San Benito County residents participate in ‘Not My President’ protest

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San Benito County residents joined nationwide protests against President Donald Trump and his administration on Feb. 17, Presidents Day. The “Not My President” demonstrations occurred near the Safeway store in Hollister and in front of San Juan Bautista’s City Hall.

Around 40 people with signs gathered on the corner of Airline Hwy and Tres Pinos Road in Hollister for the two-hour event, and around 15 more rallied in a sidewalk demonstration near Third and Polk Streets in San Juan.

At both locations, protesters held signs, including ones reading “No one voted for Musk,” “Stop this lawless administration,” and “Stand up 4 humanity.”

Resident Catherine Eva Booth-Vaughan said she organized the Hollister rally because people are “upset, fearful, angry” about the federal government’s actions. She also said she organized the event because the San Benito County Democratic Central Committee was not providing information to the community. 

“We have to assemble,” she said. “We have to organize and we have to have protests; otherwise, it’s not going to get any better. Our democracy is going down the tubes.”

Democratic Central Committee chair Dolores Morales said there are varying opinions on where to focus the organization’s efforts. Still, she was glad there were people raising awareness on the issues.

“There’s no shortage of work to be done by Democrats,” she said. “Particularly now when worker’s rights and immigrant communities are being targeted, and there is great concern about how new federal policies will affect us locally.”

When asked what each political group should understand about each other, Booth-Vaughan said name-calling needed to stop as a way of finding common ground. 

She referenced the passerby who called the protestors “stupid.” She said it would be a worthwhile experiment to have conservative and liberal residents use only each other’s news sources for a month and then have a conversation about what they learned. 

Luis Valdez, founder of El Teatro Campesino, attended the San Juan protest. “We need to stand up to protect our democracy,” Valdez said. “This government is lawless and operates outside the framework established over 200 years ago. We demand a return to the constitutional order upon which this nation was founded.”

Booth-Vaughan said among the issues that are important to her are human rights and LGBTQ+ issues. She said as a married gay woman, she was afraid the administration would go after same-sex marriages.  

Several passersby and drivers responded positively to the protest with honks and thumbs-up. In Hollister, a passerby with opposing political views responded with “Trump, Trump, Trump” while showing a thumbs-up to the protestors. 

The San Juan Bautista rally drew no similar counterprotests. The small group, including several El Teatro Campesino veterans, was met with support from passing cars and pedestrians and a blessing from Father Albert Cabrera, the pastor of Mission San Juan Bautista.

“The church’s role favors those less blessed,” he said. “I support these people who are standing up for those who are contributing to this country, trying to have a good life and trying to find a good place.”

San Juan Bautista resident Cynthia Ponce, who described the protest as a “grassroots movement across 50 states,” said that she brought the group together to stand up for democracy.

“I think I’m particularly concerned the way [Trump] has been treating the immigrants,” she said.   “He has been arresting people through the agency of ICE, and he says they are criminals. But he’s going all-out, getting everybody, and sorting it out later.”

Former San Juan mayor Cesar Flores and his wife, Kathy Flores, were among the group in front of city hall. Kathy Flores said her greatest concern was the lack of accountability regarding Elon Musk, whom she described as an unelected official in a position of power.

“His actions are taking place without going through processes established in the Constitution,” she said. “I want to see us tighten up our democracy because, under an oligarchy, life the way we know it, life the way our families know it, is going to be completely lost.”

Nancy Ann Coffaro stopped by the protest in Hollister, thinking it was a pro-Trump rally. As she walked and read through the various signs, she told BenitoLink that she didn’t agree with the protestors and believed Musk, who is heading an effort to cut federal funding, “will do a good job for us.” 

Valdez disagreed with the sentiment, saying that Trump and Musk have deceived many people who “are going with it because they’re entertained by it.”

“What dismays me more than anything else,” he said, “is the Republican party is kowtowing for whatever it’s self-interest might be, in their own careers or well-being. And it’s allowing these two to dismantle everything that previous leaders have built.”

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