A good protest, one that you will remember the rest of your life, is often less like a series of chants and speeches and, well, more like a parade. Day 3 was a great protest...

 

 

It didn't start out that way, though, as the politics of Orange County kept the march on the sidewalk for the first part of the day...

 

...But that didn't keep the marchers from being heard, or from keeping their spirits high. Some powerful animation from local allies who joined the march kept us moving forward with a purpose.

And, of course, we used more traditional media to get our message out, as well. Here, Todd Howland, Director of the RFK Center for Human Rights, who has been marching with us since we arrived in East LA, speaks with an LA reporter.

And once the march arrived in the city of Santa Ana, it truly became a parade. At every street corner, people from the community waited for the march to pass by, cheering, chanting, and even grabbing the megaphone to lead their own cheers...

... or a sign, to add their voice to the hundreds of thousands who will no longer eat at Taco Bell.

The people of Santa Ana received the marchers like conquering heroes, putting smiles on marchers who had treked many a mile through territory where the police sought to separate the march from the public by all means available to them.

The message resonated with the Santa Ana community because they understood the kind of situation that could make one hundred poor workers up and cross the country for two weeks, suffering all kinds of hardships in order to be heard in a fight for their very lives.

In the evening, it was time to celebrate, and there was no better place to do so than the Centro Cultural de Mexico in Santa Ana. With a fandango that lasted nearly two hours -- and revived many sore feet! -- the march ended Day 3 in an unequaled expression of equal parts relief and community.

Then it was to sleep, to gather strength for the final three miles on Day 4 and the rally at Taco Bell.

Next stop - Taco Bell's global headquarters, Irvine, CA!