Distributors have been promoting a wide range of colourful nationwide flags in downtown L.A. on Wednesday, however Axel Martinez settled on one with with Previous Glory on one half and the Mexican flag on the opposite.
The 26-year-old was born within the U.S., raised in Mexico Metropolis and returned to the States due to the chance, he stated. On Wednesday, he stood amongst lots of of different demonstrators exterior the Metropolitan Detention Heart in downtown L.A. who have been going through off with Nationwide Guard troops on Alameda Road. A few dozen different flags — from Mexico, the U.S., California, Guatemala and El Salvador — fluttered over the group.
“Everybody has a narrative right here,” Martinez stated. “I’m proud to be Mexican and to be born right here.”
For eight days now, protesters have made their technique to downtown L.A. to protest towards immigration detentions within the metropolis and the presence of the Nationwide Guard. Pictures of flags, principally from Mexico, have unfold in information stories and social media — at instances drawing the ire of critics. Even supporters of the demonstrations have criticized the show of international flags, arguing they ship the fallacious message. Members of the Trump administration have posted photographs of the ensigns in social media posts, and referred to as the protests an “invasion” or “revolt.”
“Take a look at all of the international flags,” Stephen Miller, President Trump’s deputy chief of workers posted Sunday on the social platform X, calling Los Angeles “occupied territory.”
Vice President JD Vance referred to protesters as “insurrectionists carrying international flags” on X.
However when a number of protesters have been requested why they wave a international flag as a substitute of the U.S.’ purple white and blue, many supplied an identical reply.
“Why not?” Martinez stated.
Close to 1st and Alameda streets on Monday, 46-year-old Christopher Kim draped a South Korean flag over his again like a cape.
It was the primary time he determined to take part within the protests, and he didn’t assume twice when he grabbed the Taegeukgi.
“I used to be seeing all these flags flying on the market, however there’s not simply Korean, Mexican, Guatemalan folks right here,” he stated. “There’s folks from everywhere in the world, dwelling right here in L.A., and we now have a group right here.”
For him, bringing the flag was a tribute to his immigrant mother and father, who got here to the U.S. and labored for his or her kids to have higher lives, he stated.
“They’re not out right here, however this represents my roots,” he stated. “This flag is my house, it’s my household.”
Requested whether or not flying the banner of one other nation throughout a protest needs to be deemed offensive or counterproductive, Kim scoffed and shook his head.
“This nation is made out of immigrants,” he stated. “How might this be offensive to anybody?”
Early within the week, a 21-year-old lady who recognized herself solely as Jade purchased a Mexican flag and joined a rowdy crowd of protesters on Alameda Road.
“These are our folks,” she advised a reporter Monday.
Each she and her mother and father have been born within the U.S., however her grandparents immigrated from Mexico. Carrying the purple, white and inexperienced flag was a nod to them and their sacrifices, she stated.
“I got here from a household of immigrants, and I’m right here for them,” she stated. “That is my nation. That is my household.”
Farther down the road, Ariel Miller moved away from the police line, hoping to keep away from the rubber bullets being fired by officers making an attempt to disperse the group.
She appeared again towards the police line and waved the blue and white flag of El Salvador. She’s not Latin American, she stated, however she was waving the flag for an in depth pal who couldn’t go to the protests.
“I bought this for her as a result of I needed her to know that, she couldn’t be right here, and I really like her, and I’m right here for her,” she stated. “She has household that this can be a actually scary time for.”
Within the sea of individuals marching and chanting, the emblems of Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador and different international locations have been markers of the make-up of the group, she stated. The flags are like hallmarks of the historical past that introduced them to the identical place to protest the remedy of latest immigrants and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s presence in Los Angeles.
The flags “say, you’ll be able to’t erase me, and I matter,” she stated. “You may have satisfaction in who you’re, and the place you got here from.”
Miller wasn’t the one demonstrator this week to hold a flag for another person.
Najee Gow, who’s Black and grew up in Minnesota, arrived downtown Wednesday with a Mexican flag on his again and led the group in chants with a megaphone exterior the Metropolitan Detention Heart.
His fiancee is from El Salvador, he defined, however the males who have been promoting flags had run out of the blue and white flags. He opted for the acquainted purple, white and inexperienced tricolor.
“It’s affected me personally,” he stated of the latest immigration raids. Like different immigrants, he stated, his fiancee is afraid.
He’s heard critics who say international flags shouldn’t be carried in protests, however he shrugs it off.
“That’s like saying, ‘Don’t wave your heritage, your historical past,’” he stated.
In protests the place demonstrators try to emphasize the essential contributions of immigrants and variety, the assortment of nationwide banners helps to underscore that message, he stated. And that features the Stars and Stripes.
“It’s stunning and, look, a lot of the [U.S.] flags are the other way up,” he stated, trying into the group. “It needs to be each flag.”
In entrance of the Metropolitan Detention Heart, the place protesters have gathered for a number of days close to a line of Nationwide Guard troops, one flag vendor was promoting a range for $10 a chunk.
On Wednesday, he stated he ran out of flags of Guatemala and El Salvador quick. Earlier than he goes house, he’ll most likely give out the remainder of the flags free to protesters, he stated. It was his third day on the protests, and he stated he’d simply usher in a brand new batch the following day.
He declined to offer his identify, however stated he was promoting flags not simply to earn a couple of additional {dollars} for his household however to help protesters.
When a demonstrator in a face masks tapped his pants’ pockets and signaled he didn’t have the money for the flag, the seller handed him a Mexico flag anyway.
“I bought household that bought deported too,” he stated. “They bought picked up when all this began.”
Regardless of the photographs displayed by critics, there have been U.S. flags flown through the protests as effectively.
Javiera Burton, a 25-year-old from Chile, carried a U.S. flag Wednesday.
“We live within the U.S., and that is the flag,” she stated, however she added that she had no qualms about international flags being flown within the protest. “I believe folks ought to do what they need to do.”
At one level through the protest Wednesday, she stated, a supporter of President Trump’s immigration insurance policies approached her and assumed that, as a result of she was flying an American flag, she too supported the immigration crackdown that has occurred in the previous few days.
So, she stated, she indifferent the U.S. flag from its pole and hung it the other way up — a logo of misery.
“We’re combating for this nation, combating for our folks,” she stated.
For a few of these carrying international flags, the intent was to attach a disparate group of demonstrators, they stated.
“The flag I carry just isn’t my flag. It’s our flag,” stated Kim, who carried a South Korean flag. “It represents a complete folks, struggling to outlive with desires and hopes which might be widespread to each human.”
When he noticed flags from Latin America in newscasts of the protests, he stated, they appeared like an invite for him to affix in.
“Everybody on the market holds their [flag] due to what it represents: we the folks of Los Angeles,” he stated.
