By Oscar Rodriguez, La Raza del Noroeste

Beginning early in the morning on May 1, fueled with chilaquiles and tortas, the staff and volunteers of Casa Latina worked on picket signs before taking to the streets of Seattle for this year’s May Day March.

Among the messages at Wednesday’s march included reforms to immigration policy and demands for worker equality. For Casa Latina, these issues are at the heart of their operations.

It’s focus is on providing Latino immigrants with temporary and eventually permanent employment through their work center.

Casa Latina believes that all people should have equal access to opportunities in their community, according to Executive Director Marcos Martinez. And those who are struggling, Casa Latina should lend a helping hand, Martinez said.

“Necesitamos apoyar a todos los trabajadores especialmente los que están en situaciones difíciles,” said Martinez.

The 20th annual May Day March for Immigrants and Workers Rights began in Seattle in 1999. Although its original purpose was to advocate for workers’ rights, it now serves as a platform for Latino immigrants. Casa Latina, a non-profit organization founded in 1994, is one of many organizations that is capitalizing on such a platform.

But before they could do so, the staff and volunteers of Casa Latina met early in the morning at the workers center to prepare.

Using yardsticks and poster board paper, they put their messages down with markers, and fastened them down with staples. Volunteer Coordinator Jeffrey Gustaveson provided sheets of papers with protest slogans printed on them for volunteers to copy onto the picket signs. But he also encouraged the volunteers to come up with their own messages.

One such person was Chaba Nieto, an immigrant from El Salvador, who made a poster that read, “Somos legales terrestres.” Nieto said he believes that all people are inhabitants of Earth not countries, so everyone is legal.

And while Nieto and other volunteers were making picket signs, Fabian Corrales, another volunteer at Casa Latino, was proofreading a speech that had been put through Google Translate, checking for grammatical mistakes. The speech, Corrales said, should be directed towards people who are politically moderate.

“[Moderates] dismiss the issue of workers’ rights,” Corrales said. “They might say, ‘they’re doing fine.’”

Once the march began around 1 p.m., the men and women of Casa Latina poured out onto the street with Martinez leading them on with a megaphone. At his side throughout the majority of the march was Juan Ramirez.

Ramirez was only recently hired as a staff member for Casa Latina, ending a seven month long job search, and it was his first time marching in May Day. For Ramirez, the message of the march needs to be directed towards government. He admits that President Donald Trump may not be interested in a march in Seattle, but the local Seattle community should pay attention.

“Necesitamos que nos traten conforme a todas las leyes derechas,” Ramirez said. All immigrants, he said, deserve to be treated equally.