Cihuacoatl's Blog

Wrapping an event #3

cihuacoatl — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:32:39 +0000

The early evening of March 30, 2009 was becoming increasingly cold. The flip-flops I was wearing comfortably earlier in the day were proving to be much less adequate choices of shoe wear as the day progressed. I walked hurriedly, from the recently built DeBartolo building parking lot, to the direction of the Snite museum.
I entered the DeBartolo classroom in a rush, thinking that the lecture had already started. I took a seat in the back of the auditorium-like classroom and observed the fellow attendees. I suddenly felt out of place, most of the attendees looked very young, “freshmen, for sure, who are required to be here for class credit”, I thought to myself.
I recognized Melody Gonzalez immediately, not from having seen a picture of her, but by her skin color and outfit. She was light brown and had long dark hair and was a distinct contrast to the white majority in the classroom. A pretty girl in her twenties wearing a flower embroidered blouse which I could recognize as being a craft from southern Mexico. She was introduced by Martin Wolfson, Director of the Higgins Labor Studies Program. Ms. Gonzalez, a Notre Dame graduate, now works as National Campaign Coordinator of Fair Food Across Borders.
As she was being introduced, Ms. Gonzales nervously fidgeted, as she held a spiral bound notebook and a water bottle. She chose to speak to the audience in a casual manner, not standing behind the rigidity of the podium, but by simply standing in the middle of the room and looking at people’s faces.
In her voice, I could still hear a faint accent; English was not her first language. Ms. Gonzalez spoke of her life, growing up in a family of migrant workers based in California. Her father was originally from the Mexican state of Zacatecas and he would travel to the US to work in agricultural fields. Eventually, the family moved to the US permanently as undocumented workers.
Ms. Gonzalez grew up in California, and she was acquainted with the lives of farm workers through her own family. She told the story of how one time, being a girl around the age of 10; she was taken to work in the fields along with some of her young cousins and adult family members, her father and uncles. She remembers that she worked all day picking raspberries and that the children were told that the money they earned working that day would provide lunch for the family. It was most disappointing to see that, at the end of an arduous day, all they could eat as the fruit of her and her cousins’ labor for the day were rudimentary and not very filling sandwiches. Ms. Gonzalez said that this experience was instrumental, because even at her young age, she began to see the hard work of the agricultural worker’s life and how badly paid the work was. Her father’s hands, hands that told the story of manual labor, were many times tainted with a green hue, the hue of the chemical pesticides that had permanently stained his hands.
As a young woman finishing high school and weighing her educational options, Ms. Gonzalez decided to study at Notre Dame because studying at this university would give her some freedom that she could not have obtained by staying in her state and studying at the University of California. At first, her conservative family did not want to let her study so far away from home, but Notre Dame, as a Catholic university, provided the necessary moral guidance and environment that her traditional family could approve of.
The university provided a difficult environment for Ms. Gonzalez and she remember that she felt “out of place” at the university. She was seriously thinking about transferring to a different university until she enrolled in a social justice class which was sponsored by the Labor Studies Program. This class included a visit to the agricultural fields of Immokalee, Florida. Ms. Gonzalez was, once again, faced with the grim realities of agricultural workers in the United States. The living conditions were substandard, and the salaries were pathetic. Many of these fields did not include schools, so the children did not have the opportunity to obtain an education and would begin to work in the fields at a young age. Housing was inadequate, dilapidated shacks with poor or no air circulation that would house many families at once.
The harsh reality of agricultural workers’ lives made an impression on Ms. Gonzalez. The class and trip to Immokalee did not only provide an interesting experience, but resulted in the passion that pushed Ms. Gonzalez in her last two years at the university. She became involved with the work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and with the Student/Farmworker Alliance. In her senior year at Notre Dame she was so involved with the coalition’s activities that she missed many school days because she was working with the coalition in Florida. Fortunately, her professors understood her passion and saw that her involvement with the coalition was an important part of her studies and her honor thesis project.
Ms. Gonzalez was not only involved in a class project, but she was involved in a cause that truly spoke to her and dictated her future work and passion.
In the next blog post I will continue to narrate Ms. Gonzalez’s work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, including boycotts of major fast food companies and the coalition’s achievements in bettering the lives of the agricultural workers of Immokalee, Florida.

New non-fiction narrative exercise (edited for radio piece)

cihuacoatl — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:52:54 +0000

It was a cold weekend evening when I received a call from a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit nurse. She wanted to let me know that a patient was being transferred to the unit, and that my services would be needed. “The patient is in critical condition,” she said.

I walked to the unit quickly and cheerily, my normal friendly demeanor, when I saw a sober looking man in the dark lonely playroom, sitting on a child’s chair. His head was lowered and he was deep in thought.

At the patient’s room, medical personnel and machines surrounded a small body. The child had her eyes closed, and seemed to be in a deep sleep despite the chest compressions being performed.

The hospital’s chaplain had not arrived yet, and the nurse instructed me to get the patient’s father who was in the playroom. I introduced myself to him, a short, medium-built, brown skinned man in his late thirties. We walked to the room and stood outside the glass enclosed room. The nurses were still working on the child, yet the hurried mode had changed to a hopeless and rhythmic mechanical pace. The doctor lingered in the outskirts glancing at the monitors, only occasionally approaching the bed to talk to the nurses.

The patient’s father stood outside the room, and I next to him, not taking his eyes off his daughter. The doctor approached us, and he explained that there were no signs of brain activity, the heart had stopped beating, and the ventilator was providing the breaths. She was dead.

The father’s body began to crumble in grief and his hands covered his face. I got closer to him still, feeling sad and powerless. Soon after, I was called to the main entrance. Other family members, including the patient’s mother, had arrived at last. I went to meet them, and as I was coming down the elevator I wiped away my tears, breathed deeply, and prayed for God’s guidance.

Outwardly transformed, I met the family with a smile at the main entrance and asked them to follow me. In the unit’s floor, the father gave the news to his wife, family, and friends. The Catholic priest conducted a heartfelt prayer, which I struggled to interpret as I fought to speak despite the increasing pressure and tightness in my throat.

I asked the mother if there was anything I could do to help. She told me that she wanted her daughter alive again, and that, I could not do. Yes, I cannot do that, I quietly replied.

I felt increasingly sad and angry. Why had this healthy child died?

After the nurses had disconnected the body and swaddled it with clean blankets, the father spoke to Perla tenderly. It was a most deeply felt and private moment, but I was asked to interpret what was being said. My voice wavered as I interpreted his words, words of tender love, of surrendering this precious and beloved child back to her creator, with whom she would be with once more. The nurses cried sorrowfully to the sound of my words. I had to remain strong, and could not give in to my sadness; my work was not done.

I walked the family back to the main entrance, and before leaving, the father, who had shed tears, but had not cried during the evening, turned to me, shook my hand, and cried as he embraced me and said “Gracias, muchas gracias. Que Dios te bendiga.”

I have often thought of this night since. The experience transformed me. I now realize that in health care, as in life, we are many times unable to provide the desired outcome, yet the real gift is in the sympathy, care, and respect we give. This gift is also a gift to us, because as we practice compassion we grow as human beings, and we are thanked and blessed in return.

New non-fiction narrative exercise

cihuacoatl — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:07:48 +0000

I had begun to work at the hospital as a Medical Interpreter recently, and I was naïve to not get additional information from the nurse. But I was new to the job, and I thought that I had the basic information I needed; I would be interpreting for the patient’s family members.

At the patient’s room, medical personnel and machines surrounded a small body. The child had her eyes closed, and seemed to be in a deep sleep despite the chest compressions being performed. Her head was shaved and I quickly associated this with a chronic illness. I immediately tried to make sense out of a senseless situation; the child must have some form of cancer I thought.

I offered the patient’s father something to drink, and he declined. He stood outside the room, and I next to him, not taking his eyes off his daughter. The doctor approached us, and he explained that there were no signs of brain activity, the heart had stopped beating, and the ventilator was providing the breaths. She was dead.

The father’s body began to crumble in grief and his hands covered his face. I got closer to him still, feeling sad and powerless. Soon after, I was called to the main entrance. Family members, including the patient’s mother, had arrived at last. The father had ridden in the ambulance. I went to meet them, and as I was coming down the elevator I wiped away my tears, breathed deeply, and prayed for God’s guidance.

Outwardly transformed, I met the family with a smile at the door and asked them to follow me. The patient’s grandmother suddenly held both my arms and looked intently in my eyes as she asked me “¿Cómo está Perla? ¿Está bien?” What should I do? My mind raced. I did not feel I should be the one to tell them the news, and not now, but I did not want to lie either. I smiled, held my tears, as I explained that I was taking them to be with her and her father.

In the unit’s floor, the father gave the news to his wife, family, and friends. Back in the room, the Catholic priest conducted a heartfelt prayer, which I struggled to interpret as I fought to speak despite the increasing pressure and tightness in my throat.

I asked the mother if there was anything I could do to help. She told me that she wanted her daughter alive again, and that, I could not do. Yes, I cannot do that, I quietly replied. I felt increasingly sad and angry. Why had this healthy child died?

The family decided to leave for the night and would come back the next day to make final arrangements. I walked with the family back down to the main entrance, and before leaving, the father, who had shed tears, but not cried during the evening, turned to me, shook my hand, and cried as he embraced me and said “Gracias, muchas gracias. Que Dios te bendiga.”

Exercise #3 Persuasion Piece: Embracing an educated future for Latinos

cihuacoatl — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 03:24:52 +0000

I grew up in Mexico City. My home of 18 years was a fifth floor apartment in the southern part of the metropolis. My parents were both working professionals, my father a computer programmer, and my mother a nurse with two specializations. Education has always been an integral part of my life, and it never occurred to me to wonder whether or not I would obtain a higher education; it was a fact.

The value of education is closely held by many people. I remember talking to Victorina, the lady who would come once a week to iron my father’s dress shirts. She always said that she encouraged her children to get an education, to live a better life, to be able to have better jobs and pay, and to not depend on manual labor to make a living. She knew how hard it was to live without an education. She grew up quite poor in the southern state of Oaxaca, not even able to finish grade school, and she had to work in the fields to help provide for her household. She decided to move to Mexico City, where she could make a better living working as a domestic. Two of her three children obtained a university education, and she is quite proud because her immigration dream paid off in her children’s success.

Immigration is a need for many people, just as Victorina, many people find the need to immigrate in order to make a better life for themselves. Sometimes the immigration is within the country of origin, and many times, the immigration entails crossing a nation’s border. People crossing borders are leaving everything behind and risking their lives in the hope to find something better; a better life, job, and opportunities. Many times the hope of the immigrant is not a hope for him or herself, but the hope to make a better life for his or her children.

A better life is many times equated with better economic opportunities, and in the minds of many, these opportunities are obtained through education. Regarding the issue of education and non-English speaking minorities, in our state of Indiana, one can see a rise of students with limited English proficiency enrolled in public schools. In Indiana, 7% of the public school enrollment is categorized as Hispanic.

Are the immigrants and their children realizing their dreams? The Indiana Department of Education reveals that “students from low-income families, as well as African American, Hispanic and Limited English Proficient students are significantly less likely to graduate than their peers. Indiana high schools with the highest percentages of these student populations generally had the lowest graduation rates statewide.” Minorities and low-income families face added challenges in the path of educational achievement, and these challenges cannot be addressed by school systems alone. In fact, “success greatly depends on the extent to which local communities are engaged in the struggle.” Local communities must engage in the issues that affect their own communities, and education is an issue of top priority. A community may call for action through the creation of a local dialogue, a dialogue through which solutions for local problems can be found.

Why should local communities care about the educational achievement of minorities? It is the responsibility of a society to work towards its development, and since the Latino population accounts for half of the U.S. population growth since 2000, as a country, we cannot afford to allow a growing population to remain uneducated since the impact will not only be for the Latino population, but will impact the U.S. population as a whole. As a country, we need to encourage the development of individuals who will advance the professions and research, in order to remain a first-rate nation, but first, we must start at the local level.

Wrapping an event #2

cihuacoatl — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:14:50 +0000

Do you know where your food comes from? Asks the Fair Food Across Borders homepage of its visitors. The Fair Food Across Borders website goes on to explain the importance of knowing the answer to the question it poses to its visitors; the “goal is to make visible the human rights abuses suffered by migrant agricultural workers in Mexican agribusiness camps.” In a time when organic foods are no longer reserved to a few hippies of a bygone era, knowing where our food comes from, what it contains, and the cost of producing our food, should be present in the average consumer’s mind.

In order to know the quality of the food we purchase and eat we read labels: organic, free range, and grain fed are terms that mean something in how our food was produced. But how about a label for our foods that read “human abuse free” or “human right friendly”? The terms sound laughable perhaps, we could certainly come up with a more catchy label, yet the issue is still in place, should we be concerned about how our food was produced and to what cost to our fellow human agricultural workers? The Fair Food Across Borders Campaign says YES.

Tonight, at the University of Notre Dame, at 7:30 p.m. at the DeBartolo Classroom Building 131, Melody Gonzalez, National Campaign Coordinator of Fair Foods Across Borders will give a lecture entitled Working for Social Justice: From the Fields of Immokalee, Florida to the Fields of Sinaloa, Mexico. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Home is where the heart is

cihuacoatl — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:01:00 +0000

For how long have you been here? Is a question that I often hear from many patients and their family members at the hospital where I work as a Medical Interpreter on the weekends. The question is, many times, a search for meaning and a point of comparison. If I was born here, or came to this country as a child, then it is “natural” for me to be bilingual; effortless. If I came as an adult, my experience is too close to my patient’s experience. I do not like to make people feel inadequate, and I hate to make them feel this way when I tell them the truth: I came to this country as a young adult; I was eighteen.

In fact, I came to this country with the clear purpose of obtaining a university education at an American university, once having done this, I could return to Mexico and be more likely to obtain a job because of the malinchista ways of my country. But life ran its course, and I too, as so many temporary migrants before me, found that migration is usually permanent.

According to Demetrios Papademetriou in his article U.S. Immigration: Fact, Fear and Fantasy, Mexican immigration is “spreading out throughout the United States in rates not seen since the great migrations of the 1870-1920 period, making immigration truly “national” for the first time since early in the 20th century.” The Mexican immigration trend is likely to continue, since once a network has been established, a process of self-sustained migration commences, whereby established migrants give support (economic, moral, social, cultural, etc.) to newly arrived immigrants.

I have empirical experience of the importance of established networks for migration working as an interpreter at the hospital. There is a significant group of Mexican migrants in our area who come from the central state of Zacatecas, Mexico. Migrants from Zacatecas have established roots in the United States at different times, some families have been in the area for decades, while the newer migrants have come in the last five years. The migration process is facilitated by the access to the resources that established migrants can provide to new migrants, and the migratory process continues as the network expands.

The network does not only expand by means of a migratory process, but a high natality rate also contributes to the network. In fact, according to 2006 CDC data on U.S. birth rates, Mexican women have the highest birth rate than any other group in the country.

The Mexican and Mexican-American presence throughout the United States is undeniable and unstoppable. A hope for future policy change, and an acknowledgement of the special needs that these particular groups have will be essential for the development of our nation.

Letter to the editor

cihuacoatl — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 22:12:17 +0000

The South Bend Tribune published a story entitled “Attorney receives Notre Dame award,” published on March 23, 2009. The piece was written by staff writer Pablo Ros. In the piece, Ros writes about 2001 Notre Dame Law school graduate Rodolfo Monterrosa. Monterrosa was honored with the Graciela Olivarez award, which was bestowed by the Notre Dame Hispanic Law Student Association or HLSA.

Monterrosa believes that Latino professionals have a responsibility to be role models to Latino youth and help them whenever possible make strides in their uphill climb to becoming professionals. I could not agree more. It is extremely important that Latinos who have been able to attain higher education and a degree of professionalism in their fields do not forget about their fellow hermanos Latinos and lead by example.

I am an immigrant from Mexico, and I came to this country with one purpose in mind: to obtain an American education. Today, I continue to pursue my dream by attending graduate school, and I look forward to becoming a full-time university professor, so that I too can provide a role model for Latino youth. I currently teach as an adjunct faculty member at our local community college and university. I strive to make a difference in my students’ minds, and I hope that Latino students that I encounter can find inspiration by learning from a teacher who not only appreciates their culture, but is part of their culture.

Wrapping an event #1

cihuacoatl — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:47:50 +0000

The transformation of our every day consumption has been heavily marked by a process of globalization whereby it becomes increasingly difficult to trace the route of the products we consume back to the place and people who created these products. In today’s society, commodity fetishism reigns, because we only see the product we wish to buy, and fail to see the real cost of the product in terms of human costs. Yet we must trace the route, because as consumers we have a right to know, not only where our product comes from, but also how it was obtained, and to what cost.

The human cost in food production is tremendous, and the monetary cost of food is on the rise worldwide. When we go to our local supermarkets in the dead of winter for example, we do not think about the cost behind the beautifully red tomatoes, glowing oranges, and ready-to-eat salads. These foods were obviously not produced locally, yet we are able to buy these foods at our local supermarkets. Why? It is very likely that these foods were obtained by the exploitation of migrant laborers, and the savings are passed down to us, the blissfully ignorant consumer.

The Fair Food Across Borders Campaign wishes to “make visible the human rights abuses suffered by migrant agricultural workers in Mexican agribusiness camps.” The campaign concentrates on agribusiness camps located in the northern part of Mexico. These camps provide fruits and vegetables for export to the US and Canada. An important goal of the campaign is to bring awareness to American consumers of the conditions in which the agricultural workers live, and ultimately through awareness, promote policy change whereby agricultural workers’ human rights are honored.

As part of the Higgins Labor Research Centerevent series, on Monday, March 30 at 7:30 pm at the DeBartolo Classroom Building 131 at the University of Notre Dame, Melody Gonzalez, National Campaign Coordinator of Fair Foods Across Borders, will be giving a human rights lecture entitled: “Working for Social Justice: From the Fields of Immokalee, Florida to the Fields of Sinaloa, Mexico.” The lecture is free and open to the public.

Exercise 2: Informative piece. “The importance of addressing the needs of the Hispanic population in our community”

cihuacoatl — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:31:46 +0000

The Hispanic population in the United States is increasing. In our state of Indiana, census figures speak for themselves. In the 1990 U.S. census, Hispanics represented 98,788 out of the total population of 5,544,159. In other words, persons of Hispanic origin represented about 1.8% of the total population in the state of Indiana. Compare with the 2000 U.S. census; out of a total state population of 6,080,485, the Hispanic population represented 214,536 or about 3.5% of the total population in Indiana. In ten years, the Hispanic population in our state more than doubled.

Our state of Indiana reflects a national trend, since the increase of the Hispanic population can be observed in the Unites States at large. According to the census 2000 brief on the Hispanic population, the Hispanic population “increased by 57.9 percent, from 22.4 million in 1990 to 35.3 million in 2000, compared with an increase of 13.2 percent for the total U.S. population.” It is clear, whether we like it or not, that the Hispanic population in the U.S. is growing, and while our state does not represent an area of dense Hispanic population -as states in the West and South of the county- the increase is significant enough to notice changes at the community level. In fact, a closer analysis of census figures shows a significant increase in the Hispanic population in the Midwest region, from 2.7% in 2000, to 26.1% in 2006.

Midwest communities can no longer ignore the impact of the Hispanic population in smaller communities in which, until recent years, the population was homogeneous to a large extent. This shift in population compositions brings new opportunities as well as new challenges. It is easy to see the new opportunities, for example, smaller rural communities may find a reactivation of a lagging local economy with the influx of new migrants -Hispanic or otherwise. In addition, the richness of local commerce increases when specialized markets flourish and make way for a different offer of products and services. These are some of the advantages of the population shift and the impact of the Hispanic population in the Midwest. Nevertheless, there are aspects which can be seen as challenges brought by the shift in population.

An important observation to make regarding one of the challenges of an increased Hispanic migration, is that the Hispanic foreign born population is lagging behind in educational achievement. According to a study realized y the Pew Hispanic Center that analyzed 2006 American Community Survey data, the majority of foreign born Hispanics – at 34% in 2006- had a “less than 9th grade” education. Even though this figure shows an improvement from the 2000 data – which showed a higher number at 39.4%- it is important to note the sharp difference of educational achievement as compared to the native born Hispanic population, of which only 9.8% had less than a 9th grade education. Even though the native born Hispanic population has a higher level of educational attainment, the Hispanic population still lags behind when compared to any other race group in the country.

Since educational attainment has been closely linked to economic opportunity, it would be important to stress the importance of education in the Hispanic community. In terms of poverty, Hispanics (foreign and native born) occupied the second poorest group (behind Blacks at 25.3%) representing 21.7% of people living in poverty in the U.S.

Another example of a challenge of an increase in Hispanic population is the language barrier. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, in the 18 an older Hispanic population (both foreign and native born), 81.7% of those surveyed state that a language other than English is spoken at home. Out of this group, 46.1% falls under the “English spoken less than very well” category. As a consequence of the existent language barrier that exists in the Hispanic population, the offer of educational, social, and government services -just to name a few- is limited. For example, in the issue of access to health care in the Hispanic population, according the the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2006 35% of the Hispanic population under 65 years of age lacked health insurance coverage. In contrast, in 2004 “the percentage of the nation’s population without health insurance coverage [was] 15.7 percent.”

It is undeniable that the population in the United States is changing, and that part of the change consists in the current and projected growth of the Hispanic population. Communities must address their needs, and as communities become more diverse, community based solutions that address the needs of a diverse population are required. Some of the existent challenges in the Hispanic population consist of educational, language, and access to health care barriers. The first two challenges can effectively be addressed at the local level through community action. It is of the foremost importance to make sure that as a community, and as a country, in the living exercise of an engaged citizenship and democracy, we do not create of the Hispanic population a second-class population. The consequences of the growth of an uneducated citizenship will undeniably affect all people in our community, and all people in our country.

Getting help from a reference librarian

cihuacoatl — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 03:28:15 +0000

Last week I asked for help from reference librarian Julie at IUSB’s library. She was very kind and helpful. I approached her by informing her that I needed some help researching my topic, which is action in Latino communities in the Midwest. My search has been difficult, since many things Latino have that west coast, California sort-of-feel approach. I am more interested in what Midwest communities, Latino and otherwise, are doing to help neighborhoods and cities.

I learned of the importance of having a variety of key terms for searches. The term “community action” did not work as well as the term”community organization.” So the search focused on “Latino and community organizations and Midwest.” I learned that in EBSCO host and other academic search databases you need to put the word “and” in between key words, otherwise it will only find things that have all of the key terms. Julie showed me that I could use Lexis-Nexis Academic for my search. A helpful way to look for current information was to look for information found on newspapers in the Midwest specifically.

At the end of our meeting, I felt as though I was not searching as much in the dark as I had felt before. The library and the available databases are a wonderful resource for a more detailed and specific investigation of my topic.