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Immigrants pool their passion

A planned work stoppage on the heels of rallies is intended to raise awareness throughout the country.

By JOSE CARDENAS
Published April 28, 2006

[Times photos: Zach Boyden-Holmes]

Eloy Calderon, 21, of Puebla, Mexico, bales tomato plants in a field outside Bradenton last week. Calderon, who plans to join the protest march Monday, lives in a house in Arcadia with 22 other illegal immigrants who earn $42 a day.

	Cathy Colunga, treasurer of Immigrantes Latinos Unidos de la Florida, is flanked by fellow group members during a meeting.
	Hilario Lopez Peres, left, and Honorio Hilario sit in their home in Arcadia after returning from a day's work in the tomato field. The home sleeps 23 immigrants who work in the field for $42 a day.
	Luis Ibarra, president of Immigrantes Latinos Unidos de la Florida, speaks about his organization at their office in Arcadia.

ARCADIA - Restaurant owner Enrique Merlo thinks it unfair that tomato pickers who toil under the blistering sun must live in fear of being arrested and deported.

On Monday, the 43-year-old Merlo will close his Taqueria el Charro in solidarity with a national work stoppage dubbed "A Day Without Immigrants."

"I don't care about money," Merlo said. "What I care about is that a consciousness is created in those that direct this country."

Merlo spoke from outside a small trailer off a dirt road, where he and several other Mexican business owners from Arcadia were discussing the work stoppage.

Those kinds of conversations helped organize the April 10 rallies that drew hundreds of thousands of demonstrators nationwide. Now, organizers hope Monday's work stoppage and rallies, including one in Tampa, will demonstrate the economic power of illegal immigrants and help them get legal status.

The work stoppage is being organized by a faction of the movement behind the April 10 marches. It has no national leaders or central organization.

Rather, activists say, this is grass roots activism, people fighting for their rights at a crucial time.

In Arcadia, Immigrantes Latinos Unidos de la Florida distinguished itself on April 10 by turning out 75,000 to 100,000 marchers in Fort Myers, a town of 50,000.

Now the group's five members, all immigrants, are again using Spanish-language radio, community meetings and fliers to promote the work stoppage.

In Florida, it is one of many small groups springing up amid the immigration debate.

The president of the 2-month-old group is Luis Ibarra, who speaks little English. But he always speaks passionately in Spanish, as if he is leading a rally. He came from Mexico legally nine years ago with a labor contractor to work the farms of Ohio.

When his permit expired, he stayed on illegally. Since then, he has mostly been in Arcadia, where he has harvested oranges, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and watermelons.

Now, as a 32-year-old contractor, he spends mornings in the fields getting his men and a few women ready to work, then returns to the trailer to organize the work stoppage.

He and others formed their group mostly because the House of Representatives in December passed a law under which all illegal immigrants would become felons.

But Ibarra said he wants the fledgling organization to address other long-standing issues, such as miserable living conditions that put 23 tomato pickers into a single filthy house, and the lack of drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants.

"From the moment that we leave our homes, we are making the sacrifice of abandoning our families. We are going on a long walk through the desert or through the mountains to arrive in this country," Ibarra said, in Spanish. "For that reason we decided to form the organization and rebel against all that injustice occurring to the immigrants."

Nationally, some groups have disagreed about whether a work stoppage is premature, since legislation is still pending. They also differ on whether the stoppage should be a single day or a week.

"If later on we see that this legislation is totally negative for immigrants, then we will take strong measures such as strikes," said Marlon Gonzalez, a board member of the Florida Immigrant Coalition.

The coalition is calling Monday "A Day of Respect," hoping to include both people who participate in the work stoppage and those who don't.

Organizers in Florida hope most people will travel to downtown Orlando for a midday march. In Tampa, Immigrants United for Freedom plans a noon rally at Dale Mabry Highway and Columbus Drive, near Raymond James Stadium.

"My sense from the community is that people want to do it," said Jonathan Fried, executive director of We Count, which is promoting the work stoppage in Fort Lauderdale. "It's time to show the power of immigrants."

Ibarra's group recently met with the Mexican Council businessmen's group in Palmetto, seek support for the seven-day boycott.

The council members spoke proudly of the immigrants who marched on April 10. But they wondered whether it's wise to ask poor immigrants to skip work for seven days.

"When I saw 100,000 people I knew they were listening to us," attorney Jim Delgado said after the meeting. "We can't play with these people's lives. I'm thinking about people like my clients who work in the fields, people in construction, people who work two or three jobs."

After the April 10 rally, 20 workers who were fired for missing work called Delgado. He told them Florida is a "right-to-work" state in which people can be fired for any reason.

Francisco Walle, a farm labor contractor, warned that his bosses at McClure Farms had asked the company's six contractors where they stood on Monday's boycott.

"I'm willing to lose my work for the benefit of these people," said Walle, 42, who gained legal status after the 1986 amnesty. "I have worked with them all my life."

The council decided to support a work stoppage for Monday, not seven days.

A few days later, Ibarra's group decided to promote a one-day strike. He said the decision came after some employers promised to contact legislators in return for a shorter work stoppage.

The timing was critical, because May is a crucial harvesting month.

"A seven-day walkout would be very serious for Florida producers," said Ray Gilmer, a spokesman for the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association.

Growers do feel "that we need to get attention to immigration reform, and the walkout can do that," Gilmer said. "On the other hand, this is the busiest part of the season."

Bob Spencer of West Coast Tomato said his company is sympathetic to the workers and even closed on April 10 so workers could march.

"We were letting them know that we were supporting their cause for legal status and we understand the importance of their work," Spencer said.

But he added that a work stoppage is not the way to address immigration reform. He said his company has contacted legislators to urge legalization of the workers.

"We have a business to run," Spencer said. "At the same time we are trying to help them by getting the law changed."

At a Mexican grocery store in Arcadia, Beatriz Lemus said she was not optimistic that farmworkers would boycott work.

"They earn so little as it is," said Lemus, 30, who worked her way out of the hot sun to a cashier's position in the shade. "Those people from the fields are not going to demand anything."

Outside Bradenton, where workers were making $6.25 an hour by tying tomato plants to holding stakes, it was hard to gauge the enthusiasm for the boycott.

"I'll go, why not?" said Eloy Calderon, 21, from Puebla, Mexico. "We have to unite and support each other so they see the way we work. We march in peace, too."

Vesancio Hernandez, from the state of Veracruz, Mexico, was more cautious.

"If the bosses say to stop, we stop, but if they say to work, we work," said the 28-year-old. "We come to work. Here, even the little you make is more than we make in Mexico."

Times staff writer Saundra Amrhein contributed to this report.

[Last modified April 28, 2006, 02:28:44]