La Gira Misteriosa y Magica

Well here we were on the prettiest Satuday of the year so far in the middle of the anti-Sensenbrenner bill march, curling around the road that led up to the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. There was a celebratory feeling in the air--the issue at hand was quite serious, but the giddy feeling of Latino Nation making its appearance in the New York area. After all the marketing nonsense we've gone through since the Latin pop explosion of 1998, there is finally something that might actually help the sleeping giant awaken just in time for the End of the World As Bush Knows It.
One of the things I liked best about this march was the constant approval from passing cars. They honked horns, waved, smiled, flashed thumbs-up sings. After the many marches I've been in where I'm sort of used to hostility from drivers and passers-by, here was a universal show of solidarity. The cliches are in effect here: New York is a city of immigrants. People relate. It's a civil rights issue. So now there's an issue that is not only an issue that can unite Latinos, but has the potential of linking with the anti-war issue as both issues become more mainstream. We're almost at the point where people will start honking and waving for a massive anti-war march.
But a lot of complications remain. The bill in Congress has fallen apart (as if it were a panacea, and it's far from that), and frankly it seems it's in the best interests of the "powers that be" for nothing major to be done with the current system. The logic that proposes that immigrants do jobs "that Americans won't do" is fundamentally flawed. It's really about them accepting wages that Americans won't accept. And if undocumented immigrants are actually given a good chance to become legal (which the proposed changes may not allow for, given that many immigrants won't be able to say they've never committed fraud, or be able to afford paying back taxes, nor the fine), once they have legal status they won't be so afraid of organizing or demanding rights, which will mean wages and benefits will have to increase, upsetting the apple cart of our fabulous, growing economy. That's not what "they" want (everyone from moderate Clintonian Democrats to Jerry Falwell). Not for one blessed minuto. And the implosion resulting from eveything else that's going on with the Bush administration will no doubt make this easy to forget.
That's why this movement (needs to be) bigger than immigration. And Latinos, for that matter.