A guy I wanted to be with during Donald Trump’s inauguration was getting ready to play some cumbias when I met him outside the Pasadena Community Employment Center.
Pablo Alvarado is co-executive director of the National Daily Labor Organization Network (NDLON). The 58-year-old Salvadoran is a legend in the local immigrant rights movement, having organized a football league in Los Angeles factories back in the 1990s so that Latin American workers from different countries could abandon jingoistic rivalries and work together on a common ground. unite under the goal.
A former day laborer himself, he has helped put NDLON at the forefront of nearly every battle on behalf of undocumented people in California and beyond, from sanctuary cities and state laws to kicking immigration agents out of local jails. If anyone has advice on how to confront Trump and his promised crackdown on illegal immigration, it’s Alvarado — even now, after the devastation wrought by the Eaton fire.
He had to evacuate his Pasadena home with his family when the smoke and ash became unbearable. The next day, he organized Jonaleros — Day laborer — Volunteer to clear fire debris from lawns, streets and driveways. Video of their energetic, joyful efforts soon went viral, attracting international media coverage and a powerful rebuttal to Trump’s xenophobic insults.
A promised face-to-face interview was repeatedly postponed until friends said the best way to talk to Alvarado was to see him in action. So I joined him on Inauguration Day, along with workers, volunteers and others.
First, he wants everyone to dance to Los Jornaleros del Norte, NDLON’s house band. For 30 years, they have been a fixture at immigrant rights rallies in Southern California, reminding people to enjoy the good in life and not drown in the bad.
Wearing jeans, work boots, flannels, a black hat and a T-shirt that read “Solo el Pueblo Salva al Pueblo” (Only the people can save the people), Alvarado played some steady bass lines . Singers belted out satirical tunes of resistance and exploitation. The accordionist got the crowd of about 150 dancing, clapping and making bird calls in approval.
“Of course he plays bass,” Hector Flores said. Flores is a member of the East Side band Las Cafeteras, where he volunteers — first, helping a friend visiting from Fresno install luxury portable toilets.
“The bass sets the foundation—it’s the anchor that allows everyone else to shine,” Flores explains. “That’s Pablo, and I want to be with someone like that.”
Los Jornaleros del Norte concluded their brief but lively set, and then the bassist spoke.
Pablo Alvarado, center, co-executive director of the National Day Labor Organizing Network, plays bass before organizing Supply Chain for Eaton Fire victims at the Pasadena Community Employment Center on Inauguration Day.
(Karin Steele/The Times)
At 9 a.m., as Trump was sworn in for a second time and promised to soon deploy troops to the border to “repulse a catastrophic invasion of our country,” Alvarado asked workers to stand behind him — literally Yes, metaphorically.
“Come with your tools and without fear,” he requested in Spanish. His voice was calm and steady. About thirty people came forward. “Let’s raise those calloused hands!”
He switched to English. “Let us hold them up with pride because these are the people who will rebuild Los Angeles”
Alvarado warned of tough times ahead, a double whammy caused by the new president’s hostility to poor immigrants from Latin America and the daunting task of rebuilding after the Eaton and Palisade fires .
“Today, this is your inauguration,” Alvarado said to cheers, finally smiling. “The temps are the presidents of this country. ¡Que viva el pueblo immigrante!
People then divided into cleanup teams or began organizing supply chains. Well-wishers flocked to greet Alvarado, including Pasadena resident Florence Annan,
“Pablo was like a Tasmanian devil, but causing trouble everywhere,” said Annan, a member of the Pasadena Police Oversight Commission. In 2020, NDLON marched with Annan and others to commemorate the murder of George Floyd.
“He will inspire people to join the journey of justice,” she added. “He lets them know it’s a long way, but we also need to keep working on it.”
Alvarado eventually broke away from the crowd and rushed into the job center to check out NDLON’s plans for the day. Work tools, poster boards, boxed pizza and cold coffee crowd the space.
A staff member puts on Alvarado’s Ray-Ban sunglasses. They have hidden cameras embedded into them. “That way,” Alvarado grinned, “we can catch the bosses who don’t pay.”
We went back outside to chat briefly. Volunteers wheeled pallet trucks as they sped past us. The ruins were a few miles up Lake Avenue, but we could smell them. “I’ve lost track of time,” he admits. “But what I’m going through has nothing to do with what other people have to deal with.”
He personally knows at least 50 families who lost their homes in the Eaton fire, as well as “hundreds” of workers in Southern California who are now out of work because the homes they serve in Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Altadena have been Cease to exist.
With Trump taking office, the timing couldn’t be worse for NDLON, but Alvarado said it would be the perfect opportunity to show opponents how to stand up to the new president.
“Whatever pushback happens,” he says, nodding to the scene before us, “that’s how it should be.”
Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Labor Organizing Network, greets volunteer Anne Cochran outside the Pasadena Community Employment Center on Inauguration Day. The Long Beach resident helps clean up the streets of Pasadena with her hiking group in Orange County.
(Karin Steele/The Times)
I asked what the rest of us could learn from his decades in the trenches.
“Don’t give into despair. When there is a crisis like this or an impending crisis, take it one day at a time,” he said. “It’s always difficult to plan in uncertain times. But one thing I’ve learned is that if you follow the greater good—follow your heart—you can’t go wrong.
I think that’s a flippant answer, especially when Trump wants to make life miserable for the people Alvarado has spent much of his life advocating for.
“What I tell you has never failed,” he replied calmly. “Look around us.”
More volunteers are waiting for orders. More trucks brought more supplies. Becoming more and more kind.
“It’s very beautiful,” Alvarado continued. “People who have never met are all in the same boat right now. Our guys were working in Central Park the other day with five guys wearing MAGA hats. [in Pasadena]. In order to do the work that organizers do, you have to believe in people’s ability to change. people will Change.
I mentioned that Trump is expected to visit the Altadena area as soon as Friday. What will he ask the new president?
“This has to be a conversation, not a question,” Alvarado responded. “If he were here, I would let him use a shovel for the first time in his life and start cleaning.”
He laughed, then became serious. “I would tell him that if he wants to make this country a better place, he not only needs to help the least privileged among us, but he needs to empower them. That’s how you make the world a better place.
Long Beach native Anne Cochran came to greet Alvarado. The teacher at St. Jeanne Dresdennack School in Tustin had never heard of NDLON until a member of her hiking group suggested she volunteer. Cochran was helping out that morning and wanted to host a fundraiser for the group at her school.
“He had integrity,” she said. “This is something we find too lacking right now. We are going to need people like Pablo for months, years.
While she was talking to me, Alvarado left. I found him across the street in a parking lot that had been converted into a drive-thru donation pick-up station for survivors of the fire. A line of cars—BMWs, Nissans, shiny SUVs, beat-up sedans—lined the edge of the lake, even though the giveaway didn’t start for another 15 minutes.
“It looks like anarchy, but there is order,” he said. “When you have a situation like this, people understand.”
As we walked back to NDLON headquarters, Alvarado noticed a group of well-dressed men handing out business cards and flyers to survivors hanging out in their cars. One of them was wearing a Gucci belt. For the first time all morning, Alvarado frowned.
“If you’re looking for cases, this is the problem we’re going to have,” he told them. They deny trying to sue. He didn’t believe it – “Now is not the time to do this. I don’t like it.
He waved to the parking lot. “This is a beautiful operation. This is not a business.
One of the men asked him if he was going to kick them out. Alvarado shook his head. “You have a right to be here,” he said. “But I don’t think you should take advantage of others in a moment like this. It’s up to you.
After a few minutes, the man packed up and left.
Delmar Moreno signs a mural outside the Pasadena Community Employment Center after an Inauguration Day rally for immigrant and undocumented worker rights
(Karin Steele/The Times)
Pasadena City Councilman Tyron Hampton stopped Alvarado to hug him. They have known each other for more than ten years. They spoke in front of a newly painted mural Jonaleros It has the same inscription as Alvarado’s T-shirt: “Solo el Pueblo Salva al Pueblo.” Workers were signing the mural as a taco truck prepared to hand out free lunches.
“When I think about Pasadena helping,” Hampton said, “I think about Pablo.”
As Hampton spoke, Alvarado was already discussing what was to come.
