Latino Immigrant Civic and Political Participation in Fresno and Madera, California

LATINO IMMIGRANT CIVIC AND POLITICAL PARTICIPATION in Fresno and Madera, California by MYRNA MARTÍNEZ NATERAS and EDUARDO STANLEY PREFACE 1 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 2 THE CONTEXT: 6 Immigrants Residing in Fresno ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: 12 “History, Participation, and Identity of Fresno Latino Immigrants” ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION: 23 “Generational Changes” INTERVIEWS: 33 Immigrants Now “FROM HERE ON” 45 APPENDIX I 46 Historical Milestones APPENDIX II 49 Project Participants: Roundtable Discussion APPENDIX III 51 About the Authors 1 L PREFACE A T IN O I MMIGRAN T C I V IC AND PO This report is part of a series on Latin participating as civic and political actors in LI T American immigrant civic and political par- cities around the United States. This collec- ICAL P ticipation that looks at nine cities around the tion explores recent trends in Latino immi- AR T United States: Charlotte, NC; Chicago, IL; grant integration following the 2006 immi- icipa T Fresno, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Los Angeles, CA; grant civic mobilizations, highlighting both I O N Omaha, NE; Tucson, AZ; San Jose, CA; and similarities and differences across diverse cities in Fresno and Madera, California and Madera, in Fresno Washington, DC. and sectors. For the Fresno report, a round- This series, funded by a grant from the John table forum was organized in the Council D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chambers at the City Hall in which 36 people is part of an initiative, based at the Woodrow participated. Afterwards, 10 other people were Wilson Center, on Latin American immigrant interviewed to complement the information civic and political participation, led by Xóchitl and analysis. Bada of the University of Illinois at Chicago, By the end of the present report, a num- Jonathan Fox of the University of California, ber of people participated in this effort. Santa Cruz, and Andrew Selee at the Woodrow However, we would like to thank those peo- Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute. Robert ple who also made this work possible: Alan Donnelly is the coordinator of the project, and Lessik, Ana García, Tamejavi volunteers, Kate Brick served as coordinator previously. Blong Xiong, Luz Estrada, John Esparza, The reports on each city describe the oppor- Alma Martinez, Vic Yellow Hawk White, and tunities and barriers Latino immigrants face in Ed Kissam. 2 INTRODUCTION in Fresno and Madera, California and Madera, in Fresno N O I T In this case study, we seek to understand Including Fresno as one of the participant icipa T some dimensions of the context in which are cities in the research project, “Latin American AR P formed and expressed the civic and political Migrants: Civic and Political Participation ICAL participation of immigrants residing in the in a Binational Context,” sponsored by the T LI counties of Fresno and Madera, California, as Woodrow Wilson Center and coordinated by PO well as the history of their formation as politi- Xóchitl Bada, Jonathan Fox, and Andrew Selee, AND cal agents. Statistics tell us of the low rates of provides an opportunity to observe a particular IC V I naturalization1 and voter registration2 among variable that helps in understanding some of T C immigrants in the Central Valley, yet this com- the different practices of civic and political par- munity works day after day to achieve a more ticipation of Latino immigrants in the Fresno MMIGRAN just and dignified life, and to integrate into area, specifically Mexicans and indigenous O I IN and become more active members of the larger Mexicans. Studying an agricultural region T A L community. characterized by a long history of immigration For a long time, immigrants’ political expe- allows us to analyze the history, the economic riences and successes went unnoticed. But the and sociopolitical conditions, the individual community has made some important organi- experiences, and the group dynamics that pro- zational advances and attained some political vide the context for the formation of an immi- maturity. The 2006 and 2007 marches, which grant community as a political sector in which mobilized a record fifteen thousand and five civic actions are carried out. Including Fresno thousand people, respectively (not includ- in this project also offered an excellent oppor- ing the marches in more rural areas such as tunity to compile some testimonies about Madera and Farmersville),3 were not mere hap- the political formation process of immigrants penstance; along with the social effervescence residing there; that is, to tell a story that has prevailing in the country, there is in Fresno not yet been told. an incipient organizational infrastructure that Although this study focuses mainly on supports the local activists who are slowly and Fresno County — with a population of quietly investing their own political experience 858,948, 47 percent Latino, of which 93 in this process. percent is of Mexican origin4 — we have also included part of the city of Madera, located which our work is based is that the members of twenty miles north of Fresno, with a popula- the working group should be directly affected tion of 50,000 and a large concentration of by the research subject. We all have been active indigenous Mexican immigrants (approximate- in the community on different fronts; thus we ly 15,000) mainly from the state of Oaxaca. contributed our own experiences as immigrants We believe it is important to include this pop- or first-generation immigrants to the informa- 3 ulation to illustrate how immigrant civic and tion that was gathered and the knowledge that L A T political participation in some rural areas is not was generated in the process. IN O I limited to a geographical area, but is connected The main sources for our compilation are MMIGRAN to the labor mobility of these populations and a roundtable discussion, interviews, archival the areas of influence of organizations that research, and a theoretical framework provided T C promote immigrant civic participation. For by a background paper commissioned especial- I V IC example, some grassroots committees func- ly for the project. AND tion seasonally according to participants’ labor PO ROUNDTAblE DISCUSSION movement; such is the case of some people LI T from Madera migrating to Washington state ICAL P to follow the crops. Even though we cannot The main goal of the roundtable discus- AR T treat the Central Valley as homogeneous, as sion was to listen to accounts of the history icipa each context has its own characteristics, we do that influenced the formation of immigrants T I O believe that Fresno and Madera exhibit aspects as civic and political agents. Under the title N that can be generalized at a regional level. “History, Participation, and Identity of Fresno California and Madera, in Fresno Based on the work methodology used at Latino Immigrants,” the roundtable was held the Pan Valley Institute (PVI) of the American August 30, 2007, at the city council chambers Friends Service Committee (AFSC), which in Fresno. This location was chosen as part of coordinated the project in Fresno, the first step an organizational strategy to bring immigrant in implementing this research was to set up a issues to public places in response to the anti- working group to organize and guide the data immigrant climate in the country.5 collection process. This consisted of Institute The major agricultural labor battles that staff members Myrna Martínez Nateras and erupted in the sixties were spearheaded by Estela Galván, as well as Rufino Domínguez Mexican and Filipino farm workers and led and Eduardo Stanley, both of whom have a by the late César Chávez and Dolores Huerta. long history as direct participants in and/or That movement inspired other leaders who, in communicators of some of the experiences on the 1970s and 1980s, headed up struggles in which we based our case study. which their demands grew to include greater This work is a participatory research exer- political representation and greater access to cise. We set as the ultimate goal of the proj- social and educational services; above all, they ect that the information and knowledge gen- included a call for the formation of a politi- erated in the investigation would not end up cal group with its own cultural identity. Those being used solely for the dissemination of data, who led the struggles identified themselves as but would also be used as a tool to support Chicanos, Mexican-Americans, or Hispanics. the still-evolving process of the formation of Many of these leaders were first-generation immigrants residing in Fresno into true politi- Mexicans and were shaped by an environment cal actors. Another participatory principle on of immigrant families. Some of these activists, whom we call the “old guard,” participated in paper titled “Context and Dynamics of Civic this discussion. We believe that we can learn and Political Participation Among Immigrants from their experiences in drawing up the so- in Fresno County.” In this paper, Kissam ana- called Latino agenda; they opened spaces and lyzes theories of civic participation, presents created opportunities for the organizational demographic data that illustrate the economic 4 efforts now being led by the new generation of and social dynamics, and includes examples of immigrants. Members of this group, the “new issues in immigration and civic participation in leaders,” were invited to the roundtable; they the Central Valley. are immigrants who have settled in Fresno and Madera since the 1980s and who have taken DEFINITIONS FROM AN part in the organizational

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