Old school photographer working the pencil shutter.

I see it now!

As a friend said, Arizona’s ears must be burning, cuz everyone was talking shit about that police state.

Lots of US flags around. I could critique this but I recognize its a safety response, so whatever.

The mayor was both friend and foe at the march. But we all know he’s just lame.

Taggers 4 Immigrant rightz.

Viva May Day! International day of the worker!

The ambulantes were busy this day.

This guy was selling flags with a special comfort handle for $2.

That’s a mean thing to say about the Arizona governor. But it wasn’t a lie.

Styling the umbrella hats.

Paletero making bank.

Many equated the asshole AZ law to Nazi Germany. But they’re not requiring people to wear “undocumented” badges. Yet.

Ice creamero in action!

Viva Zapata, in tattoo.

Yup.

Lots of laughing and good spirits, despite the seriousness of the issue.

The boycott is well underway.

Paisano marching and eating his apple. Gotta keep the energy up.

Tons of commie groups were out there, as to be expected. I didn’t see any pro-capitalism groups. Maybe they’re happy enough to get their message out via Larry Mantle.

Not Pre-prison!

Oaxaca in the mix.

Don’t Raid me, bro.

Frente Indigena makes their demands.

Stern demand in a cool graphic!

KIWA coming down Broadway.

Korean drummers bring the beat.

Rainbow power. And hey, look! Exit through the Gift Shop is showing!

Damn that sellout mayor!

Wrapped up in all kinds of signifiers!

Someone objects to the “No Public Restroom” sign.

Queers show their love.

Border Patrol = Nazi German. Well made sign too!

Cesar Chavez was all over this march.

People do Resist rising tyranny.

Jewelry store covered their wares with a blanket. Like I really want your crap gold.

Sure, why not?

Youngster into Justice for all. Soon he will see there’s no such thing.

Paletero man with an improvised bike cart. LA paleteros are not as lazy as the bay area ones.

Churro man with some pre-bagged dough sticks. I should have bought some, but I strangely didn’t consume a single thing. Chilaquiles hold a power that lasts!

IWW in the streets!

Jesus was a topic of discussion, on signs and theater marquees.

The popular bacon wrapped hot dog also came out to support workers and immigrants.

Nazizona. Clear enough.

Raspado guy with the biggest chunk of ice I’ve ever seen.

I was taking a pic of something else and he decided he wanted to be in the shot.

The candy apple-ero.

With some chile coated candy apples! Mexicans love the chile.

La clase obrera no tiene fronteras! And look at the worker intimidating the boss. Awesome.

A call to all Latinos in this great nation.

The most serious raspado vendor ever.

At the end of the march, the RCP tried to rile up the few people that were paying attention. I heard something about their missing leader Bob Avakian. How can such a small group so single handedly make the concept of Revolution so boring?

El Chapulin Colorado was not impressed.

We are not criminals.

Dodger Fans Boycott on Facebook. I think this is the page. I’d say boycott the Dodger’s just cuz baseball is boring!

Contemplating the facebook boycott, a man that looks legal.

Y siguele con los weenies en tocino.

The Mayor on a t-shirt? Who would want to wear that? I bet they sold very few shirts.

Fuck Arpaio. He gets called out as a chavala on this sign.

The shops on Broadway have their say on the situation.

What’s a protest without a bit of dancing?

Siempre en movimiento!

May Day Shark.

Some pamphlet promoting collective suicide. It would be a USC fan.

Are you for peace and love? It took me 6 minutes to solve this riddle.

I am topical but undecided.

Canadians were trying to look like Americans, with mixed results.

Religio-nuts with a message that isn’t very clear.

All I gather is that Jesus is the Devil. But we already knew that.

And the crack smoking Obama is too.

These two were on a collision course, neither would budge.

Macaroni adorned sign.

Solidarity Forever.

Some sort of impromptu lecture. Damn they are patient.

May Day is no excuse for not getting your regular dose of chi-chi mags.

Nieve de fresa to the rescue!

Univision reporter is all famous for a few minutes.

Oh oh, the kids are getting tired.

Some guy was strangely ecstatic about a deputy being shot. No word on how the Sheriff is doing.

Interactive sign.

Hair styles of the 80s. For your mid-march reading enjoyment.

I liked these shirts.

An earth flag. Useful for when we go take over other planets.

Gelatinas for the people.

Ha ha! I’m sure that’s exactly what many are thinking.

More Arizona bashing.

Although it wasn’t as big as the anti-HR4437 from 2006, there was still quite a large turnout. I’d say more than 100,000 despite what the police are reporting.

Everyone wanted to take their picture with Obama.

Caped crusaders aka Super Luchadores.

Oh wait, that’s not a real sign!

I understand completely. I was starting to feel the same way, but I didn’t bring my man sized stroller.

I took a seat under some shade and watched the march go by.

AZ, the racial profiling state. Catchy.

We will ignore the misspelling but the message is clear enough.

On on that happy note, it was time for some refreshments.

See ya’ next year May Day!

Update! Bonus! Update! Pics I forgot!

Can you believe that with over 100 pics I still forgot to upload a few? I believe that I can be that stupid. But you’ll never believe how lucky you are to get even more terrible photos! Ha ha, yer screwed.

Here we begin with the fotos i forgot.

Of course the costureros would have a pretty sign.

An injury to one is an injury to all. A statement that reminds us of our class solidarity.

It was a warm day. Even the cops were buying paletas.

AM radio might not be the place for well reasoned discourse.

Am impromptu zapateado, in the style of the Veracruz.

Our gabacho brothers stood up for our rights!

I love these shirts, though I don’t have the courage to wear one.

Even the mullet wearing Mexicans were up for a May Day march.

Solidarity amongst the others.

Someone said this was Martin Sheen. Whatever.

City hall as viewed from a crowd of others.

Shadows with a message.

Some bigoton hides his bigotes.

I want my license to drive. Weird that this is no longer an issue, considering that it hasn’t been solved.

A representation of an alien.

The fist of determination.

Pupusa making in progress.

For some reason the punk show had been canceled. Lack of permits or some sort of similar excuse.

Orange Juice-ero en chinga to get his next stash of oranges.

18 thoughts on “May Day 2010 in Los Angeles: Some Photos

  1. Favorite caption: “How can such a small group so single handedly make the concept of Revolution so boring?” I KNOW! I think the RCP needs to redesign their marketing!

    At least crimethInc makes revolution seem sexy.

  2. Great pictures and the captions are entertainingly fun!!
    I’ll look for a man size stroller for you for next years May Day.

  3. great post. I wish I had an extra lens to take closer pics. I’m so short. I was there around the same time. Chilaquiles do the trick cause I held up pretty well. I always get emotional at the marches. I feel pride, sadness, anger, and pride again because I know that we have to do this collectively and not stop and it is going to get hard. It was a peaceful march. I saw that guy with the “Arizona” deputy shot” sigh get run out of the street by a mob.

  4. MWAHAHAHA! I need an earth flag for when we take over the rest of the earth and those other planets.

  5. Great pictures!!! sin duda alguna las mejores k he visto de esta marcha !!

  6. I will tell you what I have seen these last few days I saw our beloved Stars and Stripes flag, the flag from Mexico and some flags from other countries. I saw children, parents and grand parents together in solidarity, my people the working class, they may not be sophisticated but they got the message heard. From publish reports the demonstrations included both US citizens and undocumented workers. This brought me a smile because I always enjoy seeing brothers helping brothers.

    This reminds me of a parable from the good book where a Levite and Priest come upon a man who fell among thieves and they both individually passed by and didn’t stop to help him. Finally a man of another race came by, he got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy and got down with the injured man, administered first aid, and helped the man in need. Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the “I” into the “thou,” and to be concerned about his brother.

    You see, the Levite and the Priest were afraid, they asked themselves, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?”

    But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”

    As I see it, we should stand-up against a law is passed in anger and is against our Constitution/ Bill of Rights/ Declaration of Independence and is targets a specific group.

    God bless all my brothers and sister that stood side by side with our brothers and sisters in need. When our judgment comes I know God will not discriminate by country of origin as men do.

  7. Damn, I forgot to upload some photos, like the aliens in a stroller. Guess I’ll be updating this in a lil’ bit.

  8. Great as always.

    (Side note about the Palatero youtube vid. The video maker/ shopping cart dude is from South Gate, not NorCal.)

  9. Hey, it’s nice to see all those people walking together for the right thing. Nice photos, funny captions. I don’t think I’ll ever get stopped for looking like an illegal alien, but it would shame me to no end if others are. Indeed, let’s put an end to this kind of crap now.

  10. 1. Loved the “Nazizona” sign.
    2. In the photo captioned “the fist of determination”, that looks like Don Cheto.
    3. Lots of true capitalists out there (street vendors).
    4. Loved the KFI is the new KKK of America. It seems to me that lots of White Racists masturbate to the Jon and Ken Show on a daily basis.
    5. One weekend is “Fiesta Brodway” with all its corporate sponsors, and the next weekend its May Day March sponsored by La Raza. Wonder which event had more attendance.
    6. Yes We Klan!! Si Se Klan!! ha ha ha. Good one.
    7. Unfortunately, all the Latino Politicians suck Dirty Donkey Balls and will not do anything for immigration reform or to push the agenda. Villaraigosa has got to be one of the worst mayors in history. Seriously, what has he done?

  11. I saw Jay Leno at Correspondent Dinner his best line was; “That was my favorite story (this year) Republicans and a Lesbian bondage club. It’s ironic, Republicans don’t want lesbian getting married but they do like watching them “tie the knot”. So I thought that was interesting.”

    You can say the same about Tea Party, they say they respect the Constitution, Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence but they do not mind passing laws, through weak Governors (no one ever voted for this crazy) who only care about getting reelected on the backs of undocumented workers, that will not pass Constitution muster, just like Arizona’s House Bill 2779 from two years ago, keep passing them Arizona and the rest of us will continue to challenged them in the courts and you will lose again (and yes we will boycott you!). Their phony patriotism is sickening; they are just racists going by another name. We all know you are just itching to put a sheet on their head? Let’s face it the Republicans had eight years to deal with health care, immigration, climate change and financial oversight and governance and they failed. It appears that the Republican Party is only good at starting wars (two in eight years, with fat contracts to friends of Cheney/Bush) but not at winning wars as seen by the continuing line of body bags that keep coming home. The Republicans party will continue turned inward to their old fashion obstructionist party (and their Confederacy appreciation roots) because they continue to allow a small portions (but very loud portion) of their party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” to rule their party. I will admit that this fringe is very good at playing “Follow the Leader” by listening to their dullard leaders, Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush, Savage, Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Blowhards and acting as ill programmed robots (they have already acted against doctors that perform abortions). The Birthers and the Tea party crowd think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like “This time we came unarmed”, let me tell you something not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who don’t pay taxes and run around with face paint in the parks playing commando, the majority are mature and understand that the world is more complicated and grey than the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. The world is complicated and people like Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt believed that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now it’s about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. For a party that gave us Abraham Lincoln, it is tragic that the ranks are filled with too many empty suits and the crazy Birthers who have not learned that the way our courts work is that you get a competent lawyer, verifiable facts and present them to a judge, if the facts are real and not half baked internet lies, then, and only then, do you proceed to trial. The Birthers seem to be having a problem with their so called “facts”. Let’s face it no one will take the Birthers seriously until they win a case, but until then, you will continue to appear dumb, crazy or racist, or maybe all three. I heard that Orly Taitz now wants to investigate the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC), she wants to re-establish a family values party, that’s like saying that the Catholic Church cares about the welling being of children in their care, too late for that.

  12. Your posts are always so funny. My dad is in one of the pix, how embarassing.

  13. I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened. All of us ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated, but this is not the case.

    I know the proponents of this law say that the majority approves of this law, but the majority is not always right. Would women or non-whites have the vote if we listen to the majority of the day, would the non-whites have equal rights (and equal access to churches, restaurants, hotels, retail stores, schools, colleges and yes water fountains) if we listen to the majority of the day? We all know the answer, a resounding, NO!

    Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics and do what is right, not what is just popular with the majority. Some men comprehend discrimination by never have experiencing it in their lives, but the majority will only understand after it happens to them.

  14. “All Men are created equal”! The founders had it right, when attempting to form a perfect union and they also knew that they were not there yet but knew we one day would get there. Lincoln moved us forward as did JFK and LBJ. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.

    It is my contention that this AZ law is not constitutional and will fail when challenged (unless they add more amendments), pretty funny for this so called perfect law.

  15. What’s unique about the US/Mexican border is the contrast of skin color between people on each side, or at least the people who control the border where this side is concerned. White and brown. Is there any other border in the world with such a contrast? South Africa and its neighboring countries like Botswana, Zimbabwe, etc? I’m under the impression that the Northern parts of South Africa are mostly black, though. But I’m not sure. Doesn’t the skin color of those enforcing a border and those they’re enforcing it against tell you something about a border? If it’s not skin color it’s economics. The border is there to defend a country, obviously. But defend it from what? And why? You don’t put a wall up unless you are threatened by something, you see it as a plague. There is no wall at the Canadian/US border, even though it’s well documented that terrorists have came in from the North. 9/11…Never forget. Well, I haven’t. So what’s up with that Northern border and the efforts to keep terrorists out? Where is John Mccain and Rudy on that? Sarah? Glen Beck? What a bunch of racist fucking liars.

    But I’m glad to see the unity at least in pro sports amongst the players against this law. I think athletes could and should do more to protest it, but athletes have been so brainwashed by money for so long that merely wearing “Los Suns” jerseys is s start. And did you hear Chris Webber and Charles Barkley sound off their opposition to this law on TNT’s pregame show? What a breath of fresh air that was. The producers must have been squirming, fearing a Kanye “bush doesn’t care about black people” backlash.

    I’d like to see athletes outright boycott. Imagine if Kobe, Gasol, Nash and Hill, just the 4 of them, said they weren’t taking the court for this upcoming series until the law is reversed? But like I said, just voicing their opposition is at least a start. And it’s unfortunate Phil Jackson had to actually take a supportive position for the law. It’s too bad he could slap the millions of Latino Laker fans in the face like that, but oh well. The opposition from current and former players fortunately drowned his voice out. I think Jeanie Buss has him “p” whipped anyway, to be honest.

  16. i really like your pix it feels so good to know that even gringos are there with us cause it make our comunity feel stronger and the goberment will make a second thouth knowing that we are needed…

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