Migrating swallows famously returned from Argentina back to Mission San Juan Capistrano every March for decades. The birds have gone missing the past couple years but that hasn't stopped the annual festive Swallows Day Parade from taking place nor deterred efforts by the old mission to lure them back. But when it comes to the city's migrating Mexis, San Juan Capistrano is for the birds!
Sick and tired of harassment from la migra, We Are San Juan, an immigrant rights group, plans to drop a protest banner during the parade this Saturday. That should go well…
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“We are having a banner holding on the day of the Swallows Day Parade to highlight the fact that while San Juan Capistrano celebrates the migration of Swallows, it disregards the voice of the migrant community,” We Are San Juan member Ana Karen Rosal writes to the Weekly.
The ingeniously timed protest is aimed at highlighting a number of issues affecting the South OC city. Citing the fact that San Juan Capistrano is 38% Latino, the organization criticizes the border patrol presence around town. ICE raids last year sent a chill down the spine of undocumented immigrants just trying to buy groceries and go about their daily routine.
We Are San Juan also takes city council to task for being complicit in the climate of fear adding that a gang injunction in place creates more problems than it solves. They are ambitiously calling for an end to migra patrols and for the city council to halt its Know Nothing ways.
Birds or no birds, the activist group will unfurl their banner in that spirit starting at 11 a.m. tomorrow on the corner of Camino Capistrano and Acjachema!
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!