Anatomy of a Boycott

The national office of LULAC voted to join the inter/national boycott against Arizona, as well as to join lawsuits against the State of Arizona. In communicating the boycott, LULAC detailed the following list of companies in their instructions to boycott, seeking wide dissemination:

List of Companies to Boycott:

Air Evac (airline)

Allied Waste Industries

Amkor Technology

Apollo Group

Arizona Public Service

Arizona Republic

ASARCO

Auralog

Avnet

Banner Health Systems

Bashas' Supermarkets

BEST WESTERN

CSK (CHECKER/KRAGEN) AUSTO PARTS

COLD STONE CREAMERY

CyraCom International

Cactus Candy Company

Database Systems Corp.

DIAL CORPORATION

Discount Tire Company

eFunds Corporation

Elixir Interactive

Fender Musical Insstruments

First Solar

Freeport-McMoRan

FRY'S FOOD AND DRUG, A DIVISION OF KROGER

Fulton Homes

Food City

Giant Industries

GO DADDY

Grand Canyon Airlines

Harkins Theatres

Honeywell Aerospace

Insight Enterprises

Inter-Tel

icrossing

JDA Software Group

Jobing.com

Knight Transportation

KPX

MAIN STREET RESTAURANT GROUP (TGI FRIDAYS)

Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation

Meritage Homes

Mesa Airlines

Microchip Technology

Mobile Mini

Motorsports Authentics

ON Semiconductor

Peter Piper Pizza

PETSMART

PING GOLF

Pinnacle West Capital Corporation

PinnacleOne

P.F. CHANG'S CHINA BISTRO

Poore Brothers

Republic Services

RSC Equipment Rental

RotorWay International

Rural/Metro

Salt River Project

Sierra Pacific Airlines

SHAMROCK FOODS

Sunstate Equipment Co.

SuperShuttle International Inc.

Swift Air

Swift Transportation

TACO TIME

Taser International

Tilted Kilt

Troon Golf

U-HAUL

US AIRWAYS

USF Bestway

U.S. Machineries LC

Unisource Energy

Viad Corporation

Volance Language Services

Westcor

Arizona Diamondbacks

Arizona Suns Basketball

Arizona Cardinals

Related to the burgeoning boycott, a friend of mine, a lawyer and the former mayor of El Paso, Raymond Caballero, now living in Portland and my fellow commissioner on the Oregon Commission on Hispanic Affairs, allowed me to reprint his powerful letter to one of these businesses expressing his sentiments:

Dear Friends at US Air

Over the years I have flown on your planes, both US Air and America West, as I used to be from El Paso. I travel to and from El Paso and other locations several times a year. I regret to tell you that, unless I have no other alternative, I will no longer fly on US Air at least until the anti-Latino Arizona immigration legislation is repealed. We in the Latino community recognize that legislation for what it is, a slap in the face of the entire Latino community. There is no other way to interpret it. Senator John McCain’s daughter Meghan aptly describes the new law as "essentially a license to pull someone over for being Hispanic."

The statute involved is not the act of a lunatic fringe; it is the official and deliberate action of the Arizona legislature and governor. They have been attempting to do this for some time and have now finally succeeded knowing fully how the Latino community would interpret the action.

So, you are an Arizona company. As an individual, I am not returning soon to Arizona, a place I love and would visit once or twice a year and pass through on others.

I’m sorry about this, but it is the price we all pay for hateful acts against a good community.

rcc

Raymond C. Caballero