Sonoma Plaza protests continue despite conspiracy of weather

Persistent, implacable atmospheric rivers have made the first weeks of the year a nightmare for many, with flooded roads and swollen creeks and aged trees falling like omens made plain.

The rude weather seems to mime civic chaos, and for those taking a stand in this winter of discontent, it may seem futile, but necessary nonetheless.

Last week was a case in point: the rains barely let up for a Day Without Immigrants on Thursday, Feb. 16, nor did they desist for a Strike for Democracy the next day. That Friday morning found 20 locals bearing hand-painted signs and wearing pink cat-eared hats standing and chanting beneath umbrellas in front of the Sonoma Plaza, as cars raced by in the rain, some honking in support.

“Education, not deportation!” chanted the score of demonstrators into the storm. The slogan picked up on the fears many in the Valley feel over rumors – not to mention vows from the Trump administration – of a national crackdown on undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.

“This is not a normal time,” said Veronica Napoles, who organized the morning protest. “I feel like I'm in the middle of a gaslighted nightmare, where I keep waiting to wake up. But I'm not waking up.” The term “gaslighting” comes from a play and film from the 1940s, where a young woman is driven to madness by her deceitful husband's attempts to sow doubt in her own mind.

The turnout was modest – far fewer than the estimated 3,000 who showed up Jan. 21 for a protest against the newly inaugurated President Trump. But Napoles organized the event alone – other area activists were evidently burned out by protests; and the Feb. 17 strike never generated the wide support that the Women's March did.

But Napoles made up posters and distributed them on Facebook and elsewhere, taking up the slack when others lagged. She held tight to the theme of a strike – no work, no school, no shopping, even online.

The “no school” part was easy for Sonoma students: it was a “professional learning day” according to Superintendent Louann Carlomagno, so there were no classes. But coming as it did the day after the Day Without Immigrants, many people who had not worked on Thursday found it hard to skip a second day for political reasons.

“This is all new for me,” said Napoles. “I'm an artist, I'm not a political activist, but I'm a concerned citizen.” She's also from an immigrant family – though she was born in New York, her older sister was born in Havana, where her parents are from. “They came ‘BC,' as I call it, Before Castro.”

Napoles has been an artist most of her adult life, studying architecture at UC Berkeley and starting her own design firm – even writing a book on corporate design. But her paintings emphasize her Cuban heritage, a different aesthetic than the more prevalent Mexican-influenced art – with less explosive colors, more quiet emotion.

Though Napoles has been to Cuba several times in recent years, she and her sister have other travel plans this year. “We're going on a trip to Spain pretty soon and we're hoping she's not going to have any problems getting back in to the country,” said Napoles. “Who knows? Maybe they'll think she's a 74-year-old Cuban terrorist.”

Most of those in the small Feb. 17 demonstration had been on the Plaza a month earlier, on another rainy day of demonstration, Jan. 21. At least one also had attended the much larger Women's Day March in Washington, D.C. “I flew all the way there to be in the middle of it,” said Kate Knudsen. “It was so amazing.”

Knudsen, who has lived in Sonoma for about 20 years since she and her husband, the late Keith Knudsen of the Doobie Brothers, moved up here. But she hasn't always been political – “No until this guy got elected,” she said. Now she's on several mailing lists that keep her busy with demonstations, phone calls and other actions.

The demonstration on Friday was cut short by storm weather, ending by 10:30 a.m. But Napoles and some of the other demonstrators held to their “strike” ethic all day, buying nothing.

“Tomorrow I'm going out and having a huge breakfast at the Breakaway Café, because they supported the day without immigrants,” said Napoles on Friday. “We all have to make sacrifices during this time, all of us do. This is not a normal time.”

Even if the Strike for Democracy didn't live up to expectations, it won't be the last such action, said both Napoles and Knudsen. Another mass strike is planned on March 8, organized by International Women's Day and the Women's March. “I feel that these actions are part of the moral fabric of who we are,” said Knudsen.

Contact Christian at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.