Lansing resident Maria Enriquez held a sign Friday night encouraging Latinos to vote in next week’s highly touted general election.
While she walked down Grand River Avenue, Enriquez said people are often unaware of the issues that affect Chicanos and Latinos.
“We know who we are, but sometimes the rest of the world doesn’t,” she said.
But the line of cars traveling slowly behind her as she walked though the street - some honking their horns - seemed to suggest that several people were taking notice.
Enriquez was one of nearly 150 people who participated in a march against poverty organized by Movimiento Estudiantil Xicano de Aztlan, MSU’s Xicano student group.
The march was part of the organization’s celebration of Dia de los Muertos, a traditional Mexican religious holiday celebrating the lives of deceased family and friends.
People marched through streets holding crosses etched with the names of lost loved ones.
This was the sixth year MEXA has organized the march. In its beginning years, the march focused on the plight of migrant farm workers. It has since become a protest against poverty, which Thomas Soria, who co-chairs MEXA, said is inclusive of all races and cultures.
“Poverty may not affect you directly,” Soria said. “But it affects your community, which affects us all.”
March participants began to chant, “The people united will never be divided,” as they moved from the rock on Farm Lane to West Circle Drive.
The large group moved past the on-campus presidential residence Cowles House and through the Beal Entrance to Grand River Avenue, where they continued in the right lane until reaching the Lansing Center, 333 E. Michigan Ave. in Lansing.
Rodney Patterson, MSU director of Minority Student Affairs, joined the procession near Cowles House and participated in several of the chants. He said he appreciated the presence that heritage held in the march.
“This is a rich tradition, steeped in the remembrance of ancestry,” Patterson said of Dia de los Muertos. “It brings to the forefront of our minds and hearts the memories of loved ones, which is something anyone can relate to.
“But the cultural expression of it provides a deeper and richer meaning.”
He also said that Friday’s event was crucial in preserving culture and tradition.
“I think that any expression of culture, especially from oppressed communities, is positive,” Patterson said.
Several chants resounded from the crowd during the four-mile trek from campus to Lansing. “Xicano power,” “Viva la raza” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, racist poverty’s got to go” were shouted with pride throughout the mild-weather evening.
“Migra, policia, la misma porquer
