Day Laborers March Through Pasadena for ‘Respect’

More than 50 members and supporters of the National Day Laborers Organizing Network walked 12 miles from the organization’s national headquarters on North Lake Avenue in Pasadena Sunday to the Cypress Park neighborhood of Los Angeles to “draw attention” to and “demand respect” for immigrant workers and day laborers.

“Respect, at the workplace, in the streets, in our communities, in our daily lives, and for our civil and human rights. Today, respect means the government, employers, and society, must recognize us, give us the papers that affirm we exist and have rights, as all people do,” said Pablo Alvarado, NDLON Co-Executive Director

The mixed group of younger and older men and women marched down Lake Avenue through Old Pasadena, down Fair Oaks Avenue through South Pasadena, then along Monterey Road to Highland Park, and down Figueroa Street to Cypress Park, carrying signs, flags, and oversized posters.

“Here are people who are very humble people from all walks of life, who, with their labor, make this nation more perfect,” Alvarado.

“Every time that they go and paint the house. Every time that they keep a garden green, every time they cook a meal for somebody else, they make this country better.”

“These are migrants,” Alvarado said, “and those who fought for independence back 1776 were also migrants, the descendants of migrants. And we have adopted this country. This is our country now, and we want to make it better, but in order to make it better, we will have to, we have to also unmask what was wrong back then and what is wrong right now. Because at the same time that they were fighting for independence, they had the Black people in slavery.”

“At the same time, they were dispossessing the land from the indigenous communities. (This country) was born out of an injustice.”

Alvarado said the group decided to march because despite their efforts for years, the immigration reform they want hasn’t happened.

“Friends, foes and adversaries enjoy the fruits of migrant labor, but they don’t accept our humanity. So today we want to show, with our heads held high, who we are as people,” Alvarado said.

“If they accept the fruits of our labor, they must accept our humanity. They must respect us and respect for us means that when we go to the workplace, they make sure that we earn the right wages, and that we work in a safe and healthy environment.”

In a statement issued before the walk, NDLON said, “The workers are walking 12 miles to remind our state and national leaders of the 12 million of us across the country, for the 12 million denied government documents, 12 million that are exploited, 12 million that are excluded during the pandemic and beyond.

The organization also announced that NDLON workers will “continue to march, every month, again and again, as long as national leaders continue to deny that respect, and government recognition of “the papers / los papeles,” that acknowledge immigrants are here, and that they have rights.”