Consecutive demonstrations, distinct in tone but nearly identical in message, drew protesters young and old to downtown Bakersfield Tuesday for a show of resistance against the Trump administration’s immigration raids and foreign policy.
The first protest began at 9:43 a.m. with the arrival of half a dozen students from Ridgeview High who, though offered snacks and water, went straight to demonstrating along Truxtun Avenue in front of the Liberty Bell.
Lower- and upperclassmen from Bakersfield, Golden Valley, Liberty, Ridgeview and other local high schools joined the demonstration, many using a common expletive to denounce recent actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. By 10:30 a.m., at least 36 students lined Truxtun in protest.
Some boys took off their shirts despite the chill to demonstrate their commitment as drivers-by honked their support, every time eliciting cheers from protesters.
“I hate seeing my people being taken out of here,” said one of the first to arrive, Ridgeview senior Jesus Delgado. He added that he has labored hard in local fields tending to table grapes and there he saw “only my people and no one else.”
Supported by a small group of young adults in masks or Palestinian scarves who tried to keep a low profile, the students chanted and toted a variety of signs condemning ICE and President Donald Trump. Among their slogans was, “Say it once / Say it twice / We will not put up with ICE.”
Alex Rodriguez, a 10th-grader from Golden Valley, said it was his first time at a demonstration. He was there with his mother, Maria Rodriguez, who acknowledged her son was missing class, “but, hey, for a good cause it’s good. Why not, you know?”
Liberty senior Christopher Hart said he has been appalled watching violent deportations on television. He recalled being upset seeing a young girl sent to Honduras, where she reportedly had no family.
Hart, having never before demonstrated, said, “I plan to do more in the future.”
The afternoon crowd was more experienced and less irreverent, but the upshot was the same as demonstrators hoisted U.S. flags and protest signs ahead of a series of speeches next to the Liberty Bell.
By 3:32 p.m., at least 147 protesters stood along Truxtun, only a few remaining from the morning event. Among the generally older crowd was 48-year-old Bakersfield educator Heather Silvis, who said she showed up to stand up for people who have been marginalized.
“We have forgotten to be kind to each other,” she said. “We have to remember this country has been built on the backs of immigrants.”
Timed nearer to afternoon commutes, the event featured more honking and less chanting. It also balanced seriousness with whimsy in the form of costumed demonstrators in outfits such as a bald eagle and a green duck.
All the while, a drone hovered high above Truxtun and Kern County Sheriff’s deputies kept an eye on the protest from inside the lobby of Kern County Superior Court.
Bakersfield resident Kristie Coons, who protested alongside her husband, Bob, had repurposed a protest sign updated from earlier demonstrations. It had originally urged passers-by only to “Stand with Ukraine,” but on Tuesday the sign included the names Palestine, Greenland and Minnesota.
“I had to add all these countries … somebody needs to speak up for,” she said.
Northeast Bakersfield resident Dave Harmon waved a large U.S. flag calling for, he said, voting out the Trump administration.
Not far away, local resident Cammie Laird waved a much smaller U.S. flag. She had been unable to decide which sign to bring and decided “this was a significant symbol,” she said.
“There’s a lot going on and we can peacefully let people know (it’s) not right,” Laird said. “Silence is as good as condoning.”
Many within the group gathered in front of the Liberty Bell for a series of speeches that began at 4 p.m., even as some demonstrators continued to protest along Truxtun.
Emcee Audrey Chavez noted that when protesters joined the afternoon walkout and arrived downtown, they came upon students who had arrived hours before.
“They recognized that these are not normal times and they wanted their voices heard,” she said.
Former Assemblywoman Nicole Parra thanked the event’s organizers and the protesters before condemning violence against Americans by people at the highest level of government. She then took her audience through decades of historical events, calling attention to discrimination and anti-immigrant federal actions.
“We are America,” she said. “We represent what is great about being an American.”
She ceded the microphone to her father, former Kern County Supervisor Pete Parra, who delivered greetings in Spanish before calling attention to what he called “difficult times.”
“The people will prevail,” he said before specifically condemning family separations. “This is not right. We will prevail.”