19th Annual Latino Advocacy Day focuses on Latino issues before Colorado state lawmakers
Story and photos by JUAN ESPINOSA
DENVER — More than 1,000 Chicanos, Latinos, Dreamers and supporters — young and old — marched to the steps of the State Capitol on March 17 in an attempt to educate lawmakers on issues important to Colorado’s Latinos.
Civil Rights Icon Dolores Huerta, 94, rode to the Capitol in Cadillac lowrider chauffeured by former St. Rep. Tim Hernández. Huerta was greeted with the familiar chant “Si se puede!” (Yes we can!) she coined during the fight to unionize farmworkers in the 1960s. As she was being introduced a counter-protester creating a disturbance at the edge of the crowd was being escorted away by two state patrol troopers.
“Colorado, you have always been in the forefront of the Civil Rights struggle and I’m glad to see you are taking your place again, right on the frontlines,” Huerta said in her opening remarks. “What you are doing here is an inspiration and an example of what we should be doing all over the United States of America.” As she spoke, a hawk could be seen circling high above the crowd.
Huerta, who founded the United Farm Workers Union with the late Cesar Chavez, called for a return to the tactic of the boycott, “an economic fast, — you know giving something up. What we’re giving up is buying from Target…McDonalds so they can feel the pain.”
After the rally and speeches, the estimated participants, many of whom had spent two days meeting at the Grand Hyatt hotel at Latino Advocacy Day meetings learning about pending legislation, broke off into smaller groups to meet one-on-one with over 60 legislators to lobby for the bills they supported.
More stories about the pending legislation will be posted in the next few days.
