By Allison Moore, Storm Lake Times Pilot
Candlelight protest at Radio Park draws 60
“We will not be silenced by your tyranny” – speaker Hugo Perez Loa
Storm Lake, IA – Protesters who rallied against the Trump Administration at Radio Park last Thursday struggled to name only one reason for their public outcry.
“It’s hard to pick just one thing,” Samantha Wadle of the Newell-Fonda area said of why she joined around 60 other local residents in protesting the 47th president.
Wadle and her daughter Rayna Wadle waved cardboard signs with neon red sashes over the president’s name. They travelled to Storm Lake to participate in the nationwide May Day rally against the Trump Administration targeting groups ranging from immigrants to university researchers.
“Kids are getting swept off the street,” Rayna Wadle said, pointing to her placard that also read “No kids in cages – Abolish ICE Now!”
Just over 100 days into his second term, President Donald Trump has incited mass protests across the world. Storm Lake protesters expressed a range of concerns with recent administrative actions, including deporting U.S. citizens without due process, firing thousands of federal workers and slashing millions of dollars in funding for disease research.
Ashley Wolf Tornabane of Alta spearheaded the candlelight protest at Radio Park with Di Daniels and Jim Eliason of Storm Lake. In opening remarks, Wolf Tornabane underscored what she believes is the necessity of supporting Storm Lake’s immigrant community and continuing to fight against “tyranny and oppression.”
“We are here to protest everything the Trump Administration is doing to hurt our people, our families,” Wolf Tornabane declared amid a circle of demonstrators around 9 p.m. May 1. “Keep finding ways to look out for your immigrant neighbors, because things have been bleak every day.”
Wolf Tornabane ended her address by reading the famous “New Colossus” inscription on the Statue of Liberty penned by American poet Emma Lazarus. She teared up while reciting the end of the sonnet.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”
An address to “Señor Trump”
Hugo Perez Loa, a Mexican immigrant and Storm Lake Walgreens clerk, delivered an address to “Señor Trump” imploring the administration to recognize immigrants as essential to the country.
Perez Loa noted the risk in speaking out against Trump as an immigrant. While he fears for his safety amidst daily news of unlawful deportations, Perez Loa maintained the only way to trounce the administration’s efforts is by “making your voice heard.”
“Doing this is a risky thing, because I can easily become a target by this current regime,” he said. “But then I’m reminded that the biggest civil rights voices also took risks, and their voices are forever heard to this day.”
Many of the protest signs at the event displayed messages like “No human is illegal,” championing equality regardless of citizenship status. Alondra Melendez, a social worker in Storm Lake, waved a Mexican flag as cars passed by on Flindt Drive.
Perez Loa subverted the phrase “We the People” from the Constitution, instead listing off over two dozen ways that “We the Immigrants” support the country.
“We the immigrants of the United States are the ones who handle your vegetables while receiving small wages that should be considered inhumane,” he began. “We the immigrants of the United States are the ones who pack your meats while working around dangerous machinery … the ones who clean your houses, install your windmills, fix your roofs, build your homes.”
Perez Loa ended his time at the microphone by insisting immigrants won’t acquiesce to Trump’s rule.
“We will not be silenced by your tyranny,” he said. “If tomorrow we immigrants decide that enough is enough, and refuse not to participate in this capitalist, autocratic system, who is going to keep running the system?”
Protesters aim to “keep showing up”
Other speakers lamented other Trump era policies including defunding rare disease research and efforts to ban “gender ideology.”
“If you visit our Storm Lake Public Library, I am that big, scary transgender person that’s teaching your child to be kind to their neighbors, respectful of others, and just teaching them to be happy and children,” said Alex Stansberry, a children’s program coordinator.
Faith Balo, a Storm Lake resident and optician, said she came to protest on behalf of her youngest son, who has the lifelong incurable disease neurofibromatosis. Balo expressed grave concern over the recent elimination of funding through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program, which last year provided $25 million for neurofibromatosis research.
“I thought our government was supposed to care about its people, but we’re taking away medical research from my son, from the people in our community who have cancer and other illnesses that we need to know about.”
Menendez joined two other social care workers, Liliana Hernandez and Stephanie Alanis, in waving their signs at nearby traffic. Hernandez said they were “standing up for our clients and their rights” amidst federal threats of hacking Medicaid.
Ages represented at the protest ranged from three years old to 80. Storm Lake resident Lil Kruchten boasted a handmade sign stating “my granddaughters will know that I did not stay silent.”
To cap off the night, Wolf Tornabane led participants in singing “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie as they lined up single file along Flindt Drive. Protesters lit candles one by one and held a moment of silence before departing the park.
“Tyranny, oppression and power gains through greed always end, but only through hard work,” Wolf Tornabane said. “We have to keep showing up.”
She’s planning to help lead another protest in June.
