March for a DREAM: thousands hit the streets for immigrant rights : Houston Indymedia

I left Montrose on my bike at the time the march started. I arrived at Davis High School at 11:30 and saw a small crowd of perhaps twenty or thirty people, mostly elementary school age. I thought to myself "this can't be it," it wasn't. People seemed to be headed from all directions towards downtown. To borrow a saying from someone else, it was like the Michael Jackson music video "Thriller" people were coming out of houses, cars and stores and joining the march.

I finally caught up with the mass of the march as it was turning onto Main from Hogan. This march was probably the biggest and longest I have been to in Houston. It stretched from Hogan all the way through the tunnel under the train tracks and beyond. I couldn't see the end of it.

Chants included classics "si se puede" and "el pueblo unido jamas será vencido" I think my favorite was "Aqui estamos, y no nos vamos, y si nos sacan, nos regresamos" (here we are, we're not leaving, if they kick us out, we'll come back)

There was a rally at the courtyard of University of Houston Downtown. The crowd filled the whole space. I heard rumors that the crowd was 20,000 people (Which I do not believe) and others of 5,000, which I think, seemed right to me. There was a small stage and speakers that lasted for around an hour. Sheila Jackson Lee spoke in support of the mobilization as well as numerous students, educators and activists.

There was a strong showing of students, I saw groups from TSU, UofH, HCC, UST, Texas A&M, Prairie View A&M and UT Arlington. The crowd was almost completely Latin@, I felt like I was one of a dozen white folks who showed up, which is kinda frustrating. The crowd was very diverse in terms of age, and seemed predominantly working class, as many of the participants were from the Northside neighborhood.

I was really blown away by the work that went into this and the turnout of people, there was a consciousness that this was a struggle that was taking place across the country, with the giant protests that just took place in Chicago, and the demonstration today in Los Angeles. The Immigrant Rights movement is alive and well in Houston today. Lets join up!

You could see people comming out the other side of the tunnel. The march stretched for blocks.

Dozens of cars with pro-DREAM act and anti HR 4437 slogans and white ribbons came behind the march and provided support with water.

Droped some spoken word and warned us to not put to much trust in the politicians that may take social movements for granted.