NOTES AND TESTIMONIOS FROM THE MAY DAY WORKERS MARCH, YAKIMA, WA 2025

 

NOTES AND TESTIMONIOS FROM THE MAY DAY WORKERS MARCH

YAKIMA, WASHINGTON, 2025: A REPORT

                May Day, 2025

I.

This is Miller’s Park. It is May Day

and these are my people.

It has been May Day for a long time.

These are the Signs of the times, OK.

Here it’s all prayers and dancing.

The hours before the March.

These are my people.

This is my community.

Our stories are documented

and we are a people of great faith.

We are inclusive.

Aquí es mi testimonio.

II.

After making my sign, driving to the park,

asking myself, Why change parks?--

Why not Henry Beauchamp Park like always?

Learning later from Lucero Méndez,

LatinX co-chair, Cesar Chavez stopped

here in 86, Miller Park. Memory animates

us. I’m early to walk through tables,

see and record. First sign Beckoning:

¡CUANDO LUCHAMOS,

GANAMOS!

WHEN WE FIGHT,

WE WIN!

UFCW3000.

Necesitas Una Unión? Need a Union?

206.414.9601. Blue, Yellow, White,

Colors of Ukraine stopping my breath.

United Food and Commercial Workers International.

Beckoning. Drawn in like that.

My good neighbor’s good dog, Beckon.

Good dog, Beckon. Good dog.

May my sign, too, speak to what’s loyal.

Sube a nacer conmigo, Hermano.

Neruda with me on cardboard,

Brown oil ink Sharpies, black outline,

Iqualdad, Dignidad, Justicia,

luminating blue oil. 2025.

May Day! May Day!

Turtle Island in turquoise,

may there be natural boundaries

for all of us. Gary Snyder

bows before Don Pablo

ascending Machhu Pichhu,

signing my sign, saying my name.

The back side of this sign

from last week’s march:

Se hace camino al andar--

Antonio Machado backing Neruda.

Walking you make the road.

Caminantes somos,

y en el camino, andamos--

refrane learned from a taxi

decades ago in Nayarit.

Surrounded by angels on cardboard I pray

will surround us on the street.

III.

Other signs, other tables.

Las alturas de Macchu Pichhu.

Between the ridges in Yakima Valley.

I’m with YIRN.

Yakima Immigration Response Network.

A reporter with a notebook. A citizen.

Are those credentials?

I’m with YIRN,

but this is a park with many tables.

If there’s no dignity for workers,

what’s left for me?

Larry, the militant, here

with a table full of books.

His newspaper in two languages:

El Militante. Turn it over and around,

and it’s The Militant. For five bucks

I get twelve issues sent to my door.

Dulce Gutierrez, former council

woman, calls for amnesty for all.

Libros para la lucha obrera.

How did you get here?

By accident. I’m one of 15 children.

●

Here’s a sign, and here.

Black background, Green cutout

letters, sans serif, like my teacher

used to make for bulletin boards,

HANDS OFF. Five cutout hands

in white, purple paper pasted

on palms, hand-lettering,

single word on each hand,

Schools, Libraries, Democracy,

Voting Rights, Judges, Constitution.

Sign on a stick. Woman in her fifties

standing behind it, both hands

crossed over each other, back

from the crowd, in hat.

String pulled taut under chin,

eyes open, listening maybe?

Here’s another: Green flag

draped over a man’s back.

Territorio de derechos:

No te Metas. Raíz,

side by side with Planned

Parenthood, Lettering

made from white garden

flowers in sunlight.

●

A mother with a baby stroller.

The child with an American flag

in each hand, waving. This,

Immigrant Rights are Human Rights.

Citizenship Ambassador. Save Our

Social Security and Medicare:

We paid for it. Speak up

while you still can—with photos

of family members taking turns.

Respect the Rule of Law.

Put ICE in coolers

Not on the street.

Keep families together.

(Over and Over in 10,000 ways.)

A busload of Seattle Postal Workers.

One America with justice for all.

Those soft cotton tshirts.

Marching for Immigrant Equal Rights--

It Began in the Delano Grape Fields

A photo of Larry Itliong: 1913-1977.

A history lesson in the Park!

MayDay! International Worker’s Day.

Another photo from 1965,

Cesar Chavez and Larry Itliong together

beginning UFW-CIO uniting.

Woman in white tshirt with a YIRN button

(More on YIRN in a minute),

Free the...covered up by sign,

sun glasses, purple brim, red lipstick,

fiercely beautiful. This hand-written

acrostic, Donald John Trump left side

in black letters—middle aged daughter

giving her mother’s testimony: Mom wins

these sign painting contests!

Devilishly Demonic

Obviously Odious

Notoriously Narcissistic

All Around Asshole

Lewdly Lame Loud Mouth Lier!

Disgustingly Distrustful.

Do you want his middle name?

OK, a couple.

Obstinately Obdurate

Nauseously Nefarious

And Trump, terrifyingly terroristic

Repulsively Republican

Unlawfully UnAmerican

Menacingly Maniacal

Petrifyingly Putin-like

RESIST on the right in red.

Dump the Dog

Oh, this beautiful woman

holding the yellow cardboard

with graphic illustrations coming out

of hand-drawn words: To Learn

(her L is a magestic Saguaro Cactus)

who rules over you

find out who you are not

allowed to criticize,

citing Voltaire. With great smiling

dimples. Health Care for all workers.

We Are in a constitutional crisis now.

Prison without Due Process is a concentration camp.

The retired Air Force man

in the blue and yellow baseball cap

drove from Seattle, too. We swap

medevac stories from Vietnam.

He’s wearing the Woodstock 69 tshirt.

●

Yakima Immigration Response Network

(YIRN) has its own table. These are the people

who bring me along, lift me, and so many others,

up front, OK this disclaimer? Yearn,

the German word,

Sensucht, from C. S. Lewis

around the time I came home

from the army. I never

got over the word, can you

feel its presence in the poem?

        --For Danielle Surkatty

AT THE YIRN TABLE

(Yakima Immigration Response Network)

Buttons, and people coming

to the table. A woman

with complicated signs,

her signs, too, calling for attention.

Protect your immigrant work force

and their rights, illustrated book

open to the field workers cutting

asparagus, rows leading back

all the way to Mt. St. Helens.

Post cards come with a tutorial.

Pick your issue. They’re printed.

Due Process for All, Stand Up

for Community, Immigrants

make America Great. I choose

five cards. And who do you

want to send them to? The Yirn

volunteer asks. She has printed

address labels all filled out,

from Representative Dan Newhouse

to Senators Murray and Cantwell.

County Commissioners, Which one?

Including City Council. Here are your stamps.

You can write your cards on the table.

Our leader, tenacious, she led us

through three years of ICE flights

at the airport, counting bodies,

tracking their safety from departure point

to destination. Concerned for well-

being, I always felt honored to be

in her presence, never as vigil,

but a body. On this table, piles

of the Red Cards, ready for distribution

to immigrants, Usted tiene derechos

constitucionales: White lettering, bulleted,

NO ABRA LA PUERTA NINGUNA PREGUNTA

si un agente de nmigración está tocando la puerta.

Usted tiene el derecho a guardar silencio.

Like that. In two languages. Cards available

to citizens and noncitizens alike.

Take as many as you need. Practice

again and again. It will help you

when the knock on the door arrives.

Show the card through the window,

or pass it underneath the door.

IV. A BECK AND A HINT

Almost a nod. This, too, a sign.

Call to attention. Non-verbal nature of beckon.

An indication—readiness to receive the divine.

Beck and hint. Beckon.

When words are insufficient—the urgency.

When Peter is freed from prison

he can’t believe it either.

Las cadenas cayeron de las manos.

The angel said, Get dressed,

calzate las sandalias. They went crazy

when he knocked on the door,

and he motions to them with his hands

to be quiet. Quedaron pasmados.

When the fish filled the nets

of the disciples, they signaled

to the others to come.

Any attack on the poor is a summons.

That good good dog, Beckon.

To be at your beck and call.

This is the sign, not of subservience.

Not of servile.

This is the invitation of the eyes

to fill your boat, to harvest the fish.

V. TWO PRIESTS WALK INTO THE PARK,

wearing collars, dressed in black.

It’s warm and maybe they’ve wandered over from St. Joe’s.

No. I’m wrong. This is my small faith reporting.

Vamos caminar juntos como hermanos

en el camino del Señor.

Why am I not listening to the song?

Padre Jesus Mariscal and Bishop Joseph Tyson.

They are here to bless the workers. Bendiciones.

Gracias por el don inmigrantes.

Todos aquí pueden discutir los dones de trabajadores y campesinos.

It is our workers, documented and undocumented alike

that make America great.

People are nervous and afraid. Staying home.

Obispo Tyson tells us his grandfather was a baker

in Yakima Valley. His grandfather formed a union.

I listen to the woman sitting beside me. I know her

from La Casa Hogar. She is a family friend.

Now they want you to self deport.

Now they’ll pay you a thousand dollars to leave.

Other times we came we had open doors.

Now we have to lock our offices.

There will be a misa tonight, A mass.

It will be the misa de soda pop.

There will be a pachanga, too, in the church.

But the dance will be after the mass.

My friend says the priests have ears for the people.

VI. HERE WE ARE BETWEEN THE RIDGES

Between the Ridges is another force.

Between the Ridges is a display of the land.

Between the Ridges

Between the Ridges says it best.

The nonprofit mirroring Yirn.

The Valley entire.

Native people, Anglican priest.

Lower Valley roots to Campbell Farm.

Describing the Valley. From the edge

of eastern Cascades, with the series

of ridges dividing, and the Yakima River

running through it, traditional lands

of Yakima nation, including

borders and barriers that separate.

Forming communities with open eyes.

A listening community

with ears for the people.

Third ear listening. A learning community

for the common good, saying this:

We won’t save places we don’t love.

Saying this: We don’t know places

we haven’t learned. With Yirn:

Defending immigrant and refugees.

Hope is our resistance. Our fabric.

VII. THE AZTEC DANCERS

Ceatl Atonalli,

Mexica culture, Aztec

who established Tenochtitlan

entering the park

circling in a circle

blessing the four directions

holding me within their feathers by chance

Huehuétl and teponaztle drums

carved in sound

Ayoyote rattles, sea shells,

Ayoyote on their ankles

Vibrations in the grass

There is a why

We carry a why in the dancing

A carried why within

VIII. THE MARCH THROUGH DOWNTOWN

    --The word advocate has Latin origins, derived from advocatus. One called

      to aid, coming in turn from advocare, to summons or invite. The noun advocate

      entered English through Middle French as avocat, and advocate followed later, around 1640s.

How many of you like to walk fast,

like speed walkers, raise your hands.

Good. You guys will be in the back,

because this march is going slow

through downtown Yakima.

How we start

and starting with our Why

All of us blessed carrying our why

within, our beating hearts are signs

and our signs all of them

a kind of why within

and seen for who we dancing are

Jim Bodeen

Storypath/Cuentocamino

May Day—8 May 2025