| La marcha de los pinguinos |
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Los Veteranos del Movimiento and the vanguard of social justice in the community are coordinating a peaceful march at a time when the paranoia created by Immigrations Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids has not yet fully dissipated. A smidgen of the savagery that is taking place across América against immigrants has ironically backfired. Sojourners, immigrants that travel back and forth to their mother country, have been forced to remain in the United States as the militarization of the border continues. They have joined mano-a-mano with settlers, immigrants that have decided to stay and make América their home, to participate in La marcha de los pinguinos at the risk of exposure and further abuse.
The vintage activists of the community working with city officials are promising marchers that they can safely participate in a peaceful demonstration without interference from those who are struggling to save the destruction of Western Civilization, so they believe. Word has it that this group will also be on the streets.
Remember the movie, The March of the Penguins? Remember the relentless pursuit when penguins marched in unison for survival against Mother Nature’s elements, freezing weather, frost bite, deep snow and the treacherous winds. These elements pale in comparison to the attitudes that newly arrived immigrants face in this society. The sad reality is that these rites of passage are being are sprinkled on to the next generation, to the offspring of a nation on the brink of destruction. Those perfidious attitudes cannot be washed away. They remain ingrained for generations.
Today, the penguins are human beings and their struggle is not against natural elements. It is against those that continue to hang onto Social Darwinism as a viable theory of the human superiority of human groups over others. Racial barriers are alive and well. The march pits humans against humans as they translate insidious attitudes into action. It is the return of the Dark Ages, a sinister history that seems to be repeating itself.
Colfax Boulevard awaits the arrival of the marchers on Thursday, August 28th at 9 a.m. as Denver is placed on the national radar screen. The march is reminiscent of long wagon trains that trekked across América’s barren landscapes, destroying peoples and cultures. In this case, there are no cowboys, only the sons and daughters of vaqueros, Mestizos and Indigenous groups making a statement about inclusion in American society. Many have waited in long lines at Migra offices with paranoid feelings of deportation as politicians haggle over immigration. Let me be clear. It is not an old Wild West showdown. It is simply a plea, a plea for justice that might elicit admonition by other marchers whose agenda is exclusion.
The organizers of the march expect comers from all walks of life to participate. Visitors from other states are wondering what Denver will do as it is placed under macroscopic lenses as it hones down onto the microscopic issue of immigration.
Immigrants will be incognito, wearing headbands and bandanas in order to avoid detection. After all, they have been victimized by many sectors of society. Media, fed by right-wing conservatives, seen on nightly television that shape distorted messages, present factual inaccuracy, print and play bigoted speeches continue to demonize their fellow human beings, brown people whose labor is a functional part of American society.
Blamed for increasing crime in América, diseases and draining social services, América’s immigrants will continue to wear the scapegoat facade as long as the economy declines into further recession. The march is a statement for justice, the only form of communication that immigrants can boldly be a part of. As Lisa Durán in a recent panel discussion held at the Press Club stated, “I am worried about América’s soul.” América’s soul is in limbo, tainted by the racial strife of the times.
The dreamers of a new América hope they will grab the attention of the policy makers with simple requests that reek of the stench of politics. Marchers want delegates at the DNC to support just and fair immigration; reforms that will stop criminalizing immigrant people; they aspire the passage of the DREAM Act, a public policy that will offer education to immigrant children. March supporters want ICE raids to come to a screeching halt so that immigrant families can remain together and nations can begin the practice of building bridges, not walls.
Denver is at a crossroads. Will it support a wall or a bridge?
Dr. Ramón Del Castillo is an Independent Journalist.
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