Carrying banners, waving flags and shouting for justice, about 1,000 people crested the top of the Old 99 Bridge on Sunday afternoon as they marched into Mount Vernon to raise awareness of farm workers’ issues.

Carrying a megaphone, organizer Diana Lopez shouted: “What do we want?”

The rest of the marchers answered: “Justice!”

Lopez asked: “When do we want it?”

“Now!”

The questions and answers were repeated throughout the 51⁄2-mile march, which ended at St. Joseph’s Center, near Immaculate Conception School in Mount Vernon.

Other participants and organizers shouted the questions in both English and Spanish, the language of many farm worker immigrants.

Before its start at Maiben Park in Burlington, Esmael Lopez explained the reasons for the annual march. Lopez, Consuelo Guandique, Victor Rodriguez and Diana Lopez, make up the Farm Worker Solidarity Committee.

“We’re just trying to gather people together to raise the consciousness of the community about some of the issues that farm workers face,” Esmael Lopez said.

The issues include the level of pay, access to education for workers’ children and deportation that separates families, he said. The march also gave other people in the community the opportunity to show their support for farm workers, who have been hit hard by the recession, Esmael Lopez said.

“Everyone is feeling the effects of the economy right now, and farm workers are really feeling it,” he said.

Rodriguez, another march organizer, said that immigrants, both undocumented and those in the United States legally, have been unfairly targeted. It’s a pattern that has been repeated during economic downturns since the 1930s, such as Operation ####### in the 1980s, he said.

“Anytime in U.S. history when the economy is an issue, they try to find a scapegoat. This time it’s illegals,” Rodriguez said.

Sunday was the 21st Farm Worker Solidarity March in Skagit County. Heriberto Esquivel organized the first march in 1989. Members of his family, including his son George Esquivel, participated Sunday.

The march started with about 200 people leaving Maiben Park in Burlington. Numbers quickly doubled and then doubled again, swelling to about 1,000 before the marchers crossed the bridge.

Although a few participants dropped out before the march ended, most gathered at St. Joseph’s Center for a meal of tortillas, rice, beans and chicken mole, a sauce made of chili peppers and chocolate. The free meal is a way of giving back to the community, Esmael Lopez said.

Lopez said that the march had a good turn out, especially considering fear of contracting influenza and concerns about attracting the attention of federal immigration agents. For the past few years about 1,000 people turn out for the march, he said.

The march attracted people of all ages and various cultural backgrounds. Wearing a lavender backpack and walking two Chihuahua-mix dogs, Mirella Munoz, 12, and her aunt joined the march.

“To bring our community together,” said Mirella, whose father drives a tractor for a living.

Many participants wore the green, red and white of the Mexican flag or wore those colors to honor their cultural heritage. Marchers carried signs reading “Stop the Raids and Deportation,” “Chicano Power,” and “More schools, no jails.”

Others carried the red and black flags of the United Farm Workers. March participants also shouted the union’s motto “Sí, Se puede,” which was adopted by President Barack Obama’s campaign. It is Spanish for “Yes, it can be done.”

Many of the participants said they either have worked in the fields or have family members who have. Others said they marched to support the Latino community.

“The farm workers are the ones putting food on the table,” said Uri Sosa, 16, vice president of Mount Vernon High School chapter of MEChA. “They work the hardest out in the sun, breaking their backs.”

Both Sosa and club president Lucy Lopez, 17, said that they have worked in the fields to help their families. Sosa picked strawberries during his sixth-grade summer, and as a child Lopez picked cucumbers for $1 a bucket, rather than attending summer school.

“I would try my best and only get $20,” she said.