Utah Latinos Raise the Boycott Flag, Even Against Their Own

A group of Latinos in Utah is digging deep into the bag of civil protest tactics to make its point. They’re calling for a good-old-fashioned boycott. The Utah twist is that they intend to boycott every business in the state for two weeks, including their own.

The group, the Utah Coalition of La Raza, is opposed to a recently passed law, HB 497, that allows police to check the citizenship status of anyone and everyone and they want to persuade Governor Gary Herbert to not sign it into law.

The leader of the boycott group, Archie Archuleta, says, according to abc4.com,

the boycott will help show the state how much Latinos contribute and prove they deserve to be heard.

So much so that the boycott includes Latino businesses as well. And that’s gotta hurt. A small problem with their plan is that not every Latino in Utah is on board.

Another Latino advocate, Tony Yapias, disagrees with the boycott. Yapias is the Director of Proyecto Latino de Utah, which focuses on the needs of Utah´s Latino immigrant community.

“I just think it’s counter-productive, given the fact the business community has stepped up this year,” Yapias said.

Earlier this year the Utah Chamber of Commerce helped pass a guest worker program that Yapias and his group support.

The boycott will run through the end of next week.

Follow Victor Landa in Twitter: @vlanda