Under a blazing Yakima sun, about 4,000 farm workers and their union and movement supporters gathered in Miller Park on Sunday, August 5 to demand amnesty for undocumented workers. Contingents of farm workers from all over the Yakima Valley and eastern Washington--places like Granger, Brewster, George, Mattawa--listened to speakers and songs in preparation for a march through downtown Yakima.

As a Yakima resident but non-Spanish speaking participant, I was treated, for 3-1/2 hours, to the experience faced by many all the time--that of not being able to understand most of what I was hearing or seeing. Waved amid a sea of red-and-black United Farm Workers flags, the few signs in English, often hand-lettered, addressed many issues of concern: General Amnesty for Every Farm Worker, Fair Treat Out in the Camp, Respect the Right to Organize/Equal Rights for Women, Scholarships for Undocumented Workers, Federal Aid for Farm Workers Too, Stop Sweatshops in the Fields, Free Trade Isn't Free, Our Wages Are Being Stolen, Wages Should Go Up Not Down, Justice for Injured Workers, Injured Workers are Not Throw Aways.

Following the rally, chanting "Ahora si, manana no," and "Si se puede!" ("Yes we can!"), and "Amnestia," farm workers and supporters marched about three miles through downtown Yakima, along Naches Avenue where residents stood in yards and doorways and windows smiling and waving; along Yakima Avenue where buyers at the Sunday growers' market--some of them the employers of the marching workers--stood and watched; and back to Miller Park where dancers and a band performed.

Union representation was widespread and included members of AFSCME, SEIU, SPEAA (Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace), Teamsters, TDU (Teamsters for a Democratic Union), IUPA (Painters and Allied Trades International Union), WCIW (Western Conference of Industrial Workers), Seattle Labor Chorus, Carpenters Union, and the WFT (Washington Federation of Teachers); other participants (proclaimed by their t-shirts) were Living Wage Campaign, Justice for Washington Apple Workers, Pride at Work, and Alaska Civil Liberties Union--Left of Everything.

Yakima is often a raw place when it comes to immigration issues, a place where letters to the editor regularly spew hate, label immigrants as criminals, and call for mass deportations; a place where few jobs pay more than $9 per hour and white workers rage against bilingual job requirements; a place where children of growers and children of farm workers sit in the same classrooms but rarely acknowledge what is between them. Today's rally and march was a spirited, pride-filled event that, hopefully, will be the first of many here.