This past Saturday, Feb. 1, Cleveland Heights residents and Case Western Reserve University students alike turned out in large numbers to support Cilantro Taqueria’s Coventry Village location. The restaurant was reopened following a raid from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) where six employees were arrested and detained, causing two of Cilantro’s six locations across the greater Cleveland area to shut down temporarily. After widespread outrage from the Cleveland community, both on social media and in real life, residents were determined to support the restaurant when it reopened. Enter “Día de Cilantro” or “Cilantro Day,” an event started by Coventry via their official Instagram account to get as many people as possible to patronize and stand in solidarity with the restaurant—and tip generously, of course.

Cilantro, although not actually located on the CWRU campus, is arguably a Case institution. I’ve never gone to the Coventry location—situated a short shuttle, bus or car ride up the road from Little Italy—and not seen at least one other student there. And we students don’t congregate for its convenience or late hours or proximity to the Grog Shop. Anyone who’s been to Cilantro can attest that the food is some of the best in the area. If you’re unfamiliar with the setup, they have the same build-your-own-bowl approach as Chipotle but with authentic Mexican dishes and portion sizes that can actually last you more than one meal (although I find I have a hard time not devouring my entire meal on the spot). Cilantro’s CWRU cult status coupled with its genuinely kind employees made the news of the ICE arrests particularly distressing, and a scary sign of what is perhaps to come even in a relatively small city like Cleveland from President Donald Trump’s administration.

With all of this in mind, however, “Cilantro Day” wasn’t a heavy occasion in the slightest. Coventry advertised the event with five tips to make the day go smoothly, all of which ended up playing out, at least in my experience of visiting the restaurant. First tip: Good vibes. “This is about loving, encouraging and celebrating our neighbors at Cilantro. They don’t want to be the center of a regional debate … Save protest and political energy for another space,” read the post. That one was easily checked off. Second tip: Decorate. While no one was actively decorating the building when I arrived, the windows were covered in a slew of colorful, hand-drawn signs, both in English and Spanish. According to Kelly Kennedy of Cleveland 19 News, many of the signs were made by three local children who ate at the restaurant every night when they first moved to the area. “Your neighbors on Euclid Heights Blvd love you,” “No one is illegal on stolen land” and “Te queremos y te apoyamos” read three of the more prominent messages. The latter means “We love you and we support you” in Spanish.

The third tip provided by Coventry was to be patient with any long lines. “Today is a great day to celebrate the beautiful concept of ‘ahorita’—where, in Mexico, the word for ‘immediately’ also means ‘within an hour/whenever I get around to it.’” When I was there at 4:30 p.m. there was certainly a long line stretching around the entire circumference of the store, but it was impossible to be annoyed with a long wait in the face of such a good turnout. Plus, I could count at least five CWRU students in attendance not counting myself and my friend, and those were just of the people I could recognize (I will say that another friend who went around 6:30 p.m. reported a close-to-normal number of patrons.) Tips four and five were to tip generously and raise awareness of the event, which I think are self-explanatory. From what I observed, both tenets were followed faithfully by all who participated.

While I felt that the energy present in Cilantro was infectious and generally a positive influence on the Cleveland Heights community, not everyone was in agreement. A Reddit post titled “Feb 1st Cilantro Day” expressed a few concerns I’d like to address. One reply to a comment asking whether Cilantro’s workers would receive a cut of the event’s profits proportional to the owners read, “Yeah I can’t get on board with this. Set up something for the families. Tell us a percentage of the profits is going somewhere … This is helping the owners more than the people actually affected. Now the employees … did they get paid if they were scheduled [when the restaurant was closed]? Are they getting a piece of the profits from ‘Cilantro day.’” Another reply was more succinct as to the event’s motivations: “Because people like the tacos and they love virtue signaling and this is a way to do both.”

Even though “Cilantro Day” seemed like a success in spite of the aforementioned issues, I would urge CWRU students not to be taken in by easy solutions and single-day shows of activism. An estimated 12% of all food service workers and servers in the United States. are undocumented immigrants. It’s more important than ever to support local businesses, especially those like Cilantro, whose predominantly Latino workforces are more likely to be targeted by ICE. Leaving large tips is crucial as well, as this is the only money guaranteed to go back entirely to the workers. And beyond using your dollar, you should be prepared to help your friends and neighbors if you see ICE agents on your street or at your place of work. If we truly want to stand with our community we need to make every day “Cilantro Day” this semester, not just the first of February.