On March 25, I used the new LA Metro 'Flyaway' service to pick my younger daughter up at LAX. I took a bus to Union Station downtown, then hopped on a Flyaway luxury bus that would take me to LAX, then another Flyaway bus would take us back to Union Station. Then all we had to do was hop onto a bus back to my Echo Park abode. The Flyaway, the city hopes, will decrease the traffic congestion around LAX--sort of a antihistamine on wheels. (Our mayor has been on TV showing himself hopping on the Flyaway--a 'be like Antonio' moment reminiscent of the old 'be like Mike' ads.)
Everything went as smoothly as those commercials assured--until we got out of the Flyaway bus and found ourselves in the middle of one the largest demonstrations in history! Needless to say, there were no buses to catch to get home since the streets that the buses really need to drive on were filled with people. Knowing we were stuck, we were both hungry--but anywhere food was being sold, the lines were too large to even contemplate waiting in. So we were, by accident, part of what was--I now know--an incredible event. Our pictures never turned up in newspaper accounts of the day, thankfully; we would have looked a bit...curious...with the perplexed looks on our faces, and my daughter toting her suitcase on wheels. (I thought I could tell a reporter, if I was asked, that the suitcase was full of pamphlets in support of immigrant rights.)
And that's where--in hindsight of course--I feel that we were in the right place at the right time, after all. I teach in East LA, an solely English speaking Anglo who is impressed every day by the Latino community, with kids who are bilingual by Kindergarten--& parents who call me 'Maestro'! (Remember Elaine's boyfriend in Seinfeld who insisted she call him Maestro?) The demonstration my daughter & I found ourselves was unlike any I've ever been in--and I've been in more than a few. Always, some sort of violence happens--it's just statistically impossible not to. Yet on March 25--none! How is that even possible when between a half a million to maybe a million people gather? That mere fact, for me, qualifies everyone who was there for immediate citizenship.
