As Lorena Cantarovici sat in her empty restaurant Thursday during the normally busy lunch hour, a chorus of phone calls going unanswered, she said she was at peace with the thousands of dollars she was losing by keeping Maria Empanada closed.
Cantarovici was one of hundreds of business owners across the country who joined in “A Day Without Immigrants” protest of U.S. immigration policy. As an immigrant who came from Argentina in pursuit of the American dream and eventually opened her Denver restaurant, she said the choice was clear.
“But if I need to put my bank account on one side and who I am on the other side, I prefer to pick who I am,” she said.
The day of protest, which wasn’t limited to people living in the country illegally, had impacts across Colorado on Thursday, from restaurants — arguably the hardest hit — to the construction industry and schools.
Denver Public Schools estimated that attendance districtwide was down 4 to 5 percent. At some schools, however, only about 30 to 50 percent of students showed up. Kids absent without their parents’ permission were marked unexcused. Teachers who stayed home were charged a personal day.
Maria Empanada’s neighbors on South Broadway Adelitas Cocina y Cantina and Palenque Mezcaleria shut their doors in solidarity, as did Biju’s Little Curry Shop, Osteria Marco and Russell’s Smokehouse in other parts of the city
Those who missed work could be docked pay, but the Colorado Restaurant Association advised its members not to discipline those employees who missed work beyond that.
“The Colorado Restaurant Association has long supported responsible immigration reform because foreign-born workers are critical to our industry,” the trade group’s spokeswoman Carolyn Livingston said.
At the popular El Taco De Mexico restaurant on Santa Fe Drive, a sign on the door asked patrons to be patient because of a limited workforce. Inside, only two people were working the typically bustling taco spot, and several customers walked away because the business was only accepting cash.
“I think everyone has a First Amendment right to protest,” said Adam Killian as he arrived at Adelitas Cocina y Cantina to find it closed. “This is just going along with that. ”
Killian said he was in support of the demonstration — even if it cost him the tasty lunch he was seeking. He works in construction and said his crew was short about 20 percent of its workers Thursday.
“I totally support it,” Mingwei Song, who came to Denver from China for her studies, said as she read a sign on Maria Empanada’s door explaining why the restaurant was closed. “This country is run by immigrants. Everybody was an immigrant at some point.”
People are bummed these restaurants on South Broadway are closed, but for the most the most part are supportive pic.twitter.com/HWNEOKrGdR
— Jesse Aaron Paul (@JesseAPaul) February 16, 2017
Cantarovici said 99 percent of the people who she turned away on Thursday were supportive of the protest. Someone even left flowers at her restaurant’s door.
A few others were more frustrated. “If these people were here legally, then this restaurant wouldn’t be closed,” said John, who declined to give his last name, as he stood outside Adelitas Cocina y Cantina.
“People who have been with me 10, 13 years, without missing a day are choosing to make their voices heard on this one,” chef and restaurateur Frank Bonanno said in a statement on Facebook. “I stand with them. We stand with our team. In honor of today’s protests, Osteria Marco & Russell’s Smokehouse will be closed.”
Some members of the Breckenridge Restaurant Association were waiting to see if workers showed up on Thursday to see if they would operate, the Summit Daily reported.
Servicios de La Raza, which provides help to HIV and AIDS patients and mental health counseling, kept its doors closed. In a Facebook post, the social services organization said the move was “in support of our immigrant and refugee communities, our brothers and sisters, our children, our elders, our people in struggle for justice and peace against racism and hate.”
The Laborers’ International Union in Denver was encouraging its members to go to work, a union representative who wouldn’t give her name because the union isn’t involved with the job action said Thursday.
But contractors who employ the union’s 1,700 members haven’t reported any absences, she said. “We haven’t gotten any complaints.”
Maria Corral, of Service Employees International Union Local 105, said she didn’t know how many of the local’s 7,000 health care and property service workers, didn’t go to work on Thursday.
Local president Ron Ruggiero said in a written statement that taking off a day to protest is risky for immigrants. “However, for some people the struggles they experience as immigrants outweigh those risks of missing work today. The political rhetoric often ignores the fact that immigrant workers contribute more to our economy than they receive and often face the toughest working conditions.”