Esperansa Solorio holds a Statue of Liberty-themed sign as she marches on Flamingo Road Monday May 1, 2017. Hundreds of union members, immigrants and activists marched down the Las Vegas Strip before ending in a rally on Flamingo Road.
Published Monday, May 1, 2017 | 7:45 p.m.
Updated Monday, May 1, 2017 | 9 p.m.
Nearly 2,000 Las Vegan union workers and local residents, many of them first-generation migrants to the United States, took to the Strip Monday afternoon to promote a variety of political causes, including immigrant rights, minimum wage laws and race relations.
Marchers also used the occasion to celebrate International Workers Day — the equivalent of September's Labor Day — celebrated annually on May 1 in European and Latin American countries.
"Love, not hate, makes America great," shouted Culinary Union Local 226 member Juan Garazi over a loudspeaker as hundreds surrounding him cheered along.
Garazi was one of the majority red T-shirt wearing and sign-carrying members of the 57,000-member Culinary Union, which includes workers in the gaming, restaurant and construction industries, marching on the Strip. Other groups at the event included Fight for $15, the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, Jewish Voice for Peace and Chispa Nevada.
The 60-minute march started just after 5:30 pm on the Las Vegas Strip, in front of the Mirage, headed south to the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo Road, across Interstate 15 to an empty lot next to the Palms, while closing one lane of traffic for most of Monday afternoon. Marchers held signs proclaiming unity as part of a national movement against the immigration policies of President Donald Trump.
"Trump, listen, we're in the fight," a union leader chanted in Spanish over a loudspeaker as hundreds walking near cheered in agreement.
Vehicles driving by honked in agreement and drivers waved at marchers. When the march ended at the empty lot, Culinary Secretary Treasurer Geoconda Arguello-Kline reaffirmed the group's mission.
"We will not back down," Arguello Kline said as the crowd cheered.
Michoacán, Mexico, native David Morales, 45, marched on Monday holding a Mexican flag alongside his son, David Morales Jr., 15.
Morales, who immigrated to the United States in 1995 said that while he oversees American-citizen workers in the kitchen of a local restaurant, he can't open his own restaurant because he is undocumented. Despite having his son in Las Vegas and not having a criminal record, Morales still fears being deported.
"If there were a reasonable path to citizenship for me here in the U.S., I'd pay as much money as they wanted from me," Morales said in Spanish. "I've contributed to the economy and want the best for my family."
While Garazi and Morales represented the majority of those marching with a purpose on Monday, others said they attended the rally based on incentives from their respective unions.
"Benefits," a woman wearing a Culinary shirt replied, smiling, when asked why she was marching. "And a day off."
Several marchers offered explicit chants about the president in Spanish. About half of the flags waved by marchers were American. Other flags represented a host of different countries, primarily Mexico.
A man in the red Culinary shirt whose elementary school-age son was carrying a mini-American flag watched as the boy dropped it on the ground and proceeded to step on it during Arguello-Kline's speech.
The man, who was video-recording the speech and declined comment for this story, did not ask the boy to pick the flag up. Instead, a young girl nearby, who appeared to be a family member of the boy, asked him to do so.
"That's disrespectful," the girl said.
Not all of the immigrants on the Strip were Trump opponents.
Standing in a German national soccer team jersey holding a sign reading "immigrants for Trump," Ken Nuppenau, 43, said he has lived in Nevada for 12 years since immigrating from Hamburg, Germany.
"There are immigrants on both sides of the fence, Nuppenau said, as a man claiming to be an immigrant from Ireland walked up and shook his hand and thanked him. Not all of us are against the president."
About 564,000 Nevadans are foreign-born, according to 2015 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, accounting for nearly 20 percent of Nevada’s population. Immigrants accounted for 21.4 percent of the Silver State’s workforce in 2015, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Hispanic grocery chains in Las Vegas closed Monday in support of International Labor Day. A manager of one such chain, Armando Martinez of La Bonita, said he and executives from Cardenas, Mariana's, El Super and Marketon decided together on the closures to "support the community."
"We had a lot of customers and employees asking us to close today," Martinez said. "We felt it was a good way to show our support."
