Los Angeles Times: Immigrant Debate, Pavement Version

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez2may02,1,3302080.column?coll=la-headlines-california
From the Los Angeles Times
STEVE LOPEZ / POINTS WEST
Immigrant Debate, Pavement Version
Steve Lopez
Points West
May 2, 2006
To be honest, I think I could get used to these big pro-immigrant demonstrations. Aside from the areas around Monday‘s rallies in downtown Los Angeles and along Wilshire Boulevard, traffic wasn‘t half bad as I motored about, taking the pulse of a city divided by rabid participation and casual indifference.
In Beverly Hills, it was a day without Chaya Brasserie, which closed because most of the employees wanted to march. But the Ivy took up the slack, with a lunch line that stretched out to the sidewalk.
"What demonstrations?" asked a woman waiting to dine.
I don‘t mean to generalize, but I think it‘s safe to say that if you‘re carrying a Prada pocketbook and a bag from Barney‘s, the recent activism is of little interest unless the housekeeper calls in sick.
I started on the east side of downtown, though, visiting Jim‘s Burgers at 1st and State in Boyle Heights, where regulars meet daily to shoot the breeze.
"What?" I asked. "No marchers?"
Everybody‘s too old, said one gent.
"I couldn‘t even march to the corner," said another.
The buses that stopped at the intersection were jampacked with people holding flags and signs as they made their way to the downtown rally. This, of course, was the topic of the day at Jim‘s, where, as I‘ve discovered in the past, there‘s no shortage of opinions.
Jim‘s owner Nick Frousakis closed the fast-food joint for the day, respecting the wishes of his staff. But he and his son turned out to serve free coffee to show his appreciation for 35 years of loyal employees and customers.
Frousakis knows he owes a lot to immigrants, no matter how they got here. "If they take 10 or 12 million people out of this country, I die," said Frousakis, who came over from Greece in 1951 and raised a family on the proceeds from Jim‘s. His son owns 23 apartment units and his daughter is in medical school, thanks to customers like Joaquin Vega.
"It‘s a big day," said Vega, who came legally from Mexico in 1948, ran the auto shop across the street from Jim‘s for decades, and never thought he‘d see the sleeping giant awake with such a roar.
"People blame Mexicans for everything," Vega said.
Like many Latino elders, though, his feelings about illegal immigration are complicated. If someone can prove he‘s worked hard and respected the laws, go ahead and give him a green card, Vega said. The bickering ideologues in Congress have got to do something.
But he‘s no open-borders guy, and he has no love for those who sneak into the country and then expect the privileges and pay of those who spent years building a life. How, he asked, can anyone say those illegals aren‘t keeping wages down and overwhelming the system?
A man looked up from reading an L.A. Times story about the Lakers to weigh in on the boycott. Illegal immigrants should be thankful they have jobs instead of losing a day‘s wages and sabotaging their employers. "It‘s the stupidest thing I‘ve ever heard in my life," he said.
The conversation took a sharp turn, however, when Martin Rivas sat down with a cup of Joe. Rivas, a parking attendant who works near LAX, took note of a passing bus that was packed to the rafters:
"That‘s Rosa Parks," said the 56-year-old, who came legally from Mexico in 1969. "All they‘re saying is, ‘Give me my seat.‘ It‘s the same as Rosa Parks. I paid my fare. I got my ticket. I worked hard and this is my place."
"Why do you say such stupid things?" one man demanded.
Rivas said he respects everyone‘s opinion, but there‘s still an anti-brown, anti-immigrant strain running through the country, and he finds it insulting and hypocritical. He recalled working as a busboy and having a diner say:
"Hey, Pancho, bring me some agua."
It was the wrong thing to say to a proud young rebel who had studied Lenin, Marx and Che back in Mexico.
Lots of brown people might have crossed a river to get here, Rivas says. But your back is much wetter if you crossed the ocean from Europe. And don‘t get him started on how people in the U.S. misuse the term American.
Even Vega agreed with him on that count.
"An American is everyone from Alaska … " Vega began before he was interrupted.
"To Patagonia," said Rivas.
He was a revolutionary in Mexico, too, Vega sniffed when Rivas stepped away for a refill.
If only Congress could reach the same accord that was worked out at Jim‘s Burgers on Monday. Rivas was willing to tighten the borders in return for naturalizing those who came illegally but are making a contribution to the culture and economy. Vega was OK with that, as long as the bad apples are sent back home.
Rivas, by the way, was on his way to work. His employer wouldn‘t give him the day off, and the former rebel is, in middle age, a practical man.
I left, heading south on Boyle past a block-long phalanx of young marchers on their way to City Hall.
"This Is Our Land," said one sign.
I breezed west on the Santa Monica Freeway, wishing traffic was always that light, and found a different kind of parade on leafy, chi-chi Robertson Boulevard. Shoppers and diners were out and about, aglow in the golden, subtropical light of spring, and there was no shortage of valets to service them.
A clerk at Surly Girl said his customers were into accessories, not pro-immigrant rallies. Another clerk, in a designer dress shop, was not quite up to date on the doings to the east. She shrieked when I told her about the location of the second march.
"I‘ve got to get home to Hancock Park," she said.
My last stop was a high-end women‘s apparel shop near the Ivy, where a lone security guard stood watch over $5,000 dresses and $8,000 sheepskin coats. He said he was told he‘d be fired if he skipped work to march.
I asked if he‘d lived here long and he said no. He came across the border at Tijuana 15 days ago, paying $2,000 to a coyote, and immediately found this job.
It was a snapshot of Los Angeles and a perfect end to my day, an illegal immigrant guarding designer dresses in Beverly Hills while hundreds of thousands marched, the regulars at Jim‘s ironed out immigration policy reforms, and the U.S. Congress slept.
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