Thousands rallied in MacArthur Park Friday in one of many events recognizing May Day. Flags from various countries waved above the crowds as others sounded off with vuvuzelas, megaphones and speakers hyped up the crowd with chants of “¡Si Se Puede!”
The rally kicked off at 10 a.m. but some people arrived at the park long before the sun rose in Westlake.
By 9 a.m. throngs of people gathered, eager to support each other.
Rosemary Ibarra, 26, made her way to MacArthur Park from Lancaster.
“I’m here just to support all of our people here, all the working people, to say no more ICE,” she said. “And to say that we’re here, we’re stronger together. Power of the people.”
This year’s May Day rally marks the 20th anniversary of La Gran Marcha, when millions of people took to the streets around the country to protest proposed legislation that would have included making it a felony offense to be an undocumented immigrant.
Organizers on Friday rallied under the banner, “Solo El Pueblo Shuts it Down – No Work, No School, No Shopping.” The rally crowds marched to Gloria Molina Grand Park just before noon.
Some carried umbrellas, signs and others simply waved their flags above their heads.
María de la Luz Martínez, 62, said she attended the march to represent those who couldn’t be there because they are undocumented. She held split Mexican and US flag. She wore a dress in the colors of the Mexican flag and a colorful flower in her hair.
“I’m here to ask for justice for everyone and for people to understand that we are human, not animals,” she said in Spanish.
Strength in numbers
Friday is also the first rally since the Trump administration launched its campaign of immigration raids across the country last summer.
The feeling is that some people are exhausted, but still eager to show up for their communities.
TJ Gonzalez, a Hermon resident, brought his parrot Pepe to MacArthur Park to support others . He rescued Pepe five years ago after finding him with a broken wing. Gonzalez said Pepe helps lift people’s spirits.
“When everybody is stressed out, they see Pepe and they get a smile on their face,” he said.
Throughout the morning, he walked around the park, letting people hold Pepe and take photos with him.
“It’s a hard time for a lot of people right now,” Gonzalez added. “I just hope Pepe can bring a little therapy to everyone who came out.”
Nearby, Carmina Calderon Santos, carried her 10-month old baby in a sling, as the child wore little baby earmuffs over their head.
“We’re the ones that move and make this city function. As workers, as people that have to find a means to support their families, I think it’s important to show our strength in numbers, the way that we make the city move,” Calderon Santos said, who lives on the border of Koreatown and East Hollywood.
“I think the protest, at least May Day, is just to show how many of us there really are, at one on one day, right, to uplift the worker and the people that again move the city. But again, protest is just a tool. It’s not the end all be all. After this, we’ve got to go show up at City Hall. We’ve got to do public comment,” she said. “We’ve got to educate our neighbors and everybody else.”
Lisa Navarro from Salinas, made the five-hour trek to the rally. She’s been attending May Day rallies since 2020, and was joined by her daughters.
“We came out here just to be part of the movement and take a stand, to protest, you know, the billionaires and everything going, everything that’s happening, but also to take a stand with our immigrant communities,” she said.
Her father was born in Michoacán, Mexico, “and I come out here to stand with him and my fellow brothers and sisters.”
Her daughter Sabrina, 17, came out to protest the Trump administration specifically.
She held up her sign with a cartoon cat and dog: “They’re eating the checks, they’re eating the balances,” a reference to Trump’s 2024 speech where he claimed without evidence that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating local cats and dogs.
The teen got active in politics during the first Trump administration. She encourages other young people “to use their voice to not be intimidated by the administration, to be intimidated by local officials, you know, anybody in power, and just to remind everybody that the power of the people is stronger than the people in power.”
Fabric, newspaper, papier-mâché
More rallies are expected throughout Friday, including on the Eastside.
In Boyle Heights, Centro CSO said it is stepping up security for its rally at Mariachi Plaza, where crowds will begin gathering at 3 p.m. The event will include live music, resource tables and a march to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown.
Speakers will take the stage at 4 p.m. and the march is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Organizers say they expect families, older adults and people with disabilities to attend and want them to feel safe.
Other Eastside organizers are joining the rally at MacArthur Park. East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice will take to the streets with a 12-by-12-foot puppet they created using spray paint, fabric, newspaper and heaps of cardboard scraps. The piece symbolizes climate justice, community power and resistance.
“Puppets are … a very powerful art form, and I think that it’s going to be very meaningful to have a larger-than-life figure that is standing for climate sovereignty and community action,” said Diana Hurtado, the project’s artistic director.
The puppet made an appearance in Westlake and was expected to make the journey to City Hall.
Another puppet on display is a veteran of the May Day movement.
“The puppet was made by KIWA members more than 10 years ago for a May Day march,” Brady Collins said, organizer with the Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates. “It’s a traditional papier-mâché style you often see in Mexico, and we actually have many more of them.”
He explained that each puppet represents a different type of worker in Los Angeles. Collins carried around the puppet “Justice” with two long wooden piles.
‘We’re all immigrants to this country’
Charles Song works for an organization that provides legal aide to low-wage workers in San Francisco and found himself in a sea of people from different backgrounds and causes at MacArthur Park.
“I’m just, I guess really concerned about the way our country is treating immigrants. It’s just completely unacceptable.” Song said, who was born in Korea and immigrated to the US as a child. “We’re all immigrants to this country. People need to understand that and appreciate that we all came in different ways.”
Mike Konowitz and Matty Thorne, members of the LA chapter of Refuse Fascism, have been involved with the organization for about a year and are politically motivated to respond to the actions of the Trump administration.
“We really cannot rely on or wait for the midterms,” Konowitz said. “Brown people are getting picked up every day because of the color of their skin.”
Thorne was accompanied by his dog, Odie
“It’s dogs against fascism,” he said.
“All these causes, supporting ICE out, fighting for fair wages for workers, none of this is going to happen until this Trump regime is out of power,” Thorne said.
Near MacArthur Park lake, homecare provider Leilani Reed recounted the broader fight unions face.
“Once I went, it was like a fire just latched to me and when I understood when they were fighting for a $15 wage increase and then we would link up with other unions and solidarity, then I started understanding,” Reed said, who is a member of SEIU Local 2015.
‘Marching together as one voice’
Westlake is no stranger to International Workers’ Day, said Victor Narro, project director with the UCLA James Lawson Jr. Worker Justice Center, which sits across the street from MacArthur Park.
“We’re dealing with so much this year, and I think May Day is going to be a chance for us to come together,” Narro told The LA Local ahead of the rally.
Juan Aguilar, a supermarket worker who came to the United States in 1989, participated in the 2006 march in downtown LA.
“I was really impressed by the number of people there. And I didn’t feel afraid. People weren’t afraid,” he said at a sign-making event for this year’s May Day rally at the Korean Immigrant Workers Advocates in Koreatown.
Friday was also Jay Lee’s first time participating in the May Day rally and march. The Korean American pointed to the role labor movements have played in shaping migration and identity within Korean communities.
“Korea’s got this huge history of labor,” Lee said. “The existence of the Korean diaspora here is inherently tied to the labor movement in Korea.”
For Lee, this year’s May Day is especially significant. It marks the first year South Korea has designated May 1 as a mandatory public holiday for all workers, including those in the public sector. Previously, only private-sector workers had the day off.
He said this year’s march is also about solidarity across communities.
“We’re going to be marching with Black workers, the Latino centers, the Filipino centers,” Lee said. “We’re going to be all marching together as one voice, and I think that’s really cool.”
The LA Local has reporters on the ground. Check back for updates, and see more photos and video on our Instagram.
