“My favorite raza, the human raza”

by David Safier

I loved the line Richard Elias opened with when he spoke at the Rally against SB 1070 at Grijalva's campaign office this morning.

Elias looked out over the crowd, grinned and said,

"My favorite raza, the human raza."

I don't know, maybe Elias uses the line all the time, but I hadn't heard it before. And at this moment when a new Arizona law wants to give people who "look like illegal immigrants" separate and unequal treatment, seeing Elias smiling out at the multi-ethnic, multi-aged crowd and referring to us as The Human Raza — it felt just right.