Man at center of big protests a familiar face

Nearly 30 years ago, before San Luis, Ariz., was a town, Elias Bermudez drove around its dirt streets hollering into a bullhorn that was strapped to the roof of his Chevy.

He was trying to rally support to have the town incorporated, he said.

Ever since, the name of the ex-convict and former San Luis mayor has become synonymous with protest and activism. The voice of a popular Phoenix radio show program, he has developed a reputation as a leading voice in a series of pro-immigration protests in Phoenix that are growing progressively more massive.

Bermudez prides himself on being one of the "pioneers" who participated in San Luis' incorporation and a founder of the nonprofit housing corporation Comite de Bien Estar.

One of the first to serve as mayor of San Luis, he is the only mayor to do hard time. He served 18 months in a federal prison after pleading guilty in 1996 to laundering drug profits. Prior to that, he served six months for a bribery charge.

Since he was set free, Bermudez, hasn't stopped chanting "s se puede," Spanish for "yes, it can be done."

"I've just been the provocateur of the peoples' rights," said Bermudez, a citizen of both Mexico and the United States who first experienced the fervor of protest during his youth in the 1968 East Los Angeles riots

Yuma County Supervisor Tony Reyes, a one-time political ally, then rival, applauded Bermudez's efforts, with some reservations.

"Anybody that walks in front of a lot of people deserves credit for having the guts to do it," Reyes said, adding that Bermudez has a tendency to exaggerate his role in the development of things, such as the founding of San Luis.

Nearly a year ago, Bermudez launched his 90-minute radio program in Phoenix, "Vamos a Platicar," or "Let's Talk."

Seizing support he found on the airwaves, Bermudez helped organize Inmigrantes Sin Fronteras, or Immigrants without Borders, a group that has helped set up protests and shape the immigration debate in Arizona.

About the same time his radio program kicked off, his group launched its first boycott protest. Since, he has been instrumental in coordinating a series of protests and boycotts in the state's capital, including the one this week that flooded Phoenix streets with 100,000 demonstrators.

"I've been calling on radio stations and telling people we'll paint the streets brown from the mayor's office to the capital and we did that," he said.

Bermudez said protesters took to the streets to protest both existing immigration policy and the revision approved by the House of Representatives that he said "adds insult to injury."

He called current immigration policy "fatal," comparing the total number of illegal immigrants who have died trying to cross the border in recent years to the total number of U.S. soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The immigration problem, he said, is a racial issue, "but not in the sense of racism ... It's about culture," he said.

He said that though he discouraged protesters from wielding Mexican flags at this week's demonstration, he said the flag is a symbol of identity for many Mexican-Americans.

He said many Mexican-Americans are "caught between a rock and a hard place," because they are shunned in Mexico as traitors for leaving, and shunned in the U.S. as invaders.

"A lot of my Anglo-American friends see this as an invasion. I need to invite them to walk in our shoes," he said.

Born near Agua Prieta, Son., Bermudez came to the United States with a border crossing card, and lived in Los Angeles illegally for some years before marrying a U.S. citizen.

Bermudez is also the owner of Centro de Ayuda, a company with offices in Phoenix, Tucson and Casa Grande that processes immigration applications.

He admits that the position he supports - to expedite the immigration process, and for more Mexicans to be permitted work in the U.S. - would benefit his company.

But he insists that there is a dire need for immigration reform.

"There is no working legal mechanism to bring people in this country," he said.

He invited people from Yuma to get involved. On the first of May, pro-immigration protesters around the nation and in Mexico, will not go to school, not go to work, and not buy anything, he said.

He said the message of the protest will be the same as it has been.

"You have to recognize us and understand that we're here to provide a service, all you have to do is provide us a document," he said.