Post-boycott question: What next?

CHICAGO — A day after more than 1 million immigrants and supporters skipped work to march in rallies across the nation, some advocates say the mixed messages surrounding the "Day Without Immigrants" show a need for a unified front and the movement's own Cesar Chavez.

"We need to take this critical mass and organize it. Marching is not enough," said Armando Navarro, coordinator of a Southern California umbrella organization that helped plan Monday's march and boycott. "We need to harness this power."

An estimated 400,000 people marched in both Chicago and Los Angeles, but fewer than 10,000 turned out in cities including Dallas, Atlanta and Phoenix, which all have large Hispanic populations.

With so many organizers pushing their own plans for the May 1 rallies, and no single group at the forefront, there wasn't a unifying plan. And there were conflicting signals from various leaders questioning whether a boycott that disrupted the economy would do more harm than good.

In Los Angeles, Roman Catholic Cardinal Roger Mahony, who has been a leading voice for immigrants, urged students not to skip school for the rally and adults not to risk losing their jobs.

In Atlanta, Spanish-language media that spread word about a march last month that drew 50,000 people weren't involved in Monday's rally plans. Teodoro Maus, a leading organizer of the April march, urged a boycott and work stoppage instead. A march, he said, "takes away from the impact."

Atlanta organizers, however, were quick to declare their economic boycott a success, saying it resulted in deserted Wal-Marts and shuttered Hispanic businesses.

Elsewhere, reform proponents said fears over recent raids by federal immigration agents curbed participation.

"They got scared," said 38-year-old demonstrator Julio Ortega of Little Rock, Ark., a U.S. citizen.

Even individual immigration-reform leaders are torn over how best to keep the momentum going. The grass-roots flavor of the recent demonstrations has generated excitement and publicity, but empowering an umbrella organization or dynamic figurehead could galvanize the effort the way Chavez did for farm workers and Martin Luther King Jr. did for the civil rights movement.

"It's always good to have a figure that melds it together," said Eliseo Medina, executive vice president of the Service Employees International Union, a major organizer and supporter of rallies Monday.