On the Bus to America: Day 1

Mission Loc@l reporter Rigoberto Hernandez will be feeding news briefs on the road to the national March For America Campaign. The bus left San Francisco Wednesday and will join others from across the country on March 21 at the National Mall in Washington DC. Their aim is to to ask Congress to pass immigration reform.

Every place we stop — Oakland, Sacramento and Reno — priests greet us. Most riders seem very religiously engaged.

The 53 bus seats are occupied with activists of all ages from across California. Julio Salgado, came from Santa Barbara and drove to Sacramento to pick up the bus. Oscar Mangandid, a 20-year-old City College student, from the Mission. At each stop, new people board.

Many riders spend the time preparing their testimony for Washington where they hope to impress on Congress the importance of legislation to legalize the country’s more than 11 million undocumented immigrants.

The biggest news of the day is that Senator Barbara Boxer has agreed to meet with folks from PICO, a national network of faith-based organizations. She had previously refused to, according to Fernando from PICO. He credits her change of mind to the actions of activists in San Francisco.

Otherwise, the talk on the bus is all about immigration. The couple next to me discuss the Irish, once undocumented and now influential.

Another woman talks about her husband, who has an immigration hold.

Elmer, 12, who is traveling with his aunt, tells me he has not seen his mother in three years. She’s in El Salvador. He lives with his father in Oakland. As the day progresses, he becomes my video assistant.

Every few hours, someone breaks into a Christian song. A guitar comes out. Everyone appears to know the lyrics except me.

We will be in Salt Lake City in the morning and drive all day until we reach Denver where we’ll sleep in a motel, thank God.

Part 2 in the morning and through tweets.