On Saturday 2.5 million people around the world protested the inauguration of Donald Trump. Fifteen hundred of them were in San Antonio. I was one of them – and it felt great.
But I also wanted to cry.
With 1.4 million people, San Antonio is the seventh most populous city in the nation. A mere 1,500 people came out to protest what Donald Trump symbolizes and stands for.
By contrast, in Austin police now estimate that 50,000 people rallied, which is astounding. Being a part of an event that size energizes and empowers everyone there. I’m thrilled that so many people in my state got to experience it. I got my first taste at an abortion rights rally in 1989. Then it was only 20,000 people on the Capitol lawn, but it blew my mind and set me on a lifelong path of activism and advocacy.
I thought hard about whether to drive the hour and a half to Austin or to march here in my new city. I was torn. In Austin I knew I would get charged up by an enormous crowd and reconnect with dozens of friends and colleagues whom I really miss, especially in this time of political action and ideas. In the end I decided I would stay “home” to march with those who maybe couldn’t get to Austin, didn’t have a car, couldn’t afford the gas or a bus ticket, or who had to go to work right after the march – That was my thinking.
I wanted to get a better feel for the real circumstances of this resistance movement? – ?a movement born out of the realization that things actually are as bad out there as we’ve been saying they are; a movement that by definition needs to be led by the people most at risk under the new administration, but with the full solidarity, resources, support, and daily action of white progressives and the professional activist class.
To protest here, with .1% of the population – yes, 0.1% – ?must feel much like the ongoing struggle of low-income workers and immigrants and other people of lesser means to effect dignity and respect, equality of opportunity, and access to the supposed privileges of American citizenship when it feels like nobody is listening.
Is anyone listening?
My many years in Austin living the power and privilege of the political and racial majority impacted my perception of the world. This election has left me with far fewer illusions.
And so I marched. The march, “From Trump to Taylor, SA Women March Against Hate,” was organized by a grassroots group, Mujeres Marcharan, and was intended to recruit outrage over Trump’s election to local efforts to fight hate and inequality. No elected officials spoke at the rally, although a couple were there. There were no celebrities or officials from national advocacy organizations. We had no street permits, which is an issue peace and free speech activists have been struggling with here for years, no stage set up, no professionally printed signs. I saw multi-generational, multi-racial groups of people marching together. I saw earnest young people doing their best to promote and model love and respect for everyone. I saw a woman with a ukulele rapping about inequality.
No, I didn’t get the adrenaline high of a mega rally, and a part of me feels like I missed out on that; but I did get something deeply meaningful and impactful in its sincere effort to turn the outrage over the election into positive action locally where apathy and bigotry created the foundation for Trump’s victory in the first place. We must fight it at its sources and in all its manifestations.
And so, I learned about the underdog labor movement that has made serious improvements in the lives of hotel and hospitality workers – who are mostly women – in this convention center city. I learned what activists are doing to monitor the possible effort to create a Muslim registry using local companies as contractors to the NSA, whose huge secret facility here has helped make San Antonio a global center for cybersecurity technology. And I was reminded that Mayor Ivy Taylor has hired Trump’s social media team, local firm Giles-Parscale, for her re-election effort.
There is critical work to be done here, at home. I look forward to joining the effort of these grassroots groups fighting against great odds for real change.
Did you go to San Antonio’s MLK March last week? According to this website’s article,”an estimated 300,000 people… participated in this year’s 2.75-mile march”. It sounds like it was quite the “mega-rally” that you so enjoy, focused on issues of social justice, but maybe not white enough for you?
Maybe San Antonio’s Women’s March would have been bigger if not for the spatial proximity of Austin, and the temporal proximity of the MLK observance, or maybe your assumptions about San Antonio’s “apathy and bigotry” are correct. Who knows?
The two friends I knew who wanted to march had already made plans to go to Austin long before we found out earlier in the week about the SA march. It needed more publicity. Other friends who had interest in the issues are too disabled to march. The rest was apathy, I guess. I couldn’t get anyone else interested in this one or the MLK March, so I went alone.
Lesley — I am a 10 month-er here in San Antonio. I also left a bubble city — Portland, Oregon which has a culture of protesting in the street. But having been a big observer of San Antonio since I got here, I had the opposite feeling when I saw the photos posted on mysantonio.com (about 100 pics!) from the march — PRIDE. I didn’t think anything of the numbers at all and in fact thought, wow this is a big permitless march for San Antonio! San Antonio is not the same kind of place as Austin and Portland. Sure it is bigger and you’d think there’d be more people… but it has a different culture of activism.
I participated in the Woman’s March in Austin on Saturday. I’m not on facebook so I only learned of the Austin march the week before by word of mouth so I bought a train ticket to get there and back in one day (I don’t drive). I hadn’t yet heard of the San Antonio one when I made my decision to do a day trip to Austin. I was excited to join a sister march in another capital city. And it was big and exciting, but when I saw pictures of San Antonio, I had thought, wow I wish I could have marched both… I saw a lot of San Antonio spirit in those photos. Again, so much PRIDE for the people who gathered here to MARCH. It’s not always quantity as much as quality.
And by the way, San Antonio in very recent times did have a HUGE march in the streets. One week ago I marched in the streets for San Antonio’s MLK March on the east side. This was Powerful, big, and exciting. They estimate that 300,000 people came out for this. Now you may be surprised as I was that San Antonio has the largest MLK day March in the country! And they celebrated 30 years of doing this March. There were lots of speakers, music, and community spirit. It was truly AWESOME. A show of commitment for human rights in San Antonio
So with that you can’t say that San Antonio doesn’t know how to March or get together. And what I’ve been learning is San Antonio is full of activists for all people but it’s not necessarily going to be found in the streets downtown. Downtown in San Antonio is really left for the tourism industry….so to find activism one has to look with new eyes in new areas. It’s all around — people of San Antonio are tirelessly working for human rights in the neighborhoods or community pockets. But our city is not quite centered in one place. It’s polarized out more than compact cities like Austin or Portland who also by the way have a huge number of single college or professionals who have the time and means to protest. San Antonio is more family orientated and most jobs are centered around lower wages, longer hours. I imagine a lot of people were at this march in ‘Spirit’. Or perhaps it was just a problem of getting the word out in a city of such diversity.
It’s a worthy question to talk about…..
You got the name of the march wrong…
Agreed. Too many activists from SA were either in Austin of DC. So the numbers were lower here. Austin was just too close and so many went to march in the capitol. Don’t be to haste in judging your new town. It’s about the passion not the numbers.
First I’ve heard of it was this article complaining it was so small and that it didn’t have any permits for anything, sounds like poor planning
+1 to Luddite’s comment
This isn’t a competition. The marches held around the world on Jan. 21 were focused on diversity and equality. Perhaps instead of comparing the march held in San Antonio to those held in other cities we should celebrate the diversity of the marches themselves. Some were well attended with organizers working for months to schedule engaging speakers. Others were planned in a shorter period of time. I’m personally proud that the San Antonio march happened even without a permit! The bottom line is that people came out for what they truly believe. People came together to fight injustice, inequality and the fear that the new administration has instilled. Let’s stop the comparisons and celebrate the diversity. Welcome to San Antonio Lesley. You are making an impact and I’d say that our city is lucky to have you.
If you could see me standing up and clapping…. YES.
I was also so impressed with the small marches of less than 100 people in smaller communities all over the world! There is no competition.
Organized by a tiny group that has what 2000 Facebook followers and no website. Sounds pretty good actually.
SHE DOESN’T EVEN GO HERE!
Also, keep in mind the Austin March was not just locals. It’s not that Austinites are more engaged, it’s that it’s the Capital. Just like DC, naturally, people from around the state converged there, including many from San Antonio.
This will not be a popular post in this forum. But as an avid Rivard reader and active San Antonio, I feel obligated to provide an alternative point of view.
First of all, I am grateful that we live in a country where we can assemble peacefully for whatever reason we like. That being said, protesting the results of an election won fair-and-square is a complete waste of time and energy.
First of all, Americans need to remember that we live in a republic, not a direct democracy. If you really want to make a strategic difference, you have to start voting and participating in your state and local governments, and local political parties — consistently for years and years. Get involved and change the rules – on how you are represented, who your electors are, how your state allocates electoral votes, etc. Better yet, move to and start voting in a red district — the more rural, the better. Then you might have a chance of reversing some of the state and congressional seats that dems have lost in the past 8 years.
I’m not a Trump fan, but marching in an echo chamber is not starting a dialogue with anyone–it’s creating a larger partisan divide. Meanwhile, the rest of the country in rural areas is sitting at home content with the decision they made for themselves and their families.
I’m glad the folks in Austin got that tingly feeling they were looking for if it provided them relief, but it did nothing to strategically advance their cause.
I would recommend you return to Austin. You obviously need that environment and SA obviously doesn’t need you. the
HAHAHA! You can keep your back handed compliment about my city, Becky!
If you need an action with 20,000 people to get energized, you should probably move to a capital city. I guarantee you those 50,000 don’t live in Austin. And here on San Anto, we work tireless, thankless hours in community. Our work is not for the faint hearted.
Speaking of standing up to be heard; kudos to those standing up to the hate against our great city. Like many have already said; we are not Austin, we are San Antonio and proud of it.
You’re all exactly right. There is no comparing San Antonio to Austin. San Antonio has its own unique history, population, cultural offerings—music, art, literature, food, style—economic drivers, politics and activism. It also has—along with the rest of Texas—a dismal record on civic engagement. As far as this rally was concerned, I could have been in Dallas, where a paltry 5,000 people came out in a city of 1.3 million. And that’s just Dallas-proper. The Metroplex claims 6.7 million! They don’t have proximity to the state capital as an excuse.
(And as an aside, more than 400,000 people marched in Dallas in the 2006 immigrant rights marches. The Dallas Morning News claimed at the time that most of them were families caught in the broken immigration system. I can understand why they wouldn’t want to “come out” again at this particular point in our history.)
Mass protests are effective tools for a handful of outcomes. They can demonstrate the mass support for a particular cause, invigorate a base to stay involved, and inspire new people to join a cause. They do not, in themselves, change policy. The worldwide mobilization of millions of people in 2003 did nothing to stop the US from invading Iraq. But it did those other things. So did this weekend’s marches and protests. Will it matter? Well, that depends on what we do next.
The new administration is wasting no time, and neither can we. San Antonians could play a leading role in redirecting the course on immigration policy and preventing or disrupting the development of a Muslim registry. We have the passion, the experience, and the expertise.