Holiday, boycott combine to slow business in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — A national holiday Monday emptied many of the capital's normally crowded streets, making it difficult to tally a proposed boycott of U.S. products and businesses. But traditional May Day rallies gave many Mexicans a chance to voice support for their brethren north of the border.

"We gave our blood to build capitalism in North America," said Fernando Vazquez Herrera, a former bracero, one of the millions of Mexicans recruited to the United States for farm work from the 1940s to the mid-1960s. "Over three decades we suffered and were exploited and mistreated."

He spoke to several hundred people gathered Monday in front of the U.S. Embassy to support the "Nothing Gringo" boycott. Thousands marched to the downtown square for the city's annual labor rally, with many toting placards supporting legal recognition for millions of Mexican immigrants in the United States.

Proposals in December by the U.S. House of Representatives to build 700 miles of new border fencing and make illegal immigration a felony triggered weeks of headlines here and reopened old wounds over the treatment of Mexicans abroad — by both employers and the U.S. government.

An e-mail campaign last month that spread to TV, newspapers and word of mouth urged Mexicans to keep away Monday from the Burger King, McDonald's, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Domino's and Dunkin' Donut franchises that have sprung up throughout the country.

"It is the least that we [can do] for our co-citizens who are working in the USA and who are practically supporting our country with their work and the money they send home," said one version of the e-mail titled "Mexicans of the World, UNITE!"

In Tijuana, about 400 protesters blocked the busy border crossing to San Diego for about four hours so others wouldn't go to the United States to shop. Other border crossings reportedly were interrupted as well.

Mexicans working abroad sent home $20 billion last year, income second only to the country's oil revenue.

With schools, banks, government offices and many shops closed for the May Day holiday, it was impossible to know whether business was slow through circumstance or design.

Eight delivery motorcycles were idle and four pizza workers had little to do during the usual lunchtime rush at the Domino's, a few blocks north of Chapultepec Park. Despite a two-for-one offer, the cashier said, business was dead.

At the Wal-Mart in San Pedro de los Pinos on the south side — one of 31 Wal-Mart stores in the city — cashier Carolina Ugalde stood in the near-empty aisles waiting for customers.

Sunday, she said, it had been packed: "It looked like Christmas Eve," she said. Shoppers told her they didn't want to shop Monday, to honor the boycott.

Schoolteacher Marco Antonio Rodriguez said he needed to shop there Monday because it was the only day he had free to buy food for the week. "But look," he said pointing to a cart of tortillas, bread and juice, "I'm only buying Mexican products, not even Coca-Cola."

Mexican President Vicente Fox, a former Coke executive, has toned down his criticism of the U.S. Congress after first calling the proposed border wall shameful. He hired Rob Allyn, a Texas public-relations specialist with close ties to President Bush, and decided his administration would neither oppose nor support the May 1 boycott.

Fox's remarks Sunday showed his effort to lend support to Mexicans abroad without antagonizing Washington.

"To those who'll express themselves," he said, "do it prudently ... so that it doesn't turn into a provocation that could promote more xenophobia or opposition."

For the protesters, the campaigns on both sides of the border are part of one movement to improve conditions for workers. They argued that solving labor problems at home would keep many people from sneaking into the United States.

"This is a condemnation of both governments," said Jose Arturo Ruiz, 48, a teachers-union adviser. "The government of Mexico, for not creating conditions so our countrymen can stay here with dignified jobs, and the U.S., for these anti-immigrant laws that turn people into criminals."

Carlos Martinez and Cecilia Sanchez of the Times' Mexico City bureau contributed to this report. Additional reports from the Chicago Tribune.