Archival
Image – Michigan Migrant Ministry
I decided to go back through the Bentley archive holdings of
the Michigan Migrant Ministry (MMM). Established by the Home Missions Council
of North America in 1940, this Protestant group focused on bringing welfare and
ministry to migrant workers throughout the State of Michigan. More specifically
they focused on Mexican Migrant laborers, and with our interviewee, Emily
Martinez, being a former farm worker advocate, I though it would be interesting
to hear her perspective vs. the perspectives of ministry workers in this group.
Very few of the documents actually produced images, but this
one struck me because it embodies the writings of the MMM. Not only were they
as a group trying to minister and provide welfare and schooling, but their focus
in their letters and reports also reflected their hope that the communities
they started centers in would adopt the Mexican Migrant workers into their
churches. Its simplicity reflects the MMM itself; the group ran on a few core
values, and had a relatively simple message (at least from their pov): bringing
Christian service to Migrants. As I read more of the archive, some of the
letters and other writings gave off an evangelical mindset. Welfare was still
important but religious ministry was definitely at the forefront of the MMM. I
will be interested to see if Emily Martinez has ever heard of the group, and if
so, what she thinks of the Protestant Group.
I like this image because it does lack the frippery you
often see in other religious symbols. Your eyes are drawn to the language; more
often than not extravagant religious symbols overshadow the message of writing
that complements it. I also think this image is telling of what the MMM’s first
and foremost focus is; religious conversion. I find it interesting that this
group would spend so much time with a predominantly Catholic group of migrant
workers, and I believe their focused of welfare was true, but their underlying
hope was religious conversion.
Oral
History – Rosie Castro
Background
Rosie Castro was born in 1947 and grew up an only child in
San Antonio, Texas. Raised by a single mom, she spent much of her childhood
alone while her mother worked cleaning houses to keep food on the table and
eventually send her to Catholic School. Rosie said it was there that her
awakenings to the injustices truly began. Seeing the treatment of her mother by
Anglo employers, Rosie spent her school days (K-12) at the Catholic school,
where she eventually became class president, as well as organized a youth club
to expand her high school to other kids. While there, she said she was exposed
to the gospels of social justice. Espeically after an incidence where children
through rocks at her while walking down the street and called her a greaser,
Rosie said she knew the social injustice wasn’t right. She also noticed this
with the treatment of the African Americans in her neighborhood. In her
interview with Maria Cotera, Rosie said, “Social justice was about your fellow
human being and if we were all children of God, and again I was little but
there was something really wrong with not allowing African Americans into
places.”
After graduating high school, Rosie entered college at Our
Lady of the Lake. It was there that her intrigue with policy and politics blossomed.
Her college mentor, Margaret Kramer, introduced her to many Democrats in the
area. From there, Rosie began the Young Democrats club on campus, where she
organized students to help on campaigns and other political events. At 21 she
ended up chairing one of these events which brought together Democrats from
around the area in Texas. It was around this time in her early 20s that she
also realized the injustices within the party she had organized a college group
behind. The Democratic Party both nationally and statewide had very few Latinos
on their boards. When it came to funding, she said they put more money into
roads and agriculture than Chicano education. She said “The use us to win
elections but when it comes to policy change, that never happens”. Thus, her
involvement with La Raza Unida began.
La Raza
Unida & Feminism
As soon as I heard Rosie say “La Raza Unida” I had a
flashback to one of our classes where we discussed the Chicano movement.
Rosie’s narrative of her involvement, and of the role women played in the
movement itself, provided a voice to the various articles and books we’ve read.
Rosie specifically discussed her involvement with the SASA (San Antonio Savings
Association) boycott in 1970 when she was arrested and put in jail. She said
they were boycotting SASA for the way its owner, Walter McAllister, portrayed
Mexicans. She also brought up the brutality of the police during that time. There was a year where there were so
many police brutality cases that were both local in San Antonio and throughout
the state of Texas. For a short time that brutality stopped. “It was great no
one was killing Chicanos” said Rosie. “When you take on these struggles you
think that’s the last, you cured the injustice.” But the violence towards
Chicanos continued.
Rosie said one of the great things about La Raza Unida was
not only the involvement of the Latino people in politics (which had been few
and far between for many years), but also the commitment from Chicana women. “There’s
so many more women involved now in politics and movements which is great
because it wasn’t that way at all,” said Rosie. What I deduced from her oral
history was that these women like herself began the movement for Latina women
into politics, and were truly the backbone for future Chicanas in policy. Her
story reflected some of the common narratives we’ve been discussing in books
like “500 Years of Chicana History” by Elizabeth Martinez.
I did find it interesting however that her comments about
the Feminist Movement reflected that of her future children. She mentioned how
the Feminist Movement’s perspective was too much about abortion and other
issues that Chicanas were not focused on or did not have problems with. “The
key issue at the time was institutional racism for both men and women” said
Rosie, which was something the Women’s Movement tended to overlook (this
reminded me and reinforced the ideas behind our discussion on the PBS Film
“MAKERS: Women Who Make America” and how the highlight discourse reflected the
Women’s Movement, Black Women’s Movement, and Lesbians within the Feminist
Movement but didn’t touch on other minority issues, etc). I also found it
interesting that she called them out on the issue of being mothers. Though
Rosie herself admitted to not being the traditional Mexican woman, she did say
that “The motivation for a lot of what we did was family, despite the fact that
we didn’t have our kids yet…it was because the racism needed to stop, the
unequal treatment needed to stop before our children had to go through it.” She
also said that the Women’s Movement did see Chicanas as feminist because we
weren’t pushing the “right” issues, but for Chicanas, Rosie said, the issues
they pushed were the ones that they felt were most important, that is the
issues of integrating Chicanas and Chicanos into the rights of the United
States.
Making
History
Rosie sat in front of a brick wall, which I actually really
liked because it brought just enough contrast, but not too much to where it
distracted from her and what she had to say. Having Maria Cotera sit out of
site, but close enough to hear, worked really well in her interview with Rosie
because you felt as if she were a guide, something that we were told the CPMR
project aimed for during interviews. Some of the cuts to the video made it
difficult to transition, but for the most part, I liked the partitions in
between Rosie’s comments as she changed focus.
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