April 2012 – Page 4 – CHST 404

Trader Joe’s Signs the Fair Food Agreement with CIW, but Abuses Against Field Workers Continues

The Center for Service and Action at LMU offers opportunities for students to volunteer throughout the year; one of these opportunities is the range of Alternative Breaks for the winter, spring and summer. I participated in the Alternative Break to Florida this past winter that focused on becoming more aware about the Immokalee field workers working and living conditions as well as their involvement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) non-profit organization. The group was composed of 14 participants, including staff and students. We learned a little bit more about the work that the CIW has accomplished, and the resources available to the children of the field workers.

Immokalee and the southwest of Florida is significant to the agricultural production fabricated by approximately 4,000 members of the CIW who travel throughout the East coast during the harvest season. These are hard working immigrants that mostly come from Mexico, Central America and Haiti. The CIW fights against the injustices they face in the tomato and citrus fields where they suffer from extremely low wages; and are deprived of sanitary living conditions as well as their human rights. Just like textile workers were paid by the piece, tomato field workers are paid by the bucket — for every 32 lbs. of tomatoes they pick they are paid $0.50. In our orientation meeting with some of the leaders of the CIW we were asked to pick up a 32 lbs. bucket to get an idea of how much that weighs. I can only imagine what it must feel like to work out in the freezing winter / hot summer fields. The majority of the field workers are men, although there is a small percentage of women who are also field workers.

The CIW began by organizing weekly meetings in a room provided by a local church in 1993. The group became more aware of their deprivations as human beings and six of the members went on a hunger strike that lasted one month in 1998. The CIW stated that by 1998, they “had won industry-wide raises of 13-25% (translating into several million dollars annually for the community in increased wages) and a new-found political and social respect from the outside world” (in About the CIW pamphlet). Through the support of students and organizers, in 2000 they marched from Ft. Myers to Orlando, a 234 mile march.

In 2001 the CIW held a national boycott for Taco Bell in which university students joined “Boot the Bell” from their campuses and demand the giant to take responsibility in promoting the enforcement of human rights in the fields where its produce is grown and picked. It took Taco Bell five years to finally agree upon the four demands to act socially responsible and improve field worker’s wages by paying $0.01 more per every pound of tomatoes it purchases from the growers. In April 2007 McDonald’s agreed to work closely with the CIW and investigate cases of abuse in the fields. In 2008 Burger King and Subway joined the promise to ensuring the workers would earn $0.01 per every pound of tomato they pick.

Much of the reason why our group wanted to know more about this issue is because Trader Joe’s, a major tomato consumer, had been reluctant to signed off the Fair Food Agreement. We have a Trader Joe’s within a distance of LMU and many of the student body goes there to purchase their groceries. Coming back from the trip as a group we wanted to protest outside of the Trader Joe’s and urge them to sign off the Fair Food program. But in February of this year Trader Joe’s demonstrated its support and its promise to a sustainable tomato industry for field worker’s and their human rights.

In 2008 the CIW assisted with the investigation of an indenture servitude slavery case where Cesar and Geovanni Navarrete were sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for depriving 28 field workers of their rights and holding them hostage. Above are some pictures showing the place were the trailer use to be. The employers placed the workers under high surveillance and instigated fear so that they would never dare to leave the campsite. In one instance the employers took the workers to the nearby grocery store and two of the workers took courage and managed to escape the store and run to ask for help. The CIW helped with the investigation of this case and as a result the two employers were sentenced to federal prison. Through the CIW’s activism in investigating seven cases of modern day slavery, the CIW has helped to liberate 1,000 workers.

Last week on March 25, 2012 a man walked into the CIW’s office explaining what had just happened to him at his job. He was working at the vegetable packing house, packing eggplants, when the supervisor came up to him and began criticizing his work. The worker felt this was unjust so he talked back; the furious supervisor punched him in the face breaking his nose.

Why am I writing about this under a Chicana Feminisms blog space? Because this demonstrates yet another form of marginalization towards the Latino community. Women make up a small percentage of immigrant field workers in Immokalee, but they certainly are present. They get up early every morning, take care of household arrangements and get ready for the day’s field work. The deprivation of human rights and the modern day slavery cases that victimize field workers who come to this country to better their conditions continues to be a reality. We can become more aware of these injustices and promote change for social justice. Exposing myself to these kinds of experiences makes me more aware of the problems we need to change in our society. The poor, the immigrant, the minority, continue to be marginalized under the system of domination. This is a call to everyone who stands for social justice to seek justice by becoming educated and acting against the constant forms of oppression.

Visiting the town and specifically meeting the soccer coach, Manny Touron, from Redlands Christian Migrant Academy made me happy to know that there is people out there who believe in their students and who dedicate time to guide them to succeed. Manny coaches boys in soccer through an after school soccer academy. One of the things that deeply touch me was when a boy from the team shared with us that the thing that saddened him the most was the fact that he sees his friends more than he sees his parents. This young boy, as well as the rest of the boys have dreams to fulfill, visions to live, and amongst those dreams are providing a stable future to their families through education. Manny dedicates his time to these children; he doesn’t get paid much, but he absolutely loves what he does.

For a virtual tour of Immokalee please click this link: http://ciw-online.org/virtualtour.html

Additional Sources:

Who Said Lighter Skin is More Beautiful?

In today’s society, the word beautiful is completely defined by the media. It is no surprise that the models portrayed in magazines and television are taller and thinner than the average woman, but there is one more component that may not be as obvious, fair skin. Ever since the term mestizaje came to be, lighter skin was seen as the dominant one. The idea of leaving behind the darker and more indigenous features, including skin color has been in our society since. But today this idea of “adelantando la raza” or advancing the race forward by marrying a light-skinned person and producing children lighter than yourself still persists in our society across different race groups.

Just a few years ago, when Yuly Marshall, an Afro-Latina dated a lighter-skinned black Latino, his parents persuaded him to stop dating her because of her dark skin. “They told him to find a white girl so he could adelantar la raza,” Marshall says. There exists a “kind of veiled racism, ignorance and denial—from Latinos and non-Latinos alike” that can make everyday life a challenge for Marshall and other Afro-Latinas because of their skin tone. Some of the reasoning behind this may be due to the fact that even though Afro-Latinas achieve high profiles in Hollywood and other industries, they are not usually seen as such in movies and ads. “Most Afro-Latinas play African-Americans on the screen and Latinas are depicted as light-brown hued” (Damarys Ocana). Zoe Saldana amongst these high profiles, says ““We tend to look for European roots and reject the indigenous and the African, and that’s disgusting. Being Latin is being a mix of everything. I want my people not to be insecure, and to adore what we are because it’s beautiful.”

But these are not the only races dealing with this definition of beauty. Indian culture, for instance, struggles with this component of beauty as well. An article recently published about the magazine Vogue India says that “many Indian people (mostly women) are so obsessed with fair skin they’ll go to the ends of the Earth to lighten theirs, they believe dark skin is ugly and light skin guarantees more opportunities in life.” Vogue India endorses this fair skinned beauty by featuring exclusively light-skinned models and celebrities and several skin-lightening creams. As the article suggests, “the average Indian person is not as light-skinned as models, celebrities and Bollywood actresses.” The reasoning behind this goes back to Indian’s caste system, people in the higher classes were lighter than those in the lower classes because those in the lower classes had to do a lot of manual work under the sun, thus lighter skin was associated with wealth and power back then. The fact that it is associated with “more opportunities” today shows that this same mentality continues because the culture itself still seeks for this distinction in skin color.

It is really a shame that women have yet another requirement to beauty and success. This is major flaw in the media today and a very sad reality for society. The idea of embracing lighter skin is not something that we decided on our own, it is something that people are pressured into by the media we see all around the society we live in and by the long history that this idea of lighter skin representing a higher class came from. This idea of lighter skin being more beautiful is something that has been engrained in us, but as Zoe Saldana pointed out people should embrace their skin color no matter what shade they fall into.

Additional Resources:

“Vogue India racism: Only light skin is beautiful!” Dressful. February 7, 2011. <http://www.dressful.com/4413/vogue-india-racism-only-light-skin-is-beautiful>

Ocana, Damarys. “Negra & Beautiful: The Unique Challenges Faced By Afro-Latinas.” January 27, 2012. <http://www.latina.com/lifestyle/our-issues/negra-beautiful-unique-challenges-faced-afro-latinas>

A Mixture of Culturas: The New Mestiza

Mestizaje is commonly known as the mixture of the European race with the Indians living in the Americas, something that began very long ago when the Americas were first being conquered. According to anthropologists on Mestizaje and Indigenous Identities, a majority of the Mexican population is the genetic product of mixing of “Amerindians with Europeans” and mestizaje is a biological fact. However, taking this into consideration then raises another question, which of the two ends is granted the most importance. A mixture in race also involves a mixture in cultures and according to these anthropologists; the European culture was always seen as the better one. “Europeanness” was associated with ideas of progress and modernization. The living indigenous people were seen as a backward and traditional “in need of modernization and progress” but this progressiveness was defined by having whiter skin, thus looking more indigenous became socially degrading (Mestizaje). In other words, mestizos became a combination of the oppressor and the oppressed. As Margaret Cantú Sánchez puts it in A Mestizaje of Epistemologies in American Indian Stories and Ceremony, “today Americans must accept the fact that we are all a mixture of cultures and must learn to accept the struggle with being both a part of the culture of the oppressed and the oppressors.”

This idea brings us to the “new mestizo” because this is a “doubleness experienced through the mixed-race bodies of the mestiza and mestizo, one in which a sense of belonging coexists with an awareness of exclusion” as stated by Rafael Perez-Torres. This is exactly the message that we find in Anzaldua’s the “New Mestiza.” The new mestiza is one that has been created through a mixture of cultures and “borderlands” that she finds it difficult to associate with just one. Cradled in one culture, sandwhiched between two cultures, straddling all three cultures and their value systems, la mestiza undergoes a struggle of flesh, a struggle of borders, an inner war” (Anzaldua, 100). The new mestiza develops a tolerance for contradictions and ambiguity. “She learns to be an Indian in Mexican culture, to be Mexican from an Anglo point of view” and she develops a plural personality because nothing is rejected, and she learns to sustain the contradictions seen in the different cultures (Anzaldua 101).

The new mestiza is far more complex today than back when the term mestiza first came to be. In today’s society the new mestiza is much stronger, the struggles are still there but it is dealing with these struggles and learning to find an identity between these contradictions in culture and beliefs that the new mestiza creates her personality. A mixture of cultures presents a struggle, but it also presents a uniqueness in one’s identity, because while the new mestiza struggles to define herself, she also has that power to mold out of these learned contradictions what she desires.

Additional resources:
Anzaldua, Gloria. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 2007. Print.

Cruisin’ Down the Street

After returning from the war, the veterans bought used cars that they were able to fix up thanks to the skills that they picked up in the military. To achieve the lowered look they would “sometimes weigh [the car down] with cement bags or bricks in the trunk…” (Stone). The problem that came along with this lowered look was that the car would scrape against speed bumps and the drive away. At the same time this lowered stance was illegal and these lowriders couldn’t raise the height when cops were around or going over curbs or bumps. The solution was installing cargo planes hydraulic suspension, allowing them to raise and lower the car at a flip of a switch. Not only was this a counter culture to hotrod scene it was and still seen as a family/community event. While the adults work on the car, the younger work on their lowrider bicycles. Cruising down at the park and having barbeques is just a typical scene one can see.

While there are plenty of showstopper models lowriders, there is no one set model for lowriders to follow. Lowriders can be any model from the later great models to the models that just rolled out of the factory. Typical of a showcase event there is another attraction that attracts and demands the attention of the attendants. The lowrider bicycles are proudly displayed alongside the other vehicles. (Holstorm). It’s no wonder that “interest in lowrider bikes among Hispanic kids grew out of watching older brothers and fathers working on lowrider cars” (Holstrom). The same enthusiasm and workmanship that goes into building the cars goes into the bicycles. Some spend weeks polishing their bicycles to show off at the show.

Another part of this culture is cruising throughout town. One of the most famous cruising spots is Whittier Boulevard. “This kind of cruising in peacock cars at night along a specified street – done in thousands of communities around the world – is a kind of four-wheeled cultural ritual for youths” (Holstrom). While cruising is when one can show off all their hard work that they have put into their vehicles it is also catching an unwanted attention form the police. While cruising is fun it also causes some problems from traffic to road safety (Holstrom). While the majority are men there are women lowriders who can build and hit the switch with the best of them. Some of the decorations on the cars allow one to see their cultural roots. Embedded on some are images of La Virgin de Guadalupe, historical images from Aztec stories, allowing the public to see their cultural roots.

References:

Holstrom, David. “Cruising.” Christian Science Monitor 90.191 (1998). Web.

http://0-search.ebscohost.com.linus.lmu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=995007&login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Holstrom, David. “TOO YOUNG TO DRIVE? LOWRIDER BIKES ARE THE WAY TO GO.” The Christian Science Monitor. Print.

http://0-search.ebscohost.com.linus.lmu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=995007&login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Sandoval, Denise. “Lowriders”

Stone, Michael Cutler. “Bajito y sauvecito [low and slow]: Low riding and the `class’ of class.”

Studies in Latin American Popular Culture vol. 9 (1990): 85-127.Print

http://0-search.ebscohost.com.linus.lmu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9612300797&login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Thomas, Irene Middlemen. “Shake, rattle, & roll.” Hispanic 7.6 (1994): 14-17. Print.

http://0-search.ebscohost.com.linus.lmu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9407077806&login.asp&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Images:

Mister Cartoon’s Ice Cream Truck taken from the Vans OTW article “Interview with OTW Advocate Mister Cartoon” .

My Truth written by Beatriz Alfaro

My Truth

Yes, it is true that I was not born in this country Yes, it is true that English was not my first language . . . that my mother’s mother raised 10 kids all on her own . . . that I don’t come from a family of doctors and lawyers

But I do come from a lineage of strong women women who maximize every resource who share even if they have little who still love even if they’ve been hurt who find reason to smile when no one else is

what’s not true is that I don’t belong here. . . I’m exactly where I’am supposed to be

and that’s my truth

Image from 2011 Women of Color Leadership Retreat

This piece was inspired by all the works I’ve read about Chicana women, such as in Chicana Feminist Thought, ¡Chicaca Power! and This Bridge Called My Back, who are not given the respect they are entitled to and who’ve struggled to fit in. Many women of color are made to feel ashamed of their culture, language, heritage, etc., because it is not the dominant one or lived in mainstream society. There have been women and still are led to believe that they can’t achieve what they dream or that they don’t deserve what they want. Many are belittled including but not limited to reasons because they’re not the “right” sex, gender or race. However US Third World Feminism which emerged from the Chicana Movement did many things to address issues of discrimination and to bring women together through shared experiences. It also proposed to counteract negative representations of womanhood by having women from all backgrounds reclaim their identities and stories. My goal was to write a piece that is self-affirming and motivates women to tell their stories. Even if women took a different path in life either by choice or force, nothing changes the fact that they deserve to be free and happy.

Additional resources:

http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/santow.html

this bridge we call home (1)

This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation, Gloria Anzaldua & AnaLouise Keating (Editors), Routledge, 2002.

Reading assignment for Monday, April 9, 2012. Your reply (under Comments) is due before class. Your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about both of the readings. Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.

Chela Sandoval, “After Bridge: Technologies of Crossing” (From this bridge we call home 21-26), Evelyn Alsultany, “Los Intersticios: Recasting Moving Selves” (From this bridge we call home 106-110), Jid Lee “The Cry-Smile Mask: A Korean American Woman’s System of Resistance” (From this bridge we call home 397-402).

Students Propose a New Program

This is part of a longer blog series, which you can find links to the previous as well as the next blog posts at the bottom of this blog.

Now the question was whether those expectations were going to be met.

The students knew they had to do their own research and put some work into the developing of the program so that is why within the Proposal for a Chicano Studies Department presented by the United Mexican American Students (UMAS) of Loyola-Marymount, they also include a preface to the actual program they wanted, an introduction and justification to the department and then even a description of the courses, and a suggested outline and bibliography cited from an introductory survey course at USC.

The Preface explains where UMAS did their reasearch and got their information from. It says that UMAS’s course proposal was taken from the proposal submitted at Valley State College (VSC), the precursor to California State University Northridge . The introduction was applied to Loyola University because of the inner-city environment it is also found in. While “the bibliography and the introductory La Raza course are borrowed from Professor de Ortega”, who is mentioned in the proposal but I did not find any information on. Although he is quoted to say that “there is no better environment for a Mexican American Studies Program than the humanist traditions of Loyola University… especially with the Jesuit influence in Latin American and Southwest History,” (page 12). Showing promise and someone who believed in what the students were doing. Through their work the students hoped that “a substantial portion of this proposal must be implemented by the fall of the 1970-71 session with core courses and introductory survey courses being implemented in the winter quarter of the 1969-70 session,” (page 12-13). The students had submitted something they hoped would ease the development because when you see the document as a whole you are taken back by how much thought and work was put into it. No wonder the students were expecting a quick turn around. And they knew it too, because they mention that “although the program is subject to revision, we [the UMAS students] do not consider it subject to extermination or delay” (page 13). They knew immediate implementation was unrealistic but demanded immediate action toward implementing the program. If the system failed, they even went on to state that it would cause Chicanos to continue to drop out and go somewhere else where the curriculum seemed more relevant. Additionally, UMAS states that they would discourage Chicanos from coming to Loyola-Marymount, if their demands were not taken seriously.

After such bold statements the department begins to develop with the introduction and justification coming from VSC and then we see the course proposal.

The course proposal has a four page long course list, broken into lower and upper division requirements. For upper division, the student has to choose a focus and thus gets the options to take humanities, social sciences, or education focused courses. It also has a course outline for a minor. Then it is followed by the outline and bibliography for an introductory survey course at USC which they hoped would serve as an example of the same basic structure that should be used at Loyola-Marymount.

And so it was left to the hands of those in charge because the students had done all that they could within the proposal.

Sources:

Loyola University. Student Affairs Record Group. UMAS Proposal, 1968. RG 7, Record Series E: Student Organizations, Box 5. Loyola Marymount University Archives, Department of Archives and Special Collections, William H. Hannon Library, LMU, Los Angeles.

Picture: http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/mecha_intro.htm

The Birth of the Chicana/o Studies Department, Setting the Stage,From Chicano Studies Department to Mexican-American Studies Degree Program, Capstone Project Gone Blog, So You Want to Take Introduction to Chicana/o Studies?, So Let’s Put Some of the Pieces Together