photos from the edge 10 - maga means mexicans ain't going anywhere <



photos from the edge 10 MAGA MEANS MEXICANS AIN'T GOING ANYWHERE Mexican Communities in US Rise in Protest Against Trump's Deportation Threats Photographs by David Bacon Truthout, 3/3/25


https://truthout.org/articles/mexican-communities-in-us-rise-in-protest-against-trumps-deportation-threats/

https://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2025/03/photos-from-edge-10-maga-means-mexicans.html



It's been over a month since Donald Trump took power, after running a campaign soaked in anti-immigrant tirades and threats of mass deportation. The media have concentrated on these threats, but even progressive outlets paid little attention to the responses of the communities threatened. Yet marches and demonstrations have been widespread in Mexican communities.


These protests often take place not in urban centers, which typically receive more media attention, but in the Mexican barrios of the urban fringe. San Mateo is one - on the San Francisco Peninsula south of the city. Fort Bragg is another - a former mill and fishing town three hours north of San Francisco, where Mexican children are a majority in the small city's schools.


These are not the polite petitions of victims pleading for a softer repression. They are angry protests - people are out in the streets, not cowering behind closed doors. They carry signs with denunciations that declare "MAGA: Mexicans Ain't Going Anywhere!" or "I drink my horchata warm because Fuck ICE!"


Young Mexican women - some born here, some who came as children, and others who just arrived - carry U.S. flags, not out of false patriotism, but demanding recognition as an essential people, belonging to this country's fabric. The many, many Mexican flags have important meaning, and are no longer controversial as they were in the big marches of 2006. They speak of pride in Mexico as a country with a progressive government, in contrast to our reactionary one. They demand that the Mexican presence in this country be recognized as well, with rights and respect for Mexican people.


Not all the flags are Mexican or U.S., Hondurans carry their own, as do Salvadorans and Guatemalans. Some marchers wave the Philippines' flag with a similar message - recognition for a community with a century's history, starting with the imperial war that made their homeland a U.S. colony.


These marches with their flags and signs are harbingers of change. They're not yet as large as the protests that took place in 2006, with its millions in the streets. But they are growing. They are overwhelmingly organized and led by young people and women, and they deserve recognition.



The benefit of organized resistance goes beyond fighting immigration raids. The movements of immigrant workers, their families and their communities have historically fought for deeper social change, beyond deportation defense. They've shown great persistence and strategic vision, as they fought threats of deportation while imagining a future of greater equality, working-class rights and social solidarity. That vision is as necessary to defeating repression as action in the streets.


In the flow of people crossing the border, "we see our families and coworkers, while this system only sees money," says Rene Saucedo, an organizer for the Northern California Coalition for Just Immigration Reform, a grassroots immigrant rights organization that has organized marches and demonstrations supporting the Registry Bill. "So we have to fight for what we really need, and not just what we don't want."


Marchers carried signs promoting an alternative to deportation, the Registry Bill, HR 1511. This proposal would open legal status to an estimated 8 million people by allowing undocumented immigrants to apply for legal permanent residence. Some of the anti-deportation marchers were veterans of earlier marches last year and the year before, demanding the passage of this bill.



Stepping out is the precondition for mobilizing the support of a broader progressive community behind these protests. The photographs here can't possibly encompass all the marches or show every aspect of them. Their purpose is to make visible the crucial role of the Mexican community in inspiring a fightback to Trump fascism across the board. They show who's out there organizing and leading it. Their picket signs and flags graphically present their demands.


Because the new Trump regime is seizing the country's databases, and has sophisticated tools to track those it targets, there are no individual captions for these photographs and no naming of the individuals in them. They were taken in recent days in San Mateo and Fort Bragg, California.

IMMIGRANT WORKERS AND THE RECENT HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION RAIDS

By David Bacon

Wednesday, March 5th 1:00 PM PT Bunche Hall, Rm 10383 (in person)

Webinar RSVP HERE: https://ucla.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_NLheOF-SQ5iVTaRI_NBRHA#/registration


David Bacon @photos4justice on the daily lives and ongoing struggles (both personal and political) of farmworkers - interview on Against the Grain with C.S. Soong https://x.com/radioagainst/status/1848820503898710137

BOOKS - LIBROS

More Than a Wall / Mas que un muro El Colegio de la Frontera Norte https://david-bacon-photography.square.site/product/more-than-a-wall-mas-que-un-muro/1?cp=true&sa=true&sbp=false&q=false

In the Fields of the North / En los campos del norte University of California Press / Colegio de la Frontera Norte ucpress.edu/9780520296077 En Mexico: https://www.colef.mx The Right to Stay Home: How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration (Beacon Press, 2013) http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=2328


El Derecho a Quedarse en Casa (Critica - Planeta de Libros) http://www.planetadelibros.com.mx/el-derecho-a-quedarse-en-casa-libro-205607.html

Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon Press, 2008) Recipient: C.L.R. James Award, best book of 2007-2008 http://www.beacon.org/Illegal-People-P780.aspx


Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006) https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801473074/communities-without-borders/#bookTabs=1


The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border (University of California, 2004) https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520244726/the-children-of-nafta


Hijos de Libre Comercio (El Viejo Topo) http://www.tienda.elviejotopo.com/prestashop/capitalismo/1080-hijos-del-libre-comercio-deslocalizaciones-y-precariedad-9788496356368.html



WORK AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: The David Bacon Archive exhibition at Stanford Libraries https://exhibits.stanford.edu/bacon/browse For a catalog: (https://web.stanford.edu/dept/spec_coll/NonVendorPubOrderform2017.pdf)


THE REALITY CHECK - David Bacon blog http://davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com For more articles and images, see http://dbacon.igc.org and https://www.flickr.com/photos/56646659@N05/albums


BROOKE ANDERSON PODCAST #8 That's How the Light Gets In 🔗 LISTEN: https://linktr.ee/thatshowthelightgetsinpodcast (or anywhere you get your podcasts)


MAS QUE UN MURO Cinco Entrivistas sobre la exposicion en el Museo Nacional de las Culturas del Mundo, CDMX:

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eix0HEStpc


Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO4IIBPs06U


Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHtY-fgtsjs


Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm_MNrEX2Mw


Part 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpwSuBbgAQs

Pacific Media Workers Guild, CWA Local 39521, adopted a resolution supporting the Labor Call for a Ceasefire in Gaza: https://mediaworkers.org/guild-joins-calls-for-immediate-ceasefire-in-gaza/


WHEN WE SPOKE OUT AGAINST WAR Unearthing the history of protest against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan Photographs © by David Bacon https://www.flickr.com/photos/56646659@N05/52759801492/in/album-72177720306862427/


Copyright © 2025 David Bacon Photographs and Stories, All rights reserved. you're on this list because of your interest in david bacon's photographs and stories Our mailing address is: David Bacon Photographs and Stories address on request Oakland, Ca 94601 Add us to your address book unsubscribe from this list