By Leslie Albrecht, Ben Fractenberg and Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Staff
MANHATTAN — The Occupy Wall Street movement expanded to include a few more of the self-declared 99 percent, as supporters from the northern reaches of Manhattan joined a march to Zuccotti Park on Monday.
"If everybody is together, it is more effective; the Spanish, the African Americans — everybody," said Elizabeth Batista, 50, who was among those who joined the march, "End to End for 99 Percent" in Washington Heights, where she's lived for 25 years.
"We have to support people who protest against the rich people. I think the rich people need to pay more taxes than the middle class," added Batista, who works at a children's program at P.S. 115.
Politicians who represent northern Manhattan joined unions and community groups for Monday's march from Washington Heights to Occupy Wall Street's encampment Downtown.
City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who represents Washington Heights and Inwood, and State Senator Adriano Espaillat, who represents the Upper West Side to Riverdale, The Bronx, spearheaded the push to bring out locals from upper Manhattan. They also worked in connection with State Senator Tom Duane, State Assembly member Linda Rosenthal and City Councilwomen Melissa Mark-Viverito and Gale Brewer.
"This [country] belongs to all of us," said 81-year-old Altagracia Guzman Vargas, who has lived in Washington Heights for 56 years. Vargas said she was going to try and march the entire distance to Zuccotti Park.
Vargez said she wanted to see a broader array of people involved in Occupy Wall Street and for immigrant communities to be treated more fairly in the United States.
"My heart is broken. It's a big country; why don't we fit? We produce."
Vincent Torres, a spokesman for Positive Workforce, a minority advocacy and employment service organization based in Upper Manhattan, said he and his crew marched Monday in order to lend another face to the movement.
"We march today for the premise of more jobs," he said. "We are here in support of our brothers and sisters of the movement."
Tourists watched in amazement as the hordes of marchers past through Times Square at around 2 p.m. taking photos and cheering on the protesters.
"This is a global issue," Aliana Pennsecola, 52, who is visiting New York from Lima, Peru, said in Spanish. "We must support each other and change from the bottom up."
The march kicked off at 181st Street and St. Nicholas Avenue at 10:30 a.m, and was expected to reach Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street protesters have been camped out since September 17, at 4:30 p.m.
Live updates of the march will be available on Twitter at @endtoendfor99.
