RSS Feed

September, 2004

  1. What do you use?

    September 21, 2004 by elenamary

    How do you choose to identfy yourself:
    Boricua, Newyoriquan, Latino, Tejano, Hisapnic, Cubano, Dominicano, Chicano, Xicana, Mestiza, Latin, Spanish, etc.
    Also, let me know why you choose not to use certain terms, and your geographical locations. If you like you can give you own defintion of terms as well.

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  2. ¡Hasta La Victoria!

    September 21, 2004 by elenamary

    Email I got from FLOC today.

    THE MOUNT OLIVE PICKLE BOYCOTT IS OVER!!!

    September 21, 2004

    Dear FLOC friends, supporters, and allies:

    As many of you already know, last Thursday September 16th we signed an historic contract with the North Carolina Growers’ Association (NCGA) and a side bar agreement with the Mt. Olive Pickle Co. This ENDS THE BOYCOTT OF MT. OLIVE PICKLE PRODUCTS.

    It’s a tremendous victory that all of us made possible. This struggle was made of many little steps. You who called the company and urged them to negotiate, you who once talked to a manager at your local grocery store to stop carrying Mt. Olive, you who helped us leaflet, you who invited us to speak to your church, you who marched, you who prayed, you made this possible.

    FLOC has signed up over two thousand workers to date and continues to sign up members throughout the current season. The NCGA brings about 8,000 workers every year from Mexico under the H2A guestworker program, many of whom work on the farms contracted to Mt. Olive Pickle Company.

    What will this mean for the workers?

    The Union will be the tool for negotiating wages, working and living conditions for the members.
    There will be a seniority system. No worker will be unfairly denied the opportunity to come as an H2A worker or be blacklisted.
    Workers can file complaints about any abuse or injustice through a grievance procedure.
    The Dunlop Commission will be used as a private labor relations board.
    Full day’s work paid if injured at work.
    Three days of paid leave for the funeral of a close family member.
    The cucumber pickers whose farms sell to Mt. Olive Pickle Company will receive a wage increase of over 10% in the next three years.
    Committees will be developed to look at issues of improving housing, health care, and other issues.
    All workers will be given at least one ½ day of rest every week in a “Freedom to Worship” clause.
    The contract gives these workers the means to enforce the protections of the H2A program which have heretofore been ignored. The abuses of the H2A program by recruiters, contractors, growers, and the NCGA will now be addressed through the union grievance process.

    A private labor relations board will be available when the grievance process exhausts its remedies. The Dunlop Commission established after the conclusion of the Campbell Boycott will be repositioned with members from the North Carolina agricultural community to do the job. Furthermore, the contract provides for joint labor and industry committees to address the housing, health, and other special needs of the workforce.

    The NCGA contract and MT. Olive agreement are not automatic fixes for the problems of the exploitation of the Latino workforce in North Carolina. Rather these are hard earned opportunities for worker empowerment through education, training, and further organizing.

    We organized a seventy-nine member farm worker advisory group from which the negotiating committee was drawn. Camp representatives must be elected for the more than 1000 labor camps in North Carolina. Education meetings will be called for those same camps.

    FLOC will monitor the recruiting process in Mexico to secure its new seniority system and the dismantling of the old black-listing and bribery that have long plagued this system. This historic moment is not the end of the story of the struggle for farm worker rights and economic justice, but the opening of a new chapter in the book.

    We thank all of our friends for their support during the long struggle in North Carolina and ask you to continue to walk with FLOC to overcome the challenges that face us in implementing these agreements and as we re-tool to achieve breakthroughs for other workers.

    Hasta la Victoria!

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  3. Around The Country

    September 21, 2004 by elenamary

    PROP. 200: WILL IT PROTECT ARIZONA? / Elvia Díaz/ The Arizona Republic No matter how zealously they support or oppose Arizona’s immigration initiative, most in both campaigns agree on two crucial points. First, Proposition 200 won’t stop the flow of undocumented immigrants into Arizona.

    LEGENDARY JUDGE LAID TO REST IN BROWNSVILLE/Jesse Bogan/San Antonio Express-News
    Reynaldo Garza, the nation’s first Mexican American federal judge and a local icon, was buried Saturday beneath a reaching ebano tree. About 1,000 people turned out for Garza’s funeral at Fort Brown Memorial Center, just a few blocks from the border. Many of them then went to Buena Vista Cemetery for his burial.

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  4. Por El Mundo

    September 21, 2004 by elenamary

    TRUNCAN PATRULLA FRONTERIZA Y POLLEROS EL SUEÑO AMERICANO DE INDÍGENAS MIGRANTES / Rene Ramon / La Jornada
    Amado Candelario Cantú es un indígena tlapaneco que cursó la carrera de derecho en la Universidad de Guerrero. La miseria y discriminación que agobia a los nativos en ese lugar lo orilló a buscar otros horizontes y partió a Estados Unidos, donde fue vejado y deportado. Sin un centavo en la bolsa, como pudo llegó a Valle de Chalco, donde la oficina municipal de Atención a los Pueblos Indios, la única en su tipo en el estado de México, le brindó alimento y alojamiento.

    LA NOCHE DE LA MIGRA / José Antonio López / La Jornada
    Los recursos parecen ilimitados. La Patrulla Fronteriza tiene todo para atrapar a quienes se atreven a cruzar la línea, aun por los sitios más inhóspitos. Sin embargo, la mayoría consigue pasar. Cada año, un millón es atrapado y devuelto a México. Otros, 3 mil desde que arrancó la Operación Guardián en 1994 se quedan para siempre en el desierto. Y varios centenares son enterrados en el vecino país, en calidad de desconocidos. Masiosare acompañó a la migra en su tarea nocturna y a grupos de defensores de los migrantes que visitan las anónimas tumbas de los olvidados

    SIN LICENCIA PARA SOBREVIVIR / Jorge Morales Almada / La Opinión
    Mientras el proyecto de ley de licencias reposa sobre el escritorio del gobernador en espera de un casi seguro veto, los indocumentados siguen enfrentando la dificultad del día a día al no tener el documento Entre que les quiten el carro, les den una multa o que les toque un policía abusivo que llame a Inmigración! para deportarlos, los indocumentados que conducen sin licencia se la juegan todos los días por las carreteras de California.

    LA MUERTE SE ENSAÑA CON INMIGRANTES / Valeria Fernández / La Opinión
    Pese a los esfuerzos de las autoridades, las cifras de decesos se incrementaron durante el último año en Arizona. Tras millones de dólares de inversión del gobierno federal para detener el ingreso de la migración indocumentada por Arizona, la franja fronteriza de este estado cobró un récord de 165 muertes durante el año fiscal 2004, según cifras de la Patrulla Fronteriza.

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  5. Incendio en Ohio

    September 21, 2004 by elenamary

    SE MULTIPLICAN HIPÓTESIS SOBRE INCENDIO EN OHIO/ J. Jaime Hernández/ El Universal
    Las conjeturas sobre el origen del fuego en Ohio van desde un ajuste de cuentas de traficantes, hasta riñas entre pandillas o crímenes pasionales de homosexuales. Tras la muerte de los 10 inmigrantes mexicanos, un cortejo de sórdidas intrigas y especulaciones se abre paso entre la apacible comunidad de Columbus. En medio de las investigaciones, los agentes de la Policía se enfrentan a un endemoniado rompecabezas de hipótesis y conjeturas que van desde ajustes de cuentas entre traficantes de documentos y drogas, a vendettas entre pandillas, reclamos de prostitutas por servicios no pagados, y hasta sospechas de crímenes pasionales entre homosexuales. Vivir en uno de los barrios más violentos y conflictivos de esta ciudad ha sido el agravante de una tragedia que ha golpeado a tres familias de inmigrantes mexicanos. Los restos de los Noriega, los Mejía y los Castro permanecen en el tanatorio de la ciudad mientras los rumores se multiplican y las pesquisas de la Policía y una agencia federal se desarrollan en medio de un hermético silencio.

    INCENDIO EN OHIO: ¿CLIMA DE ODIO RACIAL?/ José Murat/ El Universal
    LA intensidad del debate político en México, derivado del cuarto Informe presidencial y del clima de confrontación que agota las energías del país, eclipsó un hecho deleznable que ilustra el recrudecimiento de la política xenofóbica y antiinmigrante en Estados Unidos: la muerte, todo indica no accidental, de 10 connacionales en un incendio. El pasado 12 de septiembre perdieron la vida esos hermanos migrantes en circunstancias sospechosas, se presume un ataque de odio racial, al consumir las llamas el edificio en que residían en la ciudad de Columbus, Ohio

    “LOS DEJARON MORIR”, AFIRMAN FAMILIARES DE INMIGRANTES/ J. Jaime Hernández / El Universal
    Voy a seguir diciendo que son unos racistas, porque si ahí dentro hubiera habido uno de los suyos, habrían hecho hasta lo imposible” , dice Antonio, pariente de la familia Noriega fallecida en Ohio. “Dejaron que se muriera mi familia. No me permitieron rescatarlos del fuego”. Antonio Noriega suena ofuscado. La rabia le reconcome porque está convencido de que los bomberos y la Policía actuaron de forma racista cuando le impidieron rescatar del fuego a su hermano Ismael, a su cuñada Lidia y a sus tres sobrinos: “Estaban gritando y pidiendo ayuda. Yo estaba escalando y a punto de alcanzar una ventana. Pero un bombero me jaló y me sujetó. Me dijo que nadie podía entrar al edificio. Que era demasiado peligroso. Pero yo estoy convencido de que aún era tiempo de salvar a mi hermano, a mi cuñada y a mis sobrinos…

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

  6. devil’s fruit

    September 20, 2004 by elenamary

    It is said that strawberries are the devil’s fruit, in terms of picking. They are viney, delicate and low to the ground, back-breaking picking fruit.
    City slickers head to the “country” to pick blueberries, apples, green beans and such. They pay to pick them, sometimes they pay more than it would cost them in the store…but it is fun to pick your own fruit! Right?
    Every autumn, I go to farmers markets and buy tons of apples. I bake all kinds of apple dishes. I associate the autumn with the changing color of leaves, warm fuzzy sweaters and sweet apple dishes. But I always feel guilty about my apples. From the thoughts of buying them to my thoughts about the process of eating them.
    I buy them not from a “farmer” but a “grower”. The “grower” owns the land, and maybe the land has been in his family for generations. I consider the “farmer” to be the migrant (usually Mexican) worker who has taken care of the crops from beginning to end. Admittedly, I like many, other city-slickers want to pick my own fruit and yes, even pay for the apples I pick. How can I want to do that, when my people struggle in the fields? Can you imagine some wealthy white woman paying to spend 15 minutes behind a fast food counter because it is fun and she can make her own hamburger too!

    Anyway, if you want to pick your own fruits and vegetables you can find a place near you here.

    Category Uncategorized | Tags: | No Comments

Older Entries
Newer Entries