“Cumbia de la Cobra” leads me deeper into the protest. It’s a banger of the genre with a hypnotic, Middle Eastern-ish melody. I follow the cumbia rhythm through a throng of folks holding signs against ICE and war and Trump towards the sound of horns that are definitely being played live. I hit gridlock at the top of a set of stairs leading down to Broadway. Parked on the street that cuts between two levels of Gloria Molina Grand Park is the mobile People’s Stage, where Los Jornaleros del Norte are performing. The crowd, dancing on stairs and sidewalk, is large, but it’s only small fraction of the turnout for the downtown Los Angeles No Kings rally on this sunny Saturday afternoon in late March.
In the background I hear someone on a megaphone saying something about a big baby. I look up and see that the team of people maneuvering the President Poopypants— IDK if that’s really it’s name, but it should be— balloon is headed towards this makeshift dance floor. We scooch around as Trump’s diaper-clad behind floats above us, but the party continues.
The third set of nationwide No Kings protests brought in over eight million people, according to 50501, a record turnout for the U.S. According to the L.A. Times, over 40 protests were planned for Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura Counties with more than 100,000 people expected to participate in L.A. area events. I was at the March 28 protest downtown, as well as the one that happened in this same park back in October. I think the biggest difference between the two really has to do with changing circumstances in the country. “Fuck Trump” is still a central theme that’s repeated on signs and by speakers, but there’s a laundry list of grievances to go along with that now, the most recent of which is the war in Iran. So, this time around, there’s a significant antiwar contingent. That includes anti-AIPAC signs, which relate not solely to Iran, but also to Palestine. Messages to end the genocide in Gaza were are much more prominent throughout the protest grounds this time.
The other difference is that there seems to be more opportunities to take your action beyond this one day of protest. Folks with petitions to sign- mainly regarding wealth inequality and labor issues from what I saw – mingle throughout the park. I sign two or three, but, most were petitions that I had signed the week prior. Closer to City Hall are information booths from multiple organizations. One group is promoting the International Workers Day protest that’s coming up on May 1. Another has flyers about the upcoming trial of John Caravello, the CSU Channel Islands professor who is facing 20 years for an anti-ICE protest in Camarillo. I recall seeing him on Democracy Now last year and am shocked that I hadn’t heard about the trial, which starts on April 6, and the charges that he’s up against. (California Faculty Association has more info about his case, but this is a story that has been underreported locally.)
And, yeah, it’s also a party. As it should be.
Los Jornaleros del Norte are affiliated with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. The band has been around since the 1990s, plays a ton of protests and had a brush with viral fame after the last No Kings protest thanks to clips of Pedro Pascal dancing to their original song, “La Cumbia de la Migra.” (There’s a good, fairly recent interview with singer/accordionist/keyboardist Omar León in El País.) This afternoon, the band is busting out the jams, songs like “Bonita y Mentirosa” and “La Vida es Un Carnaval,” which you know even if you don’t think you do because they’re played so often at parties, restaurants and bars.
Nearly the whole crowd is dancing. Up front, I notice a woman who I think I’ve seen before at protests. She’s wearing a Chivas jersey and is the best dancer, shimmying and pivoting around the sidewalk at twice the speed of anyone around here, yet never she never loses the beat.
Inside Grand Park, there are performances happening everywhere. A word that I’ve truly come to loathe is performative. I’ll automatically tune out when I hear or read people use it because it is one of those words that social media grifters use when they need to weigh in on a trending topic, but have no clue what they’re saying and, clearly, no sense of self-awareness or irony. I do find it unintentionally hysterical, though, when people use “performative” as a way of denigrating protests. There are multiple definitions of the word and they aren’t all insulting. Performance is the point of a protest. You’re there to express yourself loudly, creatively— to put on a show or cause a scene— in order to bring more attention to an issue and get more people involved. That’s a really important part of civic engagement, but one that’s frequently disparaged in a country that prefers its people to just shut up, stay home and spend more money.
Closer to Hill Street, there’s someone in a Trump costume, complete with an oversized, sculpted head. Next to the protester are a bunch of signs with sayings like “I’m a disgusting pervert,” “My favorite part of the Bible is when I win!” and “I miss my best friend Jeffrey.” People in the crowd pick out which sign they want Trump to hold. A teenager hands the protester one that says, “I’m a nasty turd.” It cracks me up, maybe because I would have picked out the same sign when I was 13. Much later, when I’m preparing to leave, I see two young people writing “Eat the Rich” in big, pastel chalk letters on Broadway. There’s a lot of creativity here and that’s good because, ideally, it helps get the message out of the park to the masses and to the people in the government who do have the power to effect change.
It’s these two things, the performance aspect and the party atmosphere, that seem to be working out for No Kings, with each successive protest bringing in more people. It’s a good way of meeting people where they are and bringing them in further.
That’s the sort of energy I feel while dancing along to Los Jornaleros del Norte’s set. They play the bangers, but they also play protest songs, like an English version of “La Cumbia de la Migra” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.” They play like DJs— we’ll give you what you want to hear, but, also, here’s what you need to hear— and it’s fantastic. When they jam and chant, “no hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here,” the crowd is pumped.
Long term, who really knows how No Kings will work out, but I’m hopeful that these events are connecting people to more local organizers, which seems to be the bigger point. I know I came out of the event with more information than I had going into it and, maybe, others did too.
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Follow on Instagram or sign up for the weekly, Beatique newsletter for updates on new stories and gigs.
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