Answering Kennedy's Call
Chapter Seven—Part I
I had heard of the United Farmworkers Union several years earlier while working as a television news cameraman for KTTV Channel 11, a Sacramento TV station.
One shoot was a weekend special report on the US Immigration Service in action to show their prowess in protecting the borders. We reported on the Immigration Service rounding up undocumented aliens in the fields—Mexican and Central American seasonal workers—while they were working.
I thought then it was an unjust system, as I filmed these so- called “illegals” being chased down and herded like cattle by “La Migra”, their term for the Immigration Service. The growers, of course, knew many of the workers did not have valid Green Card work visas and had turned a blind eye to the labor contractors that smuggled them across the border.
I learned much about California labor relations while filming for KTTV and watching how the growers operated. Farm workers had almost no protections in those days, since even those with legal work visas weren’t given adequate housing or benefits.
It was a brutal system, so when Cousin John asked if I wanted to help him out with whatever needed to be done in La Paz to support the United Farmworkers Union, I thought it a worthy cause. I had little idea of what that meant at the time even though I had worked with farmworkers in a Turkish village as a Peace Corps Volunteer for two years.
It was easy to see that the UFW needed lots of help. I met César Chávez at a low point in the UFW. La Paz had a small staff for several reasons. The United Farmworkers Union had just 6,000 members then. This was after many growers had signed Teamster ‘sweetheart’ contracts to avoid re-signing expired UFW labor contracts. Its membership was as high as 70,000 in the early 1970s.
César had purchased the former Kern County TB sanitarium in 1971 that had been abandoned when modern wonder drugs made the quarantine of TB patients no longer necessary. The UFW had outgrown its original Delano headquarters in the San Joaquin valley as union membership grew.
Re-named Nuestra Senora Reina de la Paz, or Our Lady Queen of Peace, it contained dormitories for the farmworkers, a hospital, and staff for those who worked there. The former sanitarium was leased from Edward Lewis, a Hollywood film producer who supported many social causes. He had to be the straw buyer of record of La Paz from its Kern County owners, since Kern County’s decision- makers were no friend to the UFW.
There was a lot of work to be done at La Paz to make it habitable for farmworkers and staff. Cousin John had already begun to renovate the dormitories to house farmworkers and staff, as well as modernize the hospital. The place had been abandoned for years, and since I had worked as a carpenter several summers to pay for my UC education, I was happy to assist.
I soon began spending weeks instead of weekends at La Paz, and hoped I would have the opportunity to use my film and photography skills as I did with the Environmental Protection Agency, since this was a chance to record history in the making. It seemed to be a call to work in another new frontier that President Kennedy had spoken of, advancing human rights using peaceful means to better farmworkers’ lives.
So, I became a fulltime resident of La Paz in January 1974, whereas Cousin John still lived and worked in Los Angeles.
But he could be called upon to bring up any necessary skilled labor. In fact, without the skilled union carpenters, plumbers, plasterers and electricians John was always bringing from Los Angeles, César couldn’t have completed the Agbayani Retirement Village for retired Filipino farmworkers to honor those who were some of the first to join the UFW. He wanted to honor them because they were the first to strike for better working conditions and join the UFW. He said many times
Agbayani Village was an example of benefits that would be possible for UFW
members...(to be cont'd)
Harlan Green © 2022
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