In the fall of 1993, conservative political operatives began circulating plans for an anti-immigrant California ballot proposition, what would become Proposition 187. Advocates of immigrant- and worker-rights raised alarms immediately, and mounted a vigorous opposition campaign. Voters approved Prop. 187 in 1994, but it was struck down by a federal judge. The fight against the anti-immigrant law helped propel a new progressive political coalition in California. This short film documents a vigil, march, and mass held in October 1993 in the name of Father Luis Olivares, the first to declare sanctuary for Central American refugees. It features the actor Martin Sheen and Maria Elena Durazo, president of HERE Local 11.
García, Mario T. Father Luis Olivares, a Biography: Faith Politics and the Origins of the Sanctuary Movement in Los Angeles. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2018. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469643335_garcia.
