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Latino activists call for gasoline boycott

They seek to show migrants' value

Daniel González
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 1, 2005 12:00 AM

A statewide gasoline boycott this weekend to call attention to the economic contributions of Latino immigrants is part of a growing movement across the country.

In communities from California to Connecticut, Latinos are organizing boycotts, marches and other actions to counter perceived anti-immigrant measures such as Proposition 200, proposals for local police to enforce federal immigration laws and armed civilian patrols at the border.

"This is a counterreaction to the anti-immigrant climate taking place in this country," said Raul Yzaguirre, former president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based National Council of La Raza, and now a professor at Arizona State University. "There is a sense that we've got to get organized."

Still, the movement has yet to jell as organizers argue over tactics that will win them support instead of turning people off.

In Connecticut last month, 1,200 people marched to protest a request by the mayor of Danbury to use state police to enforce immigration laws to cope with an influx of immigrants in that city.

In Utah, Latino activists angry about a new law that bars undocumented immigrants from obtaining driver's licenses, called for work stoppages and business boycotts. Others are organizing a day of public service.

And in California, activists are organizing a march and rally on Saturday in San Ysidro to protest plans by the Minuteman Project to conduct armed civilian patrols on the border with Mexico similar to the ones in Arizona in April.

Meanwhile, in Arizona, Latino activists are calling for a statewide gasoline boycott Saturday and Sunday. By hindering gasoline sales over the Fourth of July weekend, the height of the summer travel season, they hope to demonstrate the economic clout of the state's booming Latino immigrant population and counter any perception that it is a drain on the economy.

Elias Bermudez, the main organizer, has been promoting the gasoline boycott on a radio show he hosts weekday mornings on Radio Formula, 740 AM.

He said immigrants in Arizona have been pushed to the edge first by Proposition 200, the 2004 voter-approved measure that seeks to prevent undocumented immigrants from voting and receiving certain public benefits, and then by more than two dozen immigration-related bills introduced by the state Legislature this past spring.

Gov. Janet Napolitano vetoed all the major immigration-related bills passed by the Legislature, including one authorizing police officers to investigate, arrest, detain or deport undocumented immigrants; another declaring English as the state's official language; and one banning state and local governments from accepting Mexico-issued consular cards and other foreign forms of ID as valid identification.

Bermudez, who organized a May boycott that called on Latinos to stay home from work and not spend money, plans more boycotts targeting other commodities.

"There is a saying in Spanish, Con el pie en el pescuezo. That's how we feel, that there is a foot to our throats. When you are in that position, the only thing you can do is fight back," Bermudez said. "We are doing what we are doing out of desperation."

Bermudez also is organizing a rally at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Pioneer Park in Mesa calling on Congress to overhaul the nation's immigration system, which he says is out of sync with the labor needs of the United States.

"We feel like we have been used as a scapegoat for the ills of this country," said Bermudez, owner of Centro de Ayuda, a Phoenix business that helps immigrants prepare tax and immigration documents. "But we know the opposite is true, that we have been the salvation of the country and in the future more of us are going to be needed to save the economy of this country."

Randy Pullen, one of the main supporters of Proposition 200, said he doubts the gasoline boycott will have much effect.

Nearly 44 percent "of Latinos supported Proposition 200, so I don't think there is much support for their position," Pullen said.

Louis DiSipio, a political science professor at the University of California at Irvine, said gasoline boycotts have been tried in the past with mixed results.

"There is a search for a national strategy, and this is one of the things that is being experimented with," DiSipio said.

If boycotts are successful in Arizona, they could lead to larger regional and national boycotts, he said. But getting the word out is difficult.

Take Phoenix resident Ramiro Rodriguez, a 30-year-old undocumented immigrant from Puebla, Mexico. On Thursday, Rodriguez, a construction worker, stopped to buy a soda at a gas station at Thomas Road and 35th Avenue in west Phoenix. He said he hadn't heard about the gas boycott.

But he thought it was a good idea.

"People have to know we are important to the economy," Rodriguez said.

Some Latino activists, however, said boycotts can backfire.

"It definitely turns people off," said Tony Yapias, Utah's former director of Hispanic Affairs.

Instead of a boycott, Yapias is organizing a statewide day of public service in Utah on July 30 to counter what he sees as an anti-immigrant movement escalating nationwide.

On that day, immigrants and their supporters from around the state will spruce up cemeteries, collect litter, conduct food drives and participate in other community service projects.

"The perception out there is that Latinos are a burden to the state, but undocumented people don't qualify for any (public benefits)," Yapias said. "We wanted to do something positive."

David Cowley, spokesman for AAA Arizona, said Latino activists might have picked the wrong commodity to boycott. That's because the confidential nature of gasoline industry reports could make it difficult to measure any drop in sales.

Gas stations in heavily Latino neighborhoods, however, could see a drop in sales, he said.