MayDay March

We were caught in the middle of Yakima's edition of the MayDay Marches for immigration reform. Central Washington has long relied on migrant labor to accomplish the fruit harvest each season. Consequently this area has a large Hispanic population (ironically, a large percentage of them are from our neighboring state of Michoacán) and the march was a 1,000 strong according to the newspaper. After seeing so many parades in Mexico, I was amused by how organized everything was for this American version. The police had closed the streets for blocks around the downtown core. The marchers themselves were orderly, and while vocal, there were no bands or loud music. The most interesting were what I can only describe as parade monitors. The guy at the far left holding the caution tape was one of a dozen or so people who kept the marchers contained to a single lane of the closed off streets. They were on both sides of the group and true to US conformity, no one tried to break through or go their own way. So very different than what we are used to seeing.