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UFW DOCUMENTATION PROJECT ONLINE DISCUSSION May 2004

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UFW DOCUMENTATION PROJECT ONLINE DISCUSSION May 2004 UFW DOCUMENTATION PROJECT ONLINE DISCUSSION May 2004 LeRoy Chatfield, 5/4/04: RE: ANNOUNCEMENT* ONLINE DISCUSSION GROUP* MAY-DEC 04 GREETINGS TO FORMER UFW VOLUNTEERS, * * * * The documentation project is sponsoring a private, online discussion group that will begin on Saturday, May 8 and end on Friday, December 31, 2004. Who is eligible to participate? All former UFW volunteers are eligible to participate in the discussion group. * * * * What is the purpose of the documentation project online discussion group? The only purpose is to develop the historical record of the farmworker movement, 1962-1993. This online discussion group gives each former UFW volunteer – not simply those who wrote an essay – the opportunity to contribute factual information, give opinions, write commentary or ask questions. If there is enough discussion by participants, then the historical record created by the farmworker documentation project should be thoughtful, insightful, penetrating, well rounded, and balanced. Will the historical record created by the online discussion group be made public? Yes. The discussion archive created by the participants will be published in a CD format along with the 175 farmworker movement essays. Email addresses will not be published. * * * * Reminder! The [email protected] is not an online chat room or gossip forum and while there will be differences of opinion, I expect the discussion to be thoughtful, sincere and civil. Thank you for your generous words of support and your financial contributions to the documentation project. LeRoy Chatfield 5/8/04: RE: DISCUSSION TO START TODAY * * * * 1. There are 301 former UFW volunteers enrolled in this private discussion group. * * * * SOME BEGINNING TOPICS OF DISCUSSION: 1. I read each essay. I was surprised how many times that Fred Ross, Sr. – and his training role – was mentioned in the different essays. If the essays had been written covering my period of personal experience, 1963-1973, that would not be the case. Fred was certainly involved in the early farmworker years but not to the extent he shows up in later years. It surprised me. 2. I was pleasantly surprised to find how different and unique each essay turned out to be. I had been fearful that since we were all writing about the “same” movement that we would write about the same things. NOT the case, and I believe this makes the documentation project even 1 more valuable. I learned something new with each essay I read. Did you have any surprises when you read the essays (or some of them)? 3. After reading the essays, I have formed the opinion that Proposition 14 (1976) was a life changing event for the union, even more than the passage of the ALRA in 1975. I don’t know if this is enough to get the discussion started but we will give it a try. LeRoy Chatfield 1963-1973 Richard Ybarra, 5/8/04 RE: DISCUSSION TO START TODAY While I have not read the host of essays yet I know they are rich with details, depth and definitions of our shared life changing and changing life experiences. I want to read the essays before going deeper into the interesting review of times past and lessons learned. The one suggestion I would make today LeRoy is that in the aftermath of Cesar's death I had a number of interesting conversations about his death (especially where we were that morning and other occurrences around that time) and some of what mattered to him and us during our time with the union. I had the opportunity to speak with Father Bill O'Donnell (who died recently) just after Cesar's death and he related some interesting stories about his time with the union and with Cesar. Oftentimes we stayed at his place when we would be working in the Bay Area. Let me add my thanks to you for taking the time and making the time important enough to matter again. This is a history that is well worth exploring and revisiting for the memories and the valuable contributions and lessons. While I am not sure of its relevance or if your informal rules here allow for it, but I would like to take the liberty of proudly announcing that last Saturday in Maui Barbara Chavez Ybarra was married to Emilio Saludado Magana….. and life goes on...... Terry Carruthers (Vasquez) Scott, 5/8/04 RE: Fred Ross, Prop. 14, etc. Hi All: When I was on the LA Boycott in 1974, Fred conducted a huge training program to teach all of the staff organizers his method of conducting house meetings. This included breaking down the script/ content of what should be covered in the house meetings, role-playing among ourselves, as well as Fred attending and critiquing our handling of an actual house meeting. In LA alone we had over 100 people on staff that summer and since his training was repeated in boycott cities across the country, that is one big reason why a lot of us who were on staff that year got to know Fred. Two things strike me about Prop 14 – one, it was a tremendous accomplishment to get so many valid signatures in so short a period of time that it really showed what the union could do when it went all out. (For me personally, I know it tested my physical limits like nothing else before it had.) But, more importantly, in my mind it really was just an inevitable outgrowth of the ALRA; once the union made a conscious decision to work within the legislative system, we lost some power because of that. All of a sudden we’re reacting and trying to figure out how to play by someone else’s rules. So, LeRoy, I would say that perhaps it comes across as life changing because everyone dropped what they were doing to go work on it (and we couched it as being a life or death fight for the union), but I personally think the ALRA was the bigger turning point. In general to all of you who wrote essays, I’ve enjoyed reading them and thinking again about those years (Big kudos to LeRoy for putting this all together!) I attended the dedication of the National Chavez Center a couple of weekends ago; the memorial garden and visitor center are well done and very beautiful. It was great to see some old friends, but I had very mixed feelings being back in La Paz again. Just a sense of sadness that all that energy/ passion/ potential that we all gave so much to is now being focused on a museum. 2 And, hey Ybarra family, congrats on Barbara’s wedding. Is Emilio Ralph and Maria Magana’s son? If so, it really is a small world. Terry Scott 1973-1988 Theresa Bonpane, 5/8/04 RE: Fred Ross, Prop. 14, etc. hi all, in terms of organizing skills learned, i learned most of mine from you, leroy, and marshall ganz and Jessica Govea, who, i believe, learned theirs from fred ross. while working on, was it, sb 40, no on 22, or …? that blase and i were assigned to the canby house in the san fernando valley. colleen was 1½ years old and blase martin, 6 months. my remembrance was that you, leroy, called us each morning and worked with us to set up the day’s agenda: when and where to leaflet, what telephoning to do, what to request, how to follow up, bring in volunteers, do house parties, etc. since that time, forgive my humility, but I have become known as a “top organizer (all credit to you!) as i have been organizing ever since, the office of the americas still follows much of what i learned from leroy, jessica and marshall – thank you! love, theresa bonpane and the office of the Americas… LeRoy Chatfield 5/9/04 (1) RE: PROPOSITION 14 ONE MORE TIME I did not generate much discussion about my observation that Proposition 14 (1976) created a sea change in the farmworker movement – and in Cesar personally – even more so, in my opinion, than the passage of the ALRA (1975). Even though not much discussion has been generated about my opinion, I do not yet want to let it go because the issue is important (I believe) and the essays show it to be so. Consider these points: 1. In 1976, 40 volunteers left the Union and in 1977, 36 volunteers left. This number represents 10% of the volunteers who came and went from 1962-1993. True, I cannot make a direct link between each person leaving and Proposition 14 but there are many such links within the essays themselves. 2. Essay writers talk about the superhuman effort that was required to gather the signatures to put the measure on the ballot. Many talk about their personal exhaustion, working 7 days a week, 14 hours a day. Gathering the signatures was a marathon experience. 3. The essay writers talk about the shock of losing the election and felt it was a crushing defeat. For many of the volunteers this was the first time that the farmworkers movement had been publicly trounced. The boycott victories and the ALRA 1975 summer farmworker election victories seem to fade away. 4. Essay writers talk about the La Paz post-election debriefings (sometimes volatile), about the large reassignments of volunteers and evaluations (sort of like choosing up team members) made about whether this volunteer was more suitable for the union’s number one priority of field office assignment/organizing or their number two priority of trying to keep some of the fire of the boycott flickering.
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