Posted on 07 November 2011.
Altagracia Guzman Vargas is 81 years old, and on Monday she took part in an 11-mile march in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement. “ I am going to walk,” said Vargas, her small eyes sparkling behind circular glasses. “I am going to try my best for the future of the United States.” She brandished a pink and green “Health not Profit$ — Salud no Riqueza$” sign that she drew herself.
Vargas was one of the many Washington Heights residents who gathered this morning on 181st Street and St. Nicholas Avenue, the start of the march, billed as “End to End for 99%,” and ending at Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, the base of the Occupy Wall Street protests. If enthusiasm was present from the very start — with people playing drums and blowing whistles — it made up for the size of the crowd, at most 60 people. Indeed, before the march began, journalists probably outnumbered protesters, a reminder that the Occupy Wall Street movement has also become a huge media attraction.
But Dimitri Bakhroushin, one Washington Heights resident, was confident that the protest was “going to be like a snowball. We are going downhill and we are gonna grow and grow.”
The front line of the march with State Sen. Adriano Espaillat (far right holding banner), Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez (left of Espaillat) and 81-year old Altagracia Guzman Vargas. Photo by Céleste Owen-Jones/Northattan.
By the time the march reached 125th and Broadway, around 300 people were chanting “We are the 99 percent” in a joyful party-like atmosphere.
Monday’s protest was the first organized demonstration from Northattan since the Occupy Wall Street movement started two months ago. State Sen. Adriano Espaillat, who walked the whole 11 miles with the crowd, said the mission was “to give this movement a new face.” Later, he said that “this is not just a Wall Street thing, this is a Washington Heights thing, this is a Harlem thing, this is an East Harlem thing. This is about communities that have been left behind for decades.”
Occupy Wall Street protesters have often been criticized for a lack of diversity, a perception that northern Manhattan residents were trying to change. The crowd, in sex, in skin color and in age, was very different than the occupiers of Zuccotti Park, who tend to be white and under 30 years old.
“There is not enough representation of blacks, Latinos and Asians in this movement and we need to show our support,” said Councilman Robert Jackson, who joined the march in Times Square. Marisol Alcantara, the West Harlem Democratic leader, said: “We are all part of the 99 percent, especially communities of color, immigrants, and what is happening in West Harlem is happening to the rest of the city.”
Other politicians, from Northattan and beyond, joined the march, too, including State Sen. Gustavo Rivera of the Bronx, Councilmen Ydanis Rodriguez and Robert Jackson from Northattan. They repeatedly asked for the restoration of “the millionaires’ tax” and for social and economical justice: “We bailed out Wall Street, we bailed out the banks,” declared Espaillat when still on 181st Street, “but these stores right here, they are shut down, haven’t been bailed out.”
With the sun shining and the temperatures unseasonably high, the march quickly turned into what looked like a celebration: As the crowd passed Columbia University and later Times Square, people danced in circles, played musical instruments and chanted slogans, to the delight of tourists and passers-by who took pictures from their phones and cameras.
Washington Heights resident at the meeting point on 181st and St Nicholas Avenue. Photo by Céleste Owen-Jones/Northattan.
While police were ever-present, they seemed relaxed and confident that the protest would remain under control. “We are working closely with the police to make sure that traffic doesn’t disrupt the march,” explained David Segal, one of the march’s organizers. For most of the time, protesters remained on the sidewalk and even respectfully stopped and got silent when an elderly woman was taken away in an ambulance, blocking the street they were about to cross.
Many protesters had taken a day off work in order to take part in the march. Lourdes Ernandez Coltera, a teacher in Washington Heights, was one of them: “Today I’m taking a day off, or I should say a community day off to be with my neighbors.” Coltera said she was particularly worried by the price of health care, which many couldn’t afford. “Inequality makes us sick,” read the colorful sign she was holding proudly. Three hours later, Coltera was still marching with energy and a smile, showing no sign of giving up.
As the protesters approached Zuccotti Park, their enthusiasm grew as drums rolled a welcome. It was 4:30 p.m. and getting dark when the protesters finally reached their destination, six hours after they left Washington Heights.
“We walked 11 miles,” Guillermo Linares, a New York State Assemblyman, told the crowd. “We walked as immigrants, as working class, as New Yorkers, and we are going to keep supporting the takeover of Wall Street,” he added.
If the crowd had decreased somewhat, with no more than 200 people entering the geographical heart of the movement, they still believed they had opened a new chapter of Occupy Wall Street, in which people from Northern Manhattan are to play a bigger role.
Additional reporting was provided by Frederick Bernas, Tomos Lewis, Dalal Mawad, Isha Soni and Benjamin Teitlebaum.
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