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Dolores Huerta, a leading Latino rights activist who in 1962 co-founded the United Farm Workers Association with Cesar Chavez, said she opposes a May 1 nationwide boycott that would mirror last year's "Day Without an Immigrant."
Huerta, speaking Saturday at a pro-amnesty Latino rights conference at Pitzer College, said a repeat boycott could lead to participating workers losing their jobs, students being expelled and fines levied against labor unions.
She instead proposed a march on April 29 that would feature immigrant children, which would send a message about how immigration laws affect families.
"This year let's be more positive, instead of negative," Huerta said.
The 77-year-old activist's anti-boycott remarks, echoed by several other immigration-reform advocates at the conference, resulted in moments of awkwardness during a session intended to create a strategy for achieving legalization of the country's estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, most of whom are Latino.
Representatives from the March 25 Coalition, which last year organized the 500,000-person march in downtown Los Angeles and the May 1 boycott, distributed fliers during the event to try to rally support for a repeat boycott effort.
Taking Huerta's lead, most of the 150 students and activists in attendance responded coolly to the coalition's proposal.
The March 25 Coalition hopes to build support for a May 1 boycott before a Feb. 3-4 conference at Loyola Law School in downtown Los Angeles, which will discuss plans for this year's May Day protests.
"I think we have to question whether (a boycott) is effective," said Jose Calderon, a Pitzer College sociology and Chicano studies professor who helped organize the conference. "Whether it had any economic effect is a real question."
The conference, sponsored by the Latina/Latino Roundtable and San Gabriel Valley/Inland Empire chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, attracted Latino activists who will play a central role in crafting strategy for this year's amnesty legislation push.
Huerta said 2007 was the ideal year to pursue legislation to achieve legalization because of the Democratic takeover of Congress after November's midterm elections.
"Let's get comprehensive immigration reform out of the way in 2007, then it can be avoided during the election year," she said. "It's a win-win."
Though immigration issues dominated discussion at the conference, other ideas were floated as well.
Calderon proposed pressuring lawmakers to allow illegal immigrants to vote in school board elections, because children of illegal immigrants can legally attend California public schools.
