The Best, the Worst, and the Funny at Yesterday’s OC Women’s March

20,000 to 25,000 people marched in downtown SanTana yesterday for OC’s Women’s March, an official sister march to the Women’s March on Washington and hundreds of other Women’s Marches across the United States and even the world. While the march mostly advocated for women’s rights, plenty of attendees exercised their First Amendment right to peacefully protest President Cheeto.

The march began in Plaza Calle Cuarto then headed to the Civic Center by way of 4th Street and looped back down to downtown. Aside from a puny sound system that kept crapping out during speeches and performances on the main stage (the issue was alleviated thanks to handy-dandy megaphones), OC Women’s March was a peaceful and well-organized success. Here are a few thoughts on the event from the Weeklings who attended.
On the Metrolink platform in South County were about 50 people (40 more than I expected), with more streaming up. A grandpa held the hand of his granddaughter who was all in pink. She smiled up at him as he plastered himself with an I SERVED sticker. That family had four generations heading to SanTana. At Calle Cuarto, a woman from Palmdale, who came to see Marga Gomez in the Off Center Festival at Segerstrom last night stayed over for the march; she was looking for signs protesting mass incarceration, but didn’t see any.

The only mass-produced signs I saw were by We The People. I saw two piñatas move through the crowd during the rally. I didn’t see one again once the march started until near the end, when high above on the third floor of a parking structure two women dangled one over the side. Marchers implored them, “Let him go! Let him go!” But the women just keep on dangling.

Humor and joy, quiet determination were everywhere. There was a 90-year-old wearing pink pussy ears being pushed in a wheelchair by her proud son. There were lots of men, lots of children. And there were the two hopeful guys all in black and silver; their hand-drawn signs professing their love of MILFs and beer. The only drag was the PA speakers weren’t loud enough…

…Waiting for the train back south at the Santa Ana station was an Australian named Belle. She and her friends had met a woman carrying a box who they swept up with them, marching with her. Later over drinks, the woman said she’d only moved to OC a few weeks ago and didn’t know anyone to march with, but that her late mother somehow compelled her to go. So she went to the march, accompanied by the box containing her mother’s ashes! Another sign read, “The plan is to fan this spark into a FLAME,” with FLAME in large red letters. From ashes, solidarity truly lit up Orange County today. These worldwide marches are too big to fail, as long as they keep going. The sign for that happening, was the veterinarian having a drink afterward at Recess next to me who says she just may run for office—she claims to have no skeletons, and I believe her. –Lisa Black
Many women marched down SanTana streets donning pink cat hats, a symbol against Donald Trump, our loathsome pussy grabber president. But with OC being home to the second largest Middle Eastern population in the nation, demonstrators also sported a symbol of Islam. Activist Rida Hamida passed out 200 pink hijabs like the one she wears before the start of the march. Non-Muslims wore the headscarves in solidarity in the hopes that one day their Muslim sisters can practice their faith in public without being harassed by loser Islamophobes inspired by Trump’s hate regime. Insha’allah! – Gabriel San Román
Overheard a marcher say: “So embarrassing to be a white American today and terrifying to be a gay female.” I teared up a couple of times while marching. Not out of sadness but the overwhelming feeling of being part of something so much bigger. Personally, this was my first march and it won’t be my last. We have four more years to fight! #fucktrump – Cynthia Rebolledo

I overheard a woman talking to her friends about how large the march’s turnout was, ending her sentence with, “I’m proud of Orange County today.”

After the march ended I began to walk over to The Frida Cinema when I came across a young Latinx woman dressed in black bloc attire. She was equipped with a microphone, speaker, flyers and informational posters on gentrification in SanTana, white feminism vs. intersectional feminism, SanTana’s ICE contract and less-than-favorable words about SanTana’s mayor for life, Don Papi Pulido. She was accompanied by a young white man passing out flyers to a community meeting hosted by the Tonantzin Collective. The woman’s protest attracted a handful of curious listeners including attendees leaving the Women’s March, one lone troll and at one point, three cop cars with officers staring at the woman. After all but one of the police cars left, a mariachi band set up their instruments along with a speaker right next to the women’s protest—stifling tactic maybe?

The mariachis left before completing a song then the woman decided to pack up and leave soon after. An obvious out-of-towner cheered the woman on and suggested she continued her research by reading a Tim Wise book on white privilege. “I know about white privilege, sir,” the santanera responded. “I live in Orange County.” –Denise De La Cruz