Reflection #2--La SED and Anna Nieto Gomez

Archival Image

There were several documents that caught my eye during my short time in the Bentley Historical Library. Here I will focus on only two. The first of item that interested me was actually not an image but the copy of an official corporate document for La SED.  The two-page document was titled Evaluation for Second Year Funding and produced in 1969, a year after La SED’s formation. The reason I found this document particularly interesting, and why I chose to write about it alongside the newspaper clipping, was that it laid out in very clear terms the goals of La SED, its shortcomings, and what exactly the group planned to do about them. The document was a formal request for funds through what was known as the Area Service Fund. The document listed the services that La SED was to provide to the community: direct and referral service in the area of unemployment, welfare, housing, language difficulties, health, and bilingual educational programs in the elementary schools located in the Latin community. For the year 1969-1970, La SED felt that they had not worked on the aged, poor city services and poor agency service adequately and required more funding in order to do so.

La SED also mentioned its facilities in its request for funds. In 1969, their headquarters were situated in a building that had once been used as a bank. The state of the building is mentioned explicitly here, noted as being in good condition and in no need of refurbishment for its new purpose. I found all of this to be importance because it framed La SED in a different perspective. The organization was a corporation—I read its article of incorporation, too—and so it operated as a legal entity with legally protected rights. The interesting part about it being incorporated, at least to me, was that it both gave it greater ability to affect the community, but also distanced La SED from it simultaneously. The demand for open membership for the community would come in 1972.

The image helped to tie all of this together. The newspaper article published in 1971 titled “Detroit Latin Community Learning to Unite for Own Betterment” contained two images of a teaching seminar hosted by La SED. The seminar took place in the La SED main offices. The point of the seminar was to bring together members of the community and discuss the ways to make it better. The image stressed the importance of cooperation between the various Latin communities in Detroit. According to the article and my own prior knowledge, different communities needed different things. That La SED would host such a seminar suggests its goals were to support and develop all the communities that had a Latin membership not just a select few.

Oral History

For my oral history assignment, I viewed the interviews of Anna Nieto Gomez. The first thing that I noticed in the initial video was the brief period, an intro I suppose, where there was conversation between the interviewer (Maria Cotera) and Gomez. Here history too played a part, but it was much more informal, merely a means of getting to know each other and feel comfortable. I was actually glad that this remained in the video for my viewing. It gave me an idea of how some interviewees might respond while the camera was on them for the first time. Furthermore, by going over an aspect of Gomez’s history this may have helped to jog her mind and get her prepared for the following questions. There were two things that stood out to me as a result of Gomez’s interview. The first was that all history is complicated both on a personal, micro level and also on a larger level. The second thing that I learned was that no history is complete, there are always more perspectives than can be accounted for.

Gomez’s account helps to increase the complexity of what I’ve learned so far about the Chicanas, not only for what she remembered but also for what she didn’t. Her story was different from the Chicanas that she would later encounter due to her upbringing. Raised in San Bernadino, California, her childhood and experiences with racism and, as she would learn later, sexism were different than her peers. Though she mentions getting involved in activism later, the ability to look within the community for answers and solutions seems to have started earlier for her in her hometown. When she went off to Long Beach to attend school, she gained her first experience organizing. While there she encountered like-minded students who were fed up with racist practices both on campus and in society. Her encounter with the Chicanos there helped to underline the intricacies of people and social movements. The men were openly sexist and even celebrated putting down women as part of a machismo male identity. This was new to Gomez who had grown up in a community where, for the most part, men and women cooperated on equal terms.

The development of a women’s branch of the social movement, according to Gomez, was derivative of both a male initiative to concentrate women’s influence elsewhere and also women in need of space outside of the male dominated and hostile environment that made up the movement’s leadership. This is different than what I would normally expect to hear about the start of a separate movement and organization. Gomez’s perspective sheds light on new ways to view social organizations and how those divisions between members play out over time. It was also entirely different than the films that I’ve been exposed to on feminism and Chicanas. Most of the films that I’ve seen focused specifically on a either a movement or very key figures (read already well known) in said movement. By interviewing more people who were involved in activism we can gain greater insight into the mechanisms behind it.

The technique behind the use of the camera gave me more insight as to how the interview process worked as well. The lighting and sound worked well in the first few videos, though the shot became a little darker during the course of the interviews. I preferred the lighting in the first view videos as opposed to the lighting in the last few. More light made it seem more natural and engaging and helped me focus on the interviewee’s facial expressions. The framing throughout the interview I thought worked well. Gomez was always looking inside the shot from the right or left, or she was in the middle. I preferred the shot being from right (I think that this was used most commonly) with Gomez looking into the frame.

I noticed that the interviewer allowed the Gomez to speak freely on most issues rather than seeking to steer the conversation directly. I thought that this was a good angle. Broader questions enabled the interviewee to explain further and draw connections that might not have visible beforehand. Furthermore, her experience as a professor, I thought, made her better at wrapping up her statements and focusing them around the interviewer’s questions. The questions asked, however, still do frame the narrative, but that does not necessarily reduce the interviewee’s role in its formation.