Workers of Santa Fe

It's been a punishing couple of years for workers, as Republicans at the state and national level consider cuts to critical services, enact huge tax cuts for rich individuals and corporations, and unleash federal agents to apprehend people suspected of living in this country without permission.

But workers and their allies still gathered on May 1 across the world to celebrate International Workers' Day, which has its roots in labor movements in Chicago (though now the day has officially been "Loyalty Day" in America since the 1950s.)

In Santa Fe, a crowd of about 150 people gathered in Franklin Miles Park to prepare for a march to San Isidro church in the Agua Fría traditional historic community.

Before the march, several speakers to the stage at the park, including City Councilor Renee Villarreal, who told the crowd about when her grandfather had initiated a strike as a field worker after his boss refused to pay him.

"This is why I'm still passionate about workers' rights," Villarreal told the crowd, adding in Spanish, "Your fight is my fight, workers are the heart of Santa Fe."

Nohemy Bojorquez-Flores, a member of the immigrant and worker organizing group Somos un Pueblo Unido, says the Trump administration's targeting of immigrants has given May Day a special significance this year.

"Sometimes I feel some of the employers take advantage of the fear workers are feeling [because of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents], Bojorquez-Flores says. "In Santa Fe we need a proactive law so that no more wage theft continues to happen. I believe it happens all across our community."

Soon, people moved from the park onto the sidewalk next to Camino Carlos Rey, chanting for workers and against the Trump administration. March organizers coordinated with SFPD officers, who acted as traffic patrol as the procession crossed the street and started walking south on the sidewalk lining Cerrillos Road.

"We're the ones who produce, who work, it's the truth," says Jesus Iturbe, a worker who returned to Santa Fe from Mexico to take part in the May Day celebration. "We are deserving of economic justice, because all of us are equal."

The procession later turned right down Richard Avenue and then left on Agua Fría, heading toward the church. Boxy retail development and overly-manicured landscaping gave way to trailer homes and dusty lots. For the entirety of the hour-long march, cars honked in support. One man in a white baseball cap who drove by raised his fist in solidarity.

For Araceli Lara, a junior at Monte del Sol Charter School, the day was a reminder that workers who feel mistreated by their employers aren't alone—including her mother, who she believes was unfairly fired from her job.

"Even though I don't work yet, I will work in the future, and this is a problem I will have to face eventually," Lara says. "This is the first year I've come to the march, and I just hope the amount of people who are here today make a difference."

Marchers eventually arrived to the church, where they were greeted with servers handing out plates of enchiladas, beans and rice. Despite the 3-mile walk, the crowd had hardly thinned, and people ate and chatted together as the sun set over the hilly peaks to the west.