^aCalifornia State University, Los Angeles, CA

Abstract

On 25 March 2006, between 500 000 and 1 million protesters took to the streets of Los Angeles to protest anti-immigrant legislation. The march was the largest in Los Angeles history, and astounded organizers, participants and pundits alike. Spanish-language mass and news media played an important role in mobilizing support and shaping the tactics of protest used during the march. This critical reading of the media coverage highlights the ways in which the Spanish-language media reporting served to promote an extremely limited model of citizenship and political agency particularly suited to neoliberal, post-9/11 tactics of governance and control. This paper also examines how these discourses are taken up by pro-immigrant protesters themselves, who internalize these discourses of citizenship and legitimacy.