Podcast with pictures: May Day 2009 in Austin 3May2009

Thanks to Galen Herz, my brother, for the pictures. Click the fullscreen button for a better view.

Download the MP3 here. Embed code here. As always, feel free to re-broadcast and share with others.

Transcript below. Sunday evening update: I made a slight correction to the original, so if there was a problem when you tried to listen, try again. Everything’s working now. Also, apologies to Spanish speakers for my terrible pronunciation.

[audio] As the sound of Son Jarocho, traditional music from the Mexican state of Veracruz, echoed off the walls of the Capitol, more than 1000 people prepared to march across downtown Austin on May 1st to demand reforms of immigration policy. They had rallied to almost an hour of impassioned speeches from grassroots organizers – like Wendolnya Menses from the Workers Defense Project.

[audio, English translation: "If we are here, it's because we've been obliged to emigrate to this country, because the U.S. government is causing different kinds of wars in our countries. So they can take our resources from us. They also support dictators in our own countries. Since we are here, now they don't want us. They gather us up in raids and put us in prisons. They call us 'illegal immigrants.' And we as a community, as Spanish-speakers - we say 'Enough is enough!']

The march set off down Congress Avenue, stretching a few city blocks. There was music [audio], chanting [audio] – even a brigade of moms with babies in their strollers. Placards and banners called for the shut down of the Hutto family Detention center, an end to immigration raids on workplaces, and a halt to construction on the border wall. Maria Rodriguez said hard-working immigrants, like her parents, should be made citizens.

[audio: "Many Mexicans are migrants, immigrants, have worked in the fields and have always been for us, there for every American. Not only the Mexicans, the Chinese, even the white people, the Anglo-Saxons were here and they worked for it. So why shouldn't we be allowed? There is many here that you need to give them the rights that everyone else has, their inalienable rights."]

As marchers crossed Cesar Chavez Street and converged on City Hall, Jeshua, a college student, stood in his high school graduation robes. He asked Congress to pass the DREAM Act, which would create a path for undocumented youth to citizenship.

[audio: "A lot of support for the students is what I would like to see, because from when they were little, they didn't have a choice whether to come or not. And a lot of the students here have to suffer, not being able to work or pursue a career, because their parents brought 'em here. So I would like the Congressman and President Obama to support the DREAM Act completely."]

The march was all but ignored by the local TV news media, as journalists stoked fears of the so-called swine flu [audio]. The disease appears to have originated in Veracruz near a sprawling corporate hog farm built just after the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, but the media hype hasn’t explored that angle of the story. It didn’t scare immigrants and their allies out of coming together in the streets to celebrate May Day, either.

This has been a Mediahacker.org podcast. I’m Ansel Herz in Austin. Thanks for listening.

Cross-posted to Houston and radio Indymedia. Podcast has aired on KVRX’s On the Fringe and KPWR. Re-published on May 5 at Wiretapmag.org.