Margarita Alvarez stands inside her French Pastry Café in the Aspen Airport Business Center on Feb. 6. Alvarez, who also owns the Local Kitchen & Coffee Shop in Glenwood Springs, joined many other other business owners in the valley who closed their doors on Feb. 3 in solidarity with the nationwide protest, “Un Día Sin Inmigrantes,” or “A Day Without Immigrants.”
Many immigrant-run businesses were closed and a noticeable number of students and staff at schools stayed home in the Roaring Fork and Colorado River valleys on Monday as part of the nationwide protest “Un Día Sin Inmigrantes,” or “A Day Without Immigrants.”
The grassroots boycott aimed to call attention to the important social and economic role immigrants play in communities amidst President Trump’s immigration crackdowns and increasing ICE raids.
“Todos venimos de y de nuestros países salimos en busca de de un una vida mejor,” said Geovanny Marin, co-owner of La Placita taquerías in Carbondale and Silt. “Somos esenciales en este valle porque sin nosotros, ¿dónde va a estar la gente para trabajar para construir una casa o un hotel en Aspen?”
(“We all come from and leave our countries in search of a better life,” said Geovanny Marin, co-owner of La Placita taquerías in Carbondale and Silt. “We are essential in this valley because without us, where are the people to work and build a house or a hotel in Aspen?”)
Social media posts promoting Monday’s strike encouraged immigrants not to go to work, shop or attend school — and people took to the streets in protest in some major cities across the country.
Similar nationwide protests took place in 2017 during Trump’s first presidency, and the origins of the “Un Día Sin Inmigrantes” boycott go back to 2006, when protests took place throughout the U.S. in response to proposed federal legislation that would have enabled mass deportation while allowing local police to enforce civil immigration laws. The bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives, died in the Senate, while a competing measure that would have created a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants passed the Senate but never made it to President George W. Bush’s desk.
Making a statement
The French Pastry Café in Aspen, La Placita in Carbondale and Silt, and The Local Kitchen and Coffee Shop in Glenwood Springs are just a few of the immigrant-owned restaurants, shops and businesses that were closed in the valley on Monday.
Marin and his business partner Juan Carlos Hernández made the decision to close both La Placita locations in solidarity with their immigrant and Latino customers.
“La mayoría de mis customers son Latinos, son Hispanos, y pienso que sin ellos La Placita no existiría,” Marin said. “Yo apoyo a los inmigrantes porque yo también soy un inmigrante. Yo llegué aquí sin nada y este país, este gran país me ha dado mucho a mí.”
(“Most of my customers are Latino, they are Hispanic, and I think that without them La Placita would not exist,” Marin said. “I support immigrants because I am an immigrant too; I arrived here with nothing and this great country has given me a lot.”)
Marin, who grew up in Mexico and first moved to the valley in 2007, started out working jobs in snow removal, dish washing and construction.
“Tenía el amigo que trabajaba conmigo en la mañana en la construcción pasaba por mí casa y pues sentía gran apoyo por eso porque pues no me sentía como muy seguro de andar en los buses por lo mismo de migración,” Marin said.
(“I had a friend who worked with me in construction in the morning who would pick me up at home and I felt very supported because I didn’t feel very safe taking the bus due to the same immigration situation,” Marin said.)
He eventually got his legal residency in the U.S. and started La Placita.
“Mi socio y yo hemos trabajado duro para poder darle a la gente lo que necesita prácticamente para que no olviden lo que dejaron en México, en El Salvador, o sea todo Centro América,” Marin said. “Nosotros tenemos muchos productos centroamericanos, tenemos muchos productos mexicanos que la gente busca para sentirse como en su país.”
(“My partner and I have worked hard to be able to give people what they need so that they don’t forget what they left behind in Mexico, in El Salvador, in all of Central America,” Marin said. “We have many Central American products and Mexican products that people seek to feel at home.”)
Students head toward the entrance of Roaring Fork High School in Carbondale. The Roaring Fork and Garfield Re-2 school districts were not able to share how many students and staff were absent in observance of “A Day Without Immigrants” on Feb. 3, but several teachers in those districts reported noticeable absences of students in their classes.
While Marin said he is not against President Trump arresting people who commit crimes like stealing that hurt other citizens, he hopes the national boycott helps communities understand the positive impact immigrants and Latino people have in the valley.
“Los que llevan a cabo el trabajo duro, el trabajo pesado, son la gente latina, somos la mayoría que no nos importa trabajar si hace frío, si hace calor, o si está lejos o está cerca,” Marin said. “La cosa es que venimos por salir adelante y ver a nuestras familias felices y darles una mejor vida que tal vez en nuestro país no lo podemos hacer y que venimos a Estados Unidos a aportar a dar un granito de arena para que la economía esté bien.”
(“Those who do the hard work, the heavy work, we are Latinos, we are the majority who do not mind working if it’s cold, if it’s hot, or if it’s far or near,” Marin said. “What matters is that we come to get ahead and to see our families happy and give them a better life than maybe in our country and that we come to the United States to contribute and do our bit so that the economy is good.”)
Margarita Alvarez, who runs the French Pastry Café at the Aspen Airport Business Center and Local Kitchen & Coffee Shop in Glenwood Springs, also decided to close both her establishments on Monday.
“We don’t want to fight, we don’t want to make a mess, we don’t want to do anything bad,” Alvarez said. “We just want to support good people, like my employees, like people who come here to work hard and don’t do nothing wrong.”
Geovanny Marin and his son stand at the entrance to La Placita taquería in Silt on Feb. 6. Marin and his co-owner closed both their taquería locations on Feb. 3 for “Un Día Sin Inmigrantes” to draw attention to the social and economic role immigrants play in the valley amidst federal immigration crackdowns.
Alvarez, who moved to the valley from Mexico in 2008, remembered going to work on “Un Día Sin Inmigrantes” back in 2017 when she was still an employee at the French bakery she now owns.
“I was quiet because I don’t know what to do and I never told my boss that I don’t want to come,” Alvarez said. “So that day I arrived at my job, like every day, and when he saw me, he said, ‘What are you doing here?’ It made me feel happy because he had my back and I’m like, OK, if this ever happens again, I want to do something.’”
After a decade of working and living in the valley, Alvarez secured her U.S. residency and took over ownership of the French Pastry Café in 2018. A few years later, she opened a second café in Glenwood Springs.
When Alvarez heard there was going to be another nationwide protest in support of immigrants this month, she decided to put signs up explaining the temporary closure and give her staff the day off.
“I closed both my restaurants, mostly because of my employees, because of their families,” Alvarez said. “They have a good status here, but they’re scared, even me too.”
Alvarez said even people who have legal residency are worried about losing their status because of the severity of the push to crackdown on immigration as well as the spread of rumors and misinformation.
“I had to travel to Mexico recently and my 10-year-old son was scared for me because he knows his mom and dad, they’re Mexican,” Alvarez said. “He doesn’t know that I can travel and I don’t have problems, but we never know what can happen.”
Despite some pushback from customers for observing the boycott on Monday, Alvarez is proud to stand up in support of immigrants in the valley.
“Some of my customers ask, ‘Why did you close? We saw your sign, but so what?’ And other people were like, ‘That’s so good, I’m happy to see your sign there,’” Alvarez said. “We cannot make everybody happy, but we just tried to do something for the good people.”
An employee at the Local Kitchen & Coffee Shop in Glenwood Springs holds up a closed sign for “A Day Without Immigrants” on Feb. 3. Owner Margarita Alvarez, who came to the valley from Mexico in 2008, got a mix of support and pushback from customers for her decision to observe the nationwide boycott amidst immigration crackdowns under the new Trump administration.
Students stay home
The Roaring Fork and Garfield Re-2 school districts were not able to share how many students and staff were absent on Monday, but several teachers in those districts reported noticeable absences of students in their classes.
In a statement provided via email, Roaring Fork School District Superintendent Anna Cole confirmed the district was aware of some absences Monday, and remains committed to ensuring its schools are safe and inclusive environments for students, including through its safehaven and non-discrimination policies.
“We are aware of student and staff participation in the ‘Day Without an Immigrant’ movement and are following existing procedures for staff and student absences,” Cole said in the statement. “More than 59% of our students are students of color, more than 40% of students come from Spanish-speaking homes and many of our students and staff have either lived experience or generational experience of immigration.”
Local parent Maria Chavez — who heard about Monday’s boycott on social media and from local radio host Samuel Bernal on the Spanish-language station La Tricolor — decided to keep her daughters home from Highland Elementary School in Rifle.
“I wanted to join the boycott, you know, obviously being an immigrant and a daughter of immigrants,” Chavez said. “I think it is something important for us to do … and hopefully we could show that there’s a difference and impact without a bunch of immigrants going to school, working or consuming this day.”
Chavez, who came to the U.S. from Mexico with her parents when she was a young girl, said it’s been a scary time for immigrant parents and others in the community who are worried about an increase in deportations and ICE raids.
“I’ve been here pretty much my whole life, and so we’re not used to living anywhere else but here in the U.S.,” Chavez said. “If something were to happen that we had to go back, it would have a huge impact on us.”
House District 57 Rep. Elizabeth Velasco of Glenwood Springs, who moved to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 15, joined protestors at the 50 States Protest outside the State Capitol building in Denver on Feb. 5. The nationwide rally against the new Trump administration’s policies came two days after a national strike in support of immigrants, “Un Día Sin Inmigrantes.” Velasco is working on new legislation to further protections for immigrants in Colorado.
On President Trump’s first day in office, he signed a slew of immigration-related executive orders, including a move to end birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment, for the children of immigrants without legal status. As of Thursday, two federal judges had already blocked the executive order, ruling that it lacked constitutional basis.
While Chavez said she and others had some of the same fears and worries during Trump’s last term in office, his second presidency feels different.
“This time feels scarier for more people because back then people were still going out like regular, but this first month it’s been slower everywhere, you know, at a lot of Mexican restaurants and stuff like that, and I believe it’s because of all this going on,” Chavez said. “And like other parents, we are worried that they’re going to be able to go into schools and stuff, and a bunch of parents can’t go and pick up their kids because of that.”
Chavez said she’s glad the Garfield Re-2 School District has been sharing information in Spanish and English about federal laws that protect students’ right to education and information privacy along with the district’s procedures for who can enter school buildings and how it protects students’ personal information.
“They actually sent out a message with some of their guidelines like letting parents know that they won’t let any agents go in and ask for information about a student unless they have an order signed by a judge,” Chavez said.
Spokespeople for Aspen School District and Colorado Mountain College said they did not see a noticeable drop in student attendance on Monday.
Strengthening protections
For State Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, D-Glenwood Springs, who moved to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 15, protests like Monday’s are an important way for local residents to call attention to the role immigrants play in communities across Colorado and the U.S.
“This is part of grassroots movements of people wanting to elevate their voice and share that, ‘We are here and we matter, and our spending power, our labor, our children, are part of the community, part of the economy,’” Velasco said. “You see that maybe your favorite restaurant is closed, or that kids didn’t show up at school, and it sends the message that there will be an impact if we are not here.”
In addition to strengthening current Colorado laws that protect immigrants, Velasco and other state lawmakers plan to introduce new legislation in the coming weeks that they hope will further protect people as immigration-related executive orders are handed down by the president.
“We are getting very close to sharing some of those new protections for community members,” Velasco said. “We want to strengthen existing protections and also respond to some of the executive actions coming from the federal government that could impact things like safe spaces, data privacy and kids being able to go to school.”
Velasco was busy working on new legislation Monday, but she participated in another nationwide protest against the Trump administration’s policies on Wednesday outside the state capitol in Denver.
“We are seeing attacks on our liberties, attacks on human rights, on our migrant communities, and that affects everyone you know, it doesn’t just affect one group of people,” Velasco said.
