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The lunch hour came and, sore and exhausted, I grabbed the Playmate cooler I’d borrowed from my father-in-law and plopped down on the ground.

Now her business, Casa Grande Cafe, has only one customer during the normally busy lunch hour, because farm workers have stayed home.

“When I worked in an office, I'd take a 30 minute stroll during my lunch hour most days, typically along a busy road with lots of car pollution,” O’Meara said.

It was lunch hour in La Soledad, the air punctuated with the rhythm of cumbia and salsa blaring from boom boxes.

Dozens of protesters, including clergy members and laypeople from different Christian denominations, peacefully occupied the cafeteria at peak lunch hour, chanting and singing to demand a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and an end to U.S. arms transfers to Israel.