Email this page  Print this page  del.icio.us  digg

‘El Cucuy’ still driving immigrants ‘ dream

El Cucuy’s “Tropa Loca” caravan for fellow immigrants’ dreams of amnesty rolled to a stop after a rally in Washington, D.C., on June 18.

Also dead in the road is the hope that Congress would craft immigration reform during the past session.

Renan Almendarez Coello is the real name of “El Cucuy” (“Bogeyman”). He immigrated to this country in the 1980s from Honduras and has become one of the most influential radio hosts in the United States. His show airs weekday mornings on 97.9 La Raza in Los Angeles, and is syndicated throughout the country.

Last year he initiated the campaign “Votes for America” with the goal of registering one million Hispanic to vote in the 2008 general elections.

The popular radio host didn’t stop in Phoenix like he did last year. However, he says his trip to six different cities on a “Dreams Across America” tour, picking up “dreamers” along the way, sent the message he intended.

“The biggest message that I’ve sent to Washington and to the Anglos is that the immigrants that come to this country want to come here to build and to construct, not to destroy,” he said in a newspaper article. “And that the United States of America is our second country.”