Throngs of participants of The Great American Boycott, or what some have dubbed as "A Day Without an Immigrant" protest and demonstration, can be seen converging along Olvera Street. Most of the participants wore white clothing to signify peace, and waved American flags, Mexican flags and/or flags of different Central and South American countries, while others held signs and banners. Some of the signs pictured here read: "Libertad y justicia para TODOS", "Liberty and justice for ALL", "Together we are all America", etc.; a man holds up a large candle with the image of Jesus Christ, while the hand of another can be seen holding up a camcorder. Mission Nuestra Sen~ora Reina de Los Angeles peeks out from behind the crowd on the upper left of the photo. The Great American Boycott (known in Spanish as "El Gran Paro Estadounidense") took place on May 1, 2006 and was a one-day boycott of U.S. schools and businesses by immigrants, most of Latin American origin, of both legal and illegal status - protesting the anti-immigration movement and demanding general amnesty and legalization programs for non-citizens. Organizers of this boycott called for supporters to abstain from buying, selling, working, and attending school in order to demonstrate the extent to which the obtained labor of unauthorized immigrants is needed for the economy of the United States; for this reason, the day was referred to as "A Day Without an Immigrant". It was estimated that over one million people across the U.S. participated in the protests and demonstrations - the largest of which were in Los Angeles and Chicago. The boycott and strike provoked controversy as soon as they were proposed, stirring up the sentiments of millions of people living in the United States legally and illegally and emphasizing the extremely emotional issue of illegal immigration in America, as well as initiating intense debate on all sides of the political spectrum. Photo dated: May 1, 2006.
Mission Nuestra Sen~ora Reina de Los Angeles Day Without an Immigrant Los Angeles Photographers Collection photographs Stone Ishimaru Collection photographs Olvera Street (Los Angeles, Calif.)
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