A-Well I at first became involved with the Cesar Chavez when I was a nun. And during the walk
to Sacramento, remember that famous walk, I didn’t join it but, I didn’t walk on it but I really
was very sympathetic and really wanted to participate. And so I volunteered as a nun and used to
volunteer and did the whole boycott in support of the farm workers. And when I left religious
life, uh, that was the first place that I went to, I went to see Cesar Chavez and wanted to be a
volunteer. And so I continued to help with the boycott and all. And I participated in some of the
demonstrations, and so one of them was about-in Los Angeles was against the Chimera, you
know one of the big growers. And uh the demonstration was about not letting them unload the
grapes that were coming from...that were just standing there and we had had a meeting and we
had agreed who was gonna participate in the civil disobedience, which meant that you were
gonna go against the law. And the police were gonna tell you not to, you know to-that was-you
were trespassing the premise of the grower and the loading docks and you had to remove
yourself or else you were gonna be arrested.
And so I was one of the ones that decided I was gonna go in and be arrested haha. So
anyway I-the police came and Mayor Yori, or who was theSr. F-Yori.
A-police chief or-anyway I hung on to the you know the-not letting them unload and the police
came and asked me to remove myself I was trespassing. And so I didn’t move, you know. And
so they tried to yank me out and I just held on which meant that the whole thing was gonna come
upon us. And so the police called, was it Yori or whatever his name was, and they will not there
so we’re going to arrest-and he said, ‘don’t you arrest her because’ haha ‘she will cause a lot of
problems you know?’ And so they didn’t arrest me but they were stronger than I was haha. So
they moved me out of the compound and then I can’t remember if, no they didn’t strike me but
they, out of force, you know, they just took my hands and yanked-kept me from getting-and they
pushed me off.
Well, Dolores Puerta was also involved and so they arrested two others but they didn’t
arrest me and so I was very insulted haha, because I wanted to be arrested haha. And of course
the mayor wouldn’t let them because I had left the convent and they knew that I wouldSr. F-Oh they knew you had been an nun andA-Yeah and they thought that I would just be a big-so that’s how I got introduced and so I went
to, I went to Delano and Cesar invited me to be an organizer. But then I had this invitation by
President Johnson to go to Washington and participate in a White House conference to deal with
improving the status of the Mexican American because Johnson was from Texas and so, and I
was from California. And so I was one of the delegates that was selected. Uh, and I was
nominated by Congressman Brown, George Brown, and so I told Cesar, ‘well, you know, it’s
very important for me to go there’. And he says, ‘well you do what you want to do, you know,
but I’ll tell you you’re wasting your time’ haha. So see I went to Washington instead of staying
with Cesar.
And so I went to Washington and I worked with the Office of Education and I helped
draft the Bilingual Bill and had myriads of problems with that because I worked with the perhaps
the most intelligent and progressive linguist in the nation which was Dr. Bruce Gorder, who
really had a great desire to instill foreign languages in the United States. And he had it all
mapped out teaching Chinese in San Francisco, teaching Spanish in the Southwest because
Spanish was already spoken, teaching Chinese to all children in San Francisco, the schools that
wanted to, teaching Spanish to English and Spanish speakingSr. F-Uh huh.
A-and soSr. F-Was this after Lowery Nichols or prior to that?
A-It was prior to that.
Sr. F-Uh huh.
A-Yeah. And then teaching French to-in Louisiana.
Sr. F-Sure.
A-But the plan was to teach all children not just Spanish speaking, all children. And so I was
very excited about that. And so I-I was an appointee of President Johnson and went to the
Department of Education, the Office of Education, and I started to work with Senator Ralph
Yarborough, who is speaking about bilingual education, and Dr. Sanchez from the University of
Texas who was speaking about bilingual education.
Sr. F- Sanchez? Is he still alive?
A-He was-he’s dead now I think.
Sr. F-Yes.
A-Um and so we drafted this bill, Bruce Gorder and I was like the lobbyist. I wasn’t supposed to
lobby but I did. And I was an appointee so I said I could do anything I wanted, haha. And you
know, Lupe, you know me.
Both Laugh
A-I did whatever had to be done. Well I-I really was an appointee of President Johnson so-and so
I started to work with Ralph Yarborough in the senate and then Congressman Hawkins from
California, who is a black congressman and I worked with him to really draft the bill and it was
really Dr. Bruce Gorder who’s-who really-it really was his ideas. But the plan was not only to
teaching bilingual education to Spanish speakers, but to teach bilingual education to everybody
and to introduce foreign language in the spots in the United States that already had the education.
And I even selected, you know, the Hopi-not the Hopi, the Navajo languageSr. F-Uh huh.
A-which were barely developing and starting to organize their language in Arizona. And so that
was-and so I chose to do that and I was doing that very successfully until Dr. Elizabeth Aught
from the University of Texas developed this ridiculous ESL, English as a Second Language and
it just destroyed bilingual education, because, as you know, ESL is about a syntax, it isn’t about
teaching Spanish. It’s about teaching the syntax of the Spanish language and collaborating with
an English speaker to learn English.
Sr. F-How many years were you involved with that?
A-I was involved with that for about a year and a half. It finally passed and I was, really, I still
have documents of-sitting in the halls of congress in the coffee shop, really-with Hawkins and
the Republican really coming together to do the deal of passage of it and Ralph Yarborough in
the senate to really put that together.
Sr. F-Uh huh.
A-And it finally passed and I was in the Department of Education and so I was the first one to
really get that going. The problem was the Latino male, Rodriguez was-and it was really my fault
because instead of me being the head of the Mexican American Unit in the Department of
Education, I promoted,uh, Rodriguez to be the head. And when he came, he just lobbied with
Elizabeth Aught who really was promoting ESL
Sr. F-Which Rodriguez was this, do you remember?
A-Uh he was from California.
Sr. F-Uh huh.
A-Uh, short to*Unknown Person*-Armando?
A-Huh?
*Unknown Person*-Armand Rodriguez?
A-No, no, uh, Rodger? No, RodriguezSr. F-We’ll find it, I have it written in-it’s OK we’ll find it, we’ll find it.
A-Yeah.
Sr. F-We’ll find it somewhere.
A-And then I-I then just uh decided that-it really brought about tears, you know, because I saw
bilingual education being destroyed and the great Ernesto Galarza…?
Sr. F-Yes.
A-He had a press conference and so I piggytailed with that and that bilingual education was not
gonna happen in the United States because it had been destroyed by ESL. And so I left, I just-and
I wrote to Cesar Chavez I said, ‘It’s horrible here’ haha ‘you were right, can I go, and join you?’
And so he invited me to go to work with him and that’s when I moved to Delano. And then I
was-he assigned me to be one of the organizers in Delano. And I was one of the first womenwoman to be-well uh Delores Huerta was an organizer, you know, but then I was one who came
as a volunteer who was assigned to be an organizer. And so Cesar just really believed in me and
so he-and so one of the things that we had in Delano was that if you could-if you could get up at
three o’clock in the morning when Cesar got up you could drive with him and be part of the
organizing decisions of what was going to happen in the organizing, and so I would you know
get up very early and I would get in the car with Cesar and I would learn all the strategies haha
with he and a lot of the organizers. And so it was-it was really, uh, you know, a great excitement.
And so he sent me to San Francisco to work with the unions to accept the United Farm
Workers as a legitimate union because, you-the AF of LCIO would not accept would not accept
the Farm Workers as a legitimate union. And by the way, it was Chris Hartmeyer from the
National Conference of Churches who came as an organizer to help Cesar; it wasn’t the Catholic
Church. The Catholic Church just stood back you know and would not accept, uh-would not
really support Cesar as the Farm Worker Union as a legitimate union You know, they would just
not accept it because the AF of LCIO had not accepted that as a union. And so they, you know,
sort of held back. And it was exciting because Cesar sent me to the Valley, Coachella, to be in
the Coachella strike and that’s where two farm workers were killed. And Cesar, being
nonviolent, decided that he did not want anymore blood to be-because he knew it was gonna be
farm workers who are gonna be killed and so he pulled us away from the strike. And I was one
of those who was just ready to fight back and ready to pick up a gun and you know. And I
remember his sitting down with me and saying, ‘Lupe you have committed yourself to non
violence and this is what the Farm Workers are all about’. ‘And so we’re non violent and so you
have to decide, you know, that if you’re gonna work with the Farm Workers it’s a non violent
movement and so we’re not gonna-number one we’re not gonna pick guns and fight back. We’re
not gonna go and throw rocks at them or beat them up because we’re gonna lose you know?
That’s not the way we’re gonna win’. And so he said, ‘I hear by declare a boycott’. That’s when
he declared the boycott.
And then I had so much energy he sent me to Detroit, haha. He says, ‘you’re going and
you get the grapes out of Detroit’. And so I-the first one I visited was the bishop. And I said,
‘You know, we-this is a Christian thing to do’ and he supported me. He supported the Farm
Workers boycott and he arranged a meeting with Walther Ruther, the head UAW and it was a
shoe-in because Walter Ruther loved Cesar and he recognized that as a legitimate union. Even
the AF of LCIO didn’t UAW did and so we had a-UAW was one of the prominent unions at that
time, they’re not now but they were at that time. And then Walter-I asked Walter Ruther and the
bishop to arrange a meeting with the mayor of Detroit to get the grapes out of the city of Detroit
and Mayor Cavanough did agree and so we had a press conference and no more grapes for the
city of Detroit and the UAW was fully in support. Well I was in my seventh heaven, you know,
and so it reached all over the world-the country, you know that Detroit, the mayor, Walter Ruther
and the bishop were supporting the Farm Workers as a legitimate union.
And I remember the Detroit press came out with a cartoon of a monkey kicking a
watermelon because they like grapes, the monkeys like grapes. And so they were being given in
the zoo, they were-in the Detroit zoo they were being given watermelon instead of grapes and so
the cartoon was the monkey or the ape kicking the watermelon, wanting grapes haha. But that
was-and then that was very successful and uhSr. F-Was that the first time the church went public in support?
A-I-I think that that was, and if it wasn’t, it was really the first time that it became a national you
knowSr. F-Uh huh.
A-because Robert Kennedy had already come to Delano and had already visited Cesar Chavez in
his fast. And, you know, Robert Kennedy was a Catholic and so-you know, I don’t remember
when the Catholic Church came fully in support because I know after UAW recognized the Farm
Workers as a legitimate union, then there was a big battle because the Teamsters-the growers had
gotten to the Teamsters to be-they preferred the Teamsters to be a union because they were the
truck drivers and so they wanted them to be the union and to just offset Cesar Chavez.
Sr. F-Uh huh.
A-And so the Teamsters did come in but then we also-that’s when we had a battle with the
Teamsters but we already had UAW and some of the other-and then the Catholic-the Protestant
Church, you know, Chris Hartmeyer and the National Conference of Churches were really
behind Cesar Chavez. And so that was a-and then the other historical thing that was important
during that time was the McCarthy was running for president remember?
Sr. F-Ah, Gene McCarthy.
A-Gene McCarthy, and Robert Kennedy declared-everybody wanted him to run for president,
even McCarthy wanted him to run for president. But he didn’t declare his-Robert Kennedy came
in kind of late and the Young Democrats became very angry with McCarthy because he was
stepping in when they had begged Robert Kennedy to come in and he was coming in late and
that upset a lot of Young Democrats. And so at the convention, at the Democratic Convention,
there was a big split between the Young Democrats and those who embraced Robert Kennedy.
And so that helped me because that energy of the Young Democrats, I really lobbied them to
come to work with me on the boycott. And so we wiped out the grapes from all of Michigan
because of the-and I have a lot of pictures of that. That was very exciting timeSr. F-Uh huh.
A-you know of uh that.
Sr. F-So how many years did you work with Cesar, more or less?
A-I uh-you know I don’t remember, was it two or three years that I was working with him as a
volunteer? I got burned out, I was-it was really-you know when you work with the-with Cesar it
is a day and night thing. You really don’t sleep very much, and then me being-wanting to besome people were very-like Dolores Huerta knew when to take a rest and when not to, and I
didn’t. I was just at it because I was the head of the thing in Michigan and so I was-and then the
other thing that really broke my-a lot of resistance was when Robert Kennedy decided to run for
president, then Cesar Chavez pulled all of us back to Los Angeles to really work with him on the
Robert Kennedy campaign. And so I was placed in charge of forty precincts.
But let me tell you-let me tell you a very interesting-this is really historical. Cesar
Chavez’s cousin was, uh, also an organizer and he was also in Los Angeles. And Cesar had
appointed me to run about forty precincts, you know. And, uh, Cesar Chavez’s cousin, what was
his name, what was his name? Was it Gil-not Gilbert, but anyway, during the organizing meeting
he turned to me and, this cousin of Cesar, he turned to me and says, ‘You know we’re hungry
Lupe, why don’t you fix something?’ And I said, ‘Me? I don’t even know how to cook’ haha.
And I said, ‘I’m not, you know-do you mind getting digestion?’ And then Cesar looked at him
and said, ‘Lupe is an organizer, she’s not a cook. If you want a cook, you call Delano and ask
them to send a cook’. I really loved Cesar for that, you know, he really stood up for you knowDolores would never put up with that and I, well, I was one of the, you know, female organizers
so I’ll never forget that.
But working on that campaign was just-we slept in one of the gyms in Los Angeles, uh,
the gyms by Episcopalian Church, they gave us their, you know, and we took our sleeping bags
and so we did precinct walking and organizing. And Cesar had a place where the pastor-and
anyway, that’s when Robert Kennedy was assassinated. We were in the Ambassador Hotel when
he was assassinated.
Sr. F-That incident where your leader organizer and because you were a woman you were asked
to cook. I’m sure that prior to that you already had some very definite ideas of women’s roles
and women’s places, haha.
A-Laughs
Sr. F-that didn’t come at that point, that sort of, perhaps, is a good moment to lead us on to the
next because I know that one of your many commitments has been to women and inequality and
how did-how does that come together with your Christian commitment, your role as a woman in
the church in spite of the limitations of the church and the whole notion of women’s movements
and all the things that you were involved in? Houston for instance, I know you worked in
Houston.
A-Yeah.
Sr. F-I know you-I drove your car to Los Angeles one time with the women who would lead Las
Hermanas meetings soA-Yeah.
Sr. F-I know you were part of that.
A-Yeah.
Sr. F-Talk to me about the women and injustice and Chicanos in theA-Yeah. Well I really got my education was the welfare, you know, when I looked at women and
welfare and really saw that the woman was really the head of the family but she-in the law she
was called a caretaker. To me it implied she was taking care of the children for somebody else.
She wasn’t the head of the family. That’s what’s wrong with the law, welfare. The other was the
she was given income maintenance. Income maintenance, what does that mean, income
maintenance? Just to maintain? And then, a poverty, below the poverty, maintenance, income
maintenance, which meant here a woman who was taking care of her children was at really the
head of the family and was given income maintenance just to, below the poverty. So it was
locking her into a poverty status of living, not only her but her children. That’s-you know, that is
like a bulb that just hit my brain and was-I saw that. I just, I still remember it haha. See this is
what is wrong with AFDC Welfare that it’s not treating the woman as a head of the family which
she really is. Its not-it’s giving her income maintenance, relegating her to a status of poverty.
And so you know I saw that and wanted the law changed.
And I had an opportunity to-it was when the Equal Rights Amendment was being
discussed and I was invited to a meeting of-led by Gloria Steinem, Bella Abzug and a lot ofBetty Friedan in Washington that was discussing putting together a-the Women’s Political
Caucus that would deal as a united, be it Republican, Democrats, non partisan or independent,
Green Party, whatever, all of us coming together to really combat inequality of women. And, of
course, I was already set with the mindset of welfare. And so I came to this meeting and I
remember meeting Gloria Steinem and meeting Bella. And Bella Abzug, you know, I miss Bella
Abzug.
Sr. F-Laughs
A-She was so strong you know? She could out-shout anyone in congress haha. You know you
dared to confront Bella Abzug you had to be really, really strong because she could out-shout
you anytime. And so she was, Bella Abzug was a woman of the Peace Movement, you know,
Women’s Strike for Peace?
Sr. F-Uh huh.
A-And then she was really heading the Equal Rights Amendment and so she was one of the
leaders of the Equal Rights Amendment. Gloria Steinem was a feminist, very low key but very
strong but very effective. So Bella would do the strong, you know, justice and Gloria would
come in with her intelligence, not that Bella wasn’t intelligent, but dealing with the importance
and how this was inequality-an issue of equality. That women’s-we had won the right to vote,
now we wanted equal pay for equal work, and we wanted equality. And so that was the Equal
Rights Amendment.
And so I met these women and then Betty Friedan who was equally very strong on the
Equal Rights Amendment. For her, the Equal Rights Amendment was priority. For Bella it was
an issue of the whole enchilada, you know, the whole issue of equality for everybody, and Gloria
Steinem also. She saw equality not only for women but for men for everyone, for the poor and
all. I was very impressed with Gloria Steinem. I was impressed with Gloria Steinem and with
Bella because they, to me, they discussed Equal Rights Amendment for women as equality for
everyone and that equality for women also meant equality for men. Men were gonna be liberated
also, not carrying the whole load of sustaining the family, but liberated, and also sharing in the
joys of family life and also seeing a woman as an equal, not as a subservient you know like St.
Paul says, women, cover your heads and, haha, be subservient to your husband haha.
Sr. F-But of course.
A-Haha, yeah, haha. And so that I was just-it was like I walked into the solution for me. You
know, for the welfare reform, it was like I just walked into the solution. And Gloria understood
what I was saying about income maintenance and about uh-some of the women in the Women’s
Political Caucus didn’t understand that because they saw that you’re taking away the safety net
of the poor woman. And I said, ‘what’s safety net?’ You know, ‘relegating a woman to a life of
poverty? Is that-you call that a safety net?’ Come on, you know. And so Gloria Steinem really
got behind my effort.
Sr. F-Uh huh.
A-And then we had to talk Bella Abzug into also getting behind it and she-she and I got into a
big argument one day at the Women’s Political Caucus during the organizing of the Women’s
Political Caucus. She shouted at me and I shouted back and we-even she was amazed that I could
shout as hard as she could, haha. She just stood back and she was amazed and everyone there
was just was, you know, because everyone who heard Bella would just say, ‘OK Bella what do
you want us to do?’ Haha, and uh, and so I got to her by saying, ‘Hey, you mean to tell me
you’re gonna-equal pay for equality; it also goes for the women on welfare. We need to get those
women-they need to be introduced to employment first of all. They need to be able to-offered a
job so that they can support their family. They need to be seen as the head of the family. And
what are you saying, you know, that you’re-you’re not going to allow this? You’re fighting for
equal rights and you’re not going to allow this?’ And so, you know, it finally got into her head.
But some of the other women still felt that taking away that income maintenance might be a
danger, you know, because the safety net.
Sr. F-When you’re working the welfare thing when I met you, you were working for the bishops
and you indicated that you said to them ‘OK I’ll do that but I’m going to work for welfare’. Did
you ever get any contradictions or did you ever get called into to say, ‘OK Lupe enough on the
welfare’ or ‘make that secondary and move on to the things that we need for you to do’? Or did
you get support for it?
A-Yeah, well, um, yes I did get called on that, but the agreement that I had with them in the
beginning was that I was gonna-I took a big job-cut in pay from WashingtonSr. F-Uh huh.
A-to come and do the Southwest Regional Office for the Spanish Speaking.
Sr. F-Yeah.
A-And so I always reminded them that that’s why. I have-that was the agreement. Uh, I think the
big challenge was the National Conf-the National Council of Catholic Women who really saw
the Equal Rights Amendment as being an obstruction to women playing their role in the family.
And so the National Council of Catholic Women in the church, really-well, you remember
what’s her name, um, she was famous against-Phyllis Schlafly.
Sr. F-Schlafly.
A-Phyllis Schlafly, you know that women were going to have the same toilet, going to-ridiculous
stupid things like women were going to use the same toilet as men if we had the Equal Rights
Amendment or that women were going to go into combat just like men and my argument was
‘Hey if you had a son, if you had a son and-do you think that a family should prefer that their son
go to war and not their daughters? You know, how are you gonna make that decision so if a
women decides that she wants to join the military, why shouldn’t she?’ And you know-and then
the issue of health, nurses. Why shouldn’t men be nurses if they want to be and that would help
the equality of the wages and if a stewardess, you know, in the airplanes, well why shouldn’t a
man be-you know, I’d like to see a male you know?
Sr. F-Uh huh.
A-I would like to see a male. And so the National-the National Council of Catholic Women were
my big obstruction and they would challenge the bishops in their diocese. I was working for
twenty three bishops. And so some of the bishops would be more vocal about it when we had our
meetings, and-but Bishop Fury, Archbishop Fury was really good. He wouldSr. F-But this is the area that the bishops would listen to the National Council of Catholic
Women, they would take that stance and say, ‘Lupe come in here, let’s talk and let’s get you’A-Yes, and also some of the priests would say ‘she’s getting too much into the Women’s
Liberation and they’re getting-the Women’s Liberation are, you know, they want to be like men’
and so on and so forth. And I’d say ‘well you know I had a lot of boyfriends and I have-I
appreciate-I’m not a man hater, I appreciate the relationship with males. But that doesn’t mean
that I’m going to be subservient to them. I don’t think that that’s what God created us to be. God
created us equal’. And I’d say ‘Besides, who was the first person that Christ said he was the
Messiah? It was a woman on the well that he first said’-isn’t it in Scripture?
Sr. F-Uh huh.
A-.That he first said, ‘I am the Messiah, you are talking to him’. Wasn’t it-isn’t it true?
Sr. F-Well I know it was certainly the women who are first at the tombA-Yeah butSr. F-and spread the word that he is risen.
A-but even before, even before. Look up Scripture, the woman on the well was the first one that
Christ said ‘I’m the Messiah, I am he’. And this woman really believed him and she went and
she told the whole-what did she do, she told the whole neighborhood.
Sr. F-Yes.
A-And what did the whole neighborhood do? The whole neighborhood believed her, and the
whole neighborhood came to see Christ. And so in the Scripture you see Christ treating women
equally. And I believe when the woman was caught in adultery uh you know he forgave her. And
they say ‘well he probably forgave her because the man should’ve been there too. And if they
were gonna be stoned both of them should’ve been stoned.’ And probably Christ said ‘you know
this is unequal here’.
Both Laugh
A-I’m just role playing.
Both Laugh
A-But don’t you think so? I mean why should the woman be stoned and not the man?
Sr. F-It takes two.
A-Absolutely and probably the man was the one that lured her. I don’t know but anyway, I think
that when you study the Scriptures and Christ he never said that a woman should be subservient
to a man. I think he always respected and he respected his mother, you know. So who’s the
highest in heaven besides Christ, its Mary. So what are we gonna do about this male dominant..?
haha.
Sr. F-Well you’re been at it a little bit longer than I haveA-Haha.
Sr. F-so I’m looking to you for the answers.
Both Laugh
A-Well I think that in all seriousness God loves all-we’re all made in the image and likeness of
God and he doesn’t see female or female-male or female, he sees all of us as being equal. And he
expects us to respect each other.
Sr. F-Let me just ask you a question that what role did or how did you see in your work for
women’s equality, etc, the training for women in the workforce? And I know you did some
things for-because you were moving women out of welfare you had to do some training and
whatnot.
A-Yeah.
Sr. F-Talk to us about that role.
A-Well I started the uh-when I was working with the bishops and I had this agreement with
them, I started what you call the National Women’s Employment and Education. And then I
started while I was working doing the bishop’s work, I also started this helping women move off
of welfare. And that’s when I met you-
Sr. F-Uh huh.
A-you know, and, uh, what I did I started to get in contact with the Chamber of Commerce inhere in San Antonio and talked to them about we had women in welfare who were interested in
working instead of being on welfare. And so I went to them and they said ‘Oh yeah we’ll offer
training’. And remember Kroger’sSr. F-Uh huh.
A-was hiring people teaching them-I mean they wanted cashiers? And so the Chamber just sort
of you know put together a training program and I was living with Irene Alcorta in the housing
projects. What-was it Mirasol, one of the housing projects?
Sr. F-No it would be-it was Cassiano Homes.
A- Cassiano Homes, yeah. And I invited her and she-Irene Alcorta was very bright, she would
get all the women together and so we got together in the housing projects and we talked about
what would you prefer to work or stay on welfare. And those of you who are interested in
working the chamber will provide this training and some of them will go to you know. And so
we started working with the women and the chamber started to train them in cashiering and then
we started to talk to the women about getting a job. And then started the hard information of OK
once you’re gonna work you’re gonna loose your welfare. And then we talked to the employer
‘she’s gonna leave welfare so you’re gonna have to be ready to provide you know’. And so the
employer was willing to take that chance. And so we started and we started working with
Mirasol and some of the other housing projects. What-you were living in one of the houses?
Sr. F-Mirasol.
A-Mirasol yeah.
Sr. F-Uh huh.
A-They wouldn’t let me rent a room, haha. But they let you rent a room, the sisters haha. I was
making ten thousand dollars and you were making I don’t know how much. You made less than I
did so you were able to rentSr. F-Barely
A-so I had to-I had to be a guest of some of the women to stay in their house, you know, and uhSr. F-When I worked with you I didn’t earn anything.
A-You didn’t earn anything haha. You were a volunteer haha.
Sr. F-I had zero dollars when I worked with you.
A-Haha. So I was-it was really funny isn’t it?
Sr. F-Yeah.
A-My family tells me I’ve always been a nun. But anyway, and so um once we organized all
these women we had a large number and then um it was really-it was really kind of like a
historical time because we had Let’s Get Off of Welfare campaign and the employers were ready
to give jobs to the women and the women just said ‘we’re off of welfare’. And boy did the
publicity hit San Antonio. I didn’t realize we had newspapers until then haha. And so we had a
lot of publicity and so the women were able to really declare ‘let’s get off of welfare’ and they
got jobs and so that made a lot of publicity. And that way-then a lot of other employers started,
like the telephone company offered them jobs and then we had the construction workers that
made a lot of notoriety and got 60 Minutes to come in and, uh- 60 Minutes got hold of it, I don’t
know how, but they were very interested in the women in construction and so they came and
they did the 60 Minutes, remember that?
Sr. F-Uh huh.
A-When we were-
Sr. F-I remember the little café they opened at…
A-And some of the women-the city provided them-offered the women to run a café and so some
of the women started to, you know, their jobs. So it was, uh-we had-I think the reason why the
program was successful was because we had the cooperation of business-of employers. And we
had the women-we prepared the women who wanted to go to work and they took on-and the
solution was really that eighty percent, after working this for twelve years, I found that eighty
percent of American women on AFDC Welfare would select to go to work instead of being on
welfare primarily because the women on AFDC Welfare income maintenance is really a women
who has a child below the age of six. And the majority of women, American women who have
children below the age of six would prefer to go to work even if they have a divorce or are single
instead of being on welfare.
And so, you know, putting together that law, getting that law passed is a no brainer and I
don’t understand why we have taken so long to get it done. But I believe-I’m sure, you know,
that if welfare reform were changed, if we had when the woman came in, if she were offered a
job and then by the Department of Employment, and then the Welfare Department would offer
her child care, health care until she stabilized herself and job. We would change, transform
AFDC Welfare and that’s what needs to be done.
Sr. F-You left San Antonio and went on to do Big Red Letter thing, and what have you but I
notice that now you’re doing environmental things.
A-Yeah.
Sr. F-Tell us a little bit, how does environmental become part of this long trajectory to your
commitment to social justice? Tell me about that.
A-Well uh that has a lot do with our people in Oxnard. Sixty five, seventy percent of the people
in Oxnard are Latino. And oil companies wanted to create a-to bring natural gas from Iran,
Russia, Indonesia into Oxnard. They selected Oxnard because they thought that Latinos would
not combat it.
Sr. F-Uh huh.
A-And so it’s like a new-like a new issue because natural gas, LNG, they call it liquefied natural
gas, is super cooled in Australia, in Indonesia, in Iran, and then it is brought, super cooled, intoimported into the United States and then is degasified and then pushed into pipes and the
distributed. And so they chose Oxnard as the testing place because they didn’t think-California is
very environmentally conscience, and they selected Oxnard because they felt we-the Mexican
American, the Latino wouldn’t-we didn’t have the political power, we weren’t going to-and so
they-BHP Billiton which is the largest mining company in the world, uh, joined with Exxon
Mobile to start bringing natural gas, LNG into San Antonio. And so we got wind of it and we
started to testify and fight that. It took us three years but I’ll tell you I lost my income, I lost-you
know, and we were with nickels and dimes just fight BHP Billiton. And they have millions of
dollars and so they were lobbying congress, they were lobbying our Texas Legislature, our
governor. And the governor of Texas said ‘enough’. California said, Schwarzenegger he said
‘yeah. Oxnard is the perfect place for us to have this’.
And so we fought it and, you know, what it’s a miracle that we won because they were
just throwing money around, millions of dollars, buying everyone but they-we owe a lot of credit
to a woman named Susan Jordan who is married to a Latino, Pedro Nava, simply Pedro Nava,
and she was the one who really put the strategy together and worked with the Environmental
Council who did all the research and all the organize-and then we just provided the people and
we testified and so we won that battle and it’s really known throughout the world. But I think I
have always been-Oxnard and the ocean has always been very dear to me because that’s when I
go to rest when I’m very stressed, I go to the ocean and I love walking on the beach and getting
my you know in the water and so, as a child, you know, we used to go and we used to camp at
the beach and go grunion hunting. And so now you go and you step on the water and you get,
you know, tar on your feet and the ocean is so polluted because you have these oil platforms that
have just destroyed our marine life and then I’ve always enjoyed going whale watching. And you
can see the diminishing of the whales and the-so many of the big ships are killing the whales and
the diminishing of the birds.
And Oxnard has three channel islands which are beautiful islands that are sanctuaries for
birds and for mammals, and so this LNG was just going to destroy all of that and so we fought it
and, I guess, going back to my childhood I always learned the importance of animals and plants
being so close to-and then working on the fields. You learn the importance of plants and also
that-taking on the environment was very easy for me because I love the ocean and I’ve always
enjoyed-that’s where I got to rest you know? And seeing that being polluted-and then I’m a
Pisces, I’m a fish haha. Just kidding, haha. But I can relate to that and it’s very-it’s really very
natural, and then when you see the pollution of our oceans being just you know so polluted it’s
uh, environment is veryAnd then, I guess, now with Obama our reliance on foreign sources of energy has
become really an issue of economic that-has drained our economy. And so it has become a
double issue. So now, I think, it’s very easy now because we’ve seen the drain of our economy
being drained by Super Oil. And also research tells us that oil is gonna be depleted within 2050.
It’s gonna be a flat and so, really, it’s time for us to deal with solar, with wind, clean energy. But
I’m-I’m gonna also tell you something that I’m also involved and I’m working with the Poor
Clares in Mexico helping them train poor people, women in Chiapas, who come-many a poor
come to the United States to look for jobs and a lot of them come from poor communities like
Chiapas. And so I’m working-I organize Stewards of the Earth, and so we’re working with the
Poor Clares who recruit women from Chiapas, bring them to-close to Mexico City, Chaco, to
train them in cooking and baking and all. And we-I’m working with our board; you might like to
be on our board.
Both Laugh
A-To put together a computer lab in Mexico City, in Chaco close to Mexico City where the Poor
Clares are to train the women in computer science, in technology so that they can get jobs in
Mexico and start growing a technology-and then we’re also going to Chiapas where the women
come from in San Miguel Las Sardinas in Chiapas and putting together a computer lab there in
the school so that the children can start learning computer. The beauty of that is that Chiapas is a,
uh-produces sixty five percent of hydropower for electricity in Mexico. So that is clean energy
and so all of the people in the little villages, they have televisions and all because they are
powered by electricity and that is powered by hydropower. And so we’re working to put a
computer lab you know in San Miguel Las Sardinas as a model so we can train some of the
indigenous people to really learn technology. And I’m working with Debbie, you know, DebSteve Wright to also put together, I’ve worked with him as-in technology. And putting together
um satellites that would deal with you-you don’t have to build the infrastructure for technology,
you can just go wireless and really get the kids to get laptops. And, you know, it’s exciting, it’s
gonna be the last-my last project but I’m all excited about it because it really deals with what we
should be doing in immigration.
But I want to end by saying something to you. And that is that all my life I have been
guided by my conscience and by where God puts me and responding to what I’m supposed to do
just like you do. And just like everybody does. And I’m just placed in that position. I don’t go
and create all these things that I say ‘I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do that’. I’m just-it’s placed
in front of me and I just do what I’m supposed to do as a Christian, you know? And I don’t
know, God takes care of things you know the way their supposed to be. And so I think that’s the
way God works in all of our lives and we just respond to what we know in our conscience we’re
supposed to do. And I think that is for everyone, you know, be you white, black, Latino,
whatever. I think all of it-if we listen to our inner self, our God self, God living within us, and
respond to doing what we’re supposed to do in life and doing it well and being responsive to
people that we associate with you know I think that’s what being a Christian is all about. That’s
what being a-that’s why God created us, don’t you think so?
Sr. F-I do.
A-Yeah.
Sr. F-Absolutely.
A-Amen, haha.
Sr. F-Amen. Thank you so much. Right from La Junta to technology world, from a little farm
girl to Queen of the technologyA-Laughs
Sr. F-in third world countriesA-Well uh you know in all honesty, it isn’t Lupe Anguiano, it’s a lot of us, you know? I’m the
one that is-I’ll tell you a joke that we have in our family. I always say this, I was met at church
by a women who says ‘Oh, are you an Anguiano?’ And I said, ‘yes I am’. ‘Oh, are you Andy
Anguiano’s sister?’ I said, ‘yes’. ‘Oh, he’s the one who volunteers at the hospital’ he’s eighty six
years. ‘He volunteers at the hospital, he helps people so that they you know have an emergency
and his son is a priest’. And I said, ‘yeah that’s my brother’. And I said, ‘I’m also Joe
Anguiano’s sister’. And then ‘Oh, Joe Anguiano, he’s the one that helps with the panty and
volunteers with the emergency and help-is the-they call him the mayor of Satequoy’ where we
were born-where we were raised, ‘and does food and volunteer work’. And I said ‘yeah’. And
then I say ‘and Rosie is my sister, Rosie Conteraras is my sister’. ‘Oh, she’s the one with the
dimples and she’s Eucharistic minster and she’s the one who drives the people to the doctor and
works with the handicap’. And I said ‘Yeah’. And then I said, ‘And I’m Lupe Anguiano. I’m the
one who receives all the awards’ haha. And then she says, ‘Well you must do something to
receive the awards’. I said, ‘I’m the one who receives all the Anguiano awards’ haha. ‘They do
the work and I do the awards’ haha.
Sr. F-Yes, we know that’s true.
A-Laughs
Sr. F-Absolutely.
A-That’s a joke. But it-