Ministry of the Dispossessed Ministry of the Dispossessed Learning from the Farm Worker Movement Pat Hoffman WALLACE PRESS Los Angeles Published by Wallace Press Los Angeles, California Copyright © 1987 by Pat Hoffman All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner, except for brief quotations included in a review of the book. ISBN: 0-941181-00-6 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data: 86-51483 Hoffman, Pat Ministry of the Dispossessed Bibliography: p. Index 1. Ministry. 2. Church and social movements. 3. Organizing as ministry. 4. Liberation theology Printed in the United States of America To Mendota, California and the farm workers who worried, worked and suffered there. You taught me some of my most important lessons. Table of Contents Foreword by Cesar Chavez Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Early Ties Between Church and Farm Workers 2 Meeting Farm Workers In the Fields 3 The Farm Worker Movement Comes To the Cities 4 Opposition Targets the Church 5 Solidarity As Servant Ministry 6 Remembering, We May Learn Appendix Notes Bibliography Index Foreword Way back in the beginning of our Union, someone asked what we expected from the Church. I answered that we did not want more churches or cathedrals; rather, we wanted the Church to be present with us, beside us, willing to sacrifice for justice, ready to be Christ among us. At the time, I wasn’t thinking about how much the farm workers in the union—the strikers and the boycotters—were themselves the Church-in-the-world, showing the way for many Christians who yearned for a better world. We were not, of course, trying to make a theological statement. We were just doing what we had to do for the sake of a measure of justice in the fields. And, as it turned out, many thousands of people from the churches joined us along the way. The Migrant Ministry led from the beginning. They were beside us with support and with their lives. I am sure they had their anxious moments, but it did not keep them from throwing themselves into the middle of our fight. And from that position alongside us, they pulled significant parts of the non-farm worker Church into our movement. Pat Hoffman has done a remarkable job of telling the story of the Church’s involvement with the farm workers union. Even more importantly, she has demonstrated through the experiences of individuals, how participation in the UFW struggle challenged people’s values and priorities, shaped their understanding of social change and led them in directions that truly changed their lives. These determined farm worker supporters then affected the priorities of the Church by forcing the agenda of the poor into meetings and assemblies and public worship in ways that most of us in the Union did not fully appreciate at the time. The challenge of the Union’s struggle also changed the lives of farm workers, forcing them to make hard decisions about their basic economic security and placing the issues of justice and future hope for their children, in the center of family life. Many workers and souses and children made sacrifices for their cause that are still an inspiration: going on strike with little or no resources in reserve, and traveling to strange, cold, far-away cities to tell the story of the strike and boycott to any person or any group who would listen. In almost every case, those sacrifices for justice brought remarkable human growth, a deepening of religious faith, and an unshakeable confidence in the unifying power of non-violent struggle. As the churches face new challenges and controversies in communities of the poor all over the world, it would be wise to reflect on the lessons learned by the Migrant Ministry’s pilgrimage in the fields. I know what farm workers will never forget the people who stood with us in those darkest days when no one believed that a farm worker’s union could survive and actually bring about change. And it is also hard to forget those others who turned their backs on us when the need was greatest. Our struggle for justice in the fields continues. The poor in many places call on the Church to risk comfort and privilege for the sake of God’s peace and justice. Pat Hoffman’s book is not only clear and readable and historically important, it also points the way for the Church to learn from the poor and to gain spiritual life and strength from the movements of the dispossessed. Cesar Chavez, President United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO La Paz, Keene, California Acknowledgments This book was Fred Eyster’s idea. Fred is the Co-Director of the National Farm Worker Ministry. His idea became a reality because he was willing to search for grant money to help cover the expenses of writing the book. Special thanks to Harvey and Lois Baker of Florida and our friends in the denominations for their help in that regard. Thanks to to my husband, Cecil, whose courageous decision to go to Mendota, California, set my life on a path with people in struggle. He read and discussed the ideas in the book and forthrightly advised me on what would express the story well. He also revealed the mysteries of computer technology to me as I needed new revelations. Many people consented to be interviewed for this book. I love their stories and treasure the insights and experiences they shared with me. Not every person interviewed is quoted in the book. But every person’s insights helped form the ideas expressed here. All those interviewed are listed in the Bibliography. There must be hundreds of people I would have liked to interview. Practically every friend I have was significantly involved with the farm worker movement. I was overwhelmed with the task of deciding who not to interview. I interviewed people who represented categories of folks who had been involved: students, farm workers, clergy, middle-class, middle-aged church people, denominational executives, Migrant Ministry staff, Church Women United, and UFW or former UFW staff. There is special attention paid to the United Church of Christ, which, of all the denominations, took the most heat for their support of the farm workers. Of those interviewed, three deserve special note. Jim Drake had a singular role in the involvement of the Church with the United Farm Workers Union. He made a long car trip in order to meet me in San Antonio, Texas, and then submitted to an entire day of interrogation and taping. After all that, he and his wife were gracious enough to take me to dinner. He gave me several excellent ideas for approaching the material. I’ve tried to use them. Chris Hartmire was the Director of the Migrant Ministry (later called the National Farm Worker Ministry) during the years examined in this book. While I have been writing the book, he has had major responsibilities with the United Farm Workers. But he cheerfully gave me enormous amounts of time for in-person interviews, numerous phone conversations, painstaking review of the manuscript to find details I had gotten wrong or missed, and encouragement. And he and his wife, Jane, provided a place for me to stay when I would travel to La Paz. Cesar Chavez worked me into his demanding schedule more than once. But more important than the interviews has been his leadership with farm workers and the opportunities his style of leadership has given to the middle-class Church. I’m grateful to Winthrop Yinger for trustingly lending me his excellent collection of primary documents. I hope Fresno State University will be able to find the duplicates which were given to them. Besides Cecil Hoffman and Chris Hartmire, the manuscript has been read by Chris Glaser, an outstanding Christian leader and valued friend, and by Dr. Roland Tapp, a distinguished church educator and editor. For those of us who write, our manuscripts are our babies. We entrust them only to the best. Introduction IN THE EARLY SIXTIES and seventies the tiny California Migrant Ministry led thousands of middle class Christians into involvement with a movement of dispossessed people, farm workers, from whom we learned about faith, courage, empowerment, and non-violent change. What can movements of dispossessed people bring to the Church that is energizing and renewing? What do the poor encounter when they try to get help from the institutional Church? How can people and structures help or hinder involvement? This book explores the lasting imprint of farm workers on the lives of some of their supporters and on the Church. And it examines the prophetic witness of the Migrant Ministry, an ecumenical agent of the Church, in putting the risky requirements of the poor first. My own involvement with farm workers began when I was twenty-three years old. It was 1985 and my husband Cecil and our two babies moved to Mendota, California, in the central agricultural valley of that State. Cecil was fresh out of seminary. Neither of us wanted to return to the suburban church kind of situation we had grown up in. Cecil was to be part of the California Migrant Ministry’s (CMM) rural fringe ministry to workers settling on the outskirts of towns and cities in the Valley. This was before farm workers started organizing under the leadership of Cesar Chavez. Their poverty shocked me. The inhuman treatment they routinely received angered me.