PHOENIX – Hundreds of protesters gripped Mexican flags as they marched for immigration reform in the past few weeks, but they say a display of cultural unity is being mistaken as a lack of loyalty to the United States.
The displays turned off many Americans. Conservative talk show hosts admonished the protesters, while everyday people wrote angry letters to the editors of their local newspapers.
Some called for those carrying the Mexican flag to return to Mexico. Others questioned why immigrants demanding rights in the United States would wave symbols of Mexico. At least three schools in Colorado and California temporarily banned students from carrying flags to try to calm the protest emotions.
But those who carried the flags, and scholars of the immigrant community, say that pride in their culture should not be misconstrued as a lack of patriotism in their adopted nation.
“Nobody gets upset with the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day,” said Gabriela Lemus, director of policy and legislation at the Washington, D.C.-based League of United Latin American Citizens, the group that organized most of the recent protests and is heading the dozens of marches and rallies scheduled across the nation Monday.
Critics of waving the flag have questioned marchers’ loyalty to the United States, but Latino activists deny the implications.
“The Mexican flag is like a symbol of dignity and identity and pride for the people who carry it,” said Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers of America with Cesar Chavez. “If people try to read more into that flag than what it is, they’re wrong.”
Hundreds of thousands of immigrant supporters and high school students have marched in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Denver and other U.S. cities since late March to protest a proposed federal crackdown on illegal immigration, and often the crowds have waved flags of Mexico, Guatemala and other countries.
“Pride and roots is what it is,” said Huerta, who carried the Mexican flag during the farm workers’ movement in the 1960s and, more recently, during rallies in Los Angeles and Tucson. “It definitely does not mean separation or nationalism in the sense that we want to go back to Mexico.”
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