May Day in Los Angeles 2009

So I'm checking out Facebook and I still see in my highlight section photos from May Day and Mother's Day. Even though the days have come and gone, I can't stop thinking about workers, moms, and working moms. Something I've learned from my mom and the countless mothers I've worked alongside with in various low-wage jobs (and I've learned a lot from them) is that we have rights as workers. And it's our prerogative as human beings to demand those rights if we're not getting them.

Front of the the MIWON May Day march, 2009

I'm a product of a single working mother who, not surprisingly, was also a product of a single working mother (my nana). Poverty is a battle all its own and it leaves scars that affect generations to come. So I march in honor of my mother and my family's hard work--for my grandma who waited tables to make ends meet, for my mother's long early bus rides to work to provide food for me and my brother. I march for workers; FOR PEOPLE, regardless of their immigration status, who are thrown to the margins and forgotten, those caught in the vicious cycle of poverty, racism, and unjust laws.

Just one of the many demands being made at the march