Independence for South Sudan became a focus of interest following a visit by a Catholic Relief Services staff person in Fall 2010. In dramatic terms Dan Griffin, CRS adviser for Sudan, called students to action: “You can be the first generation to end a genocide rather than respond to it.”

Kelsey Kastrava, editor in chief of Cabrini College’s student newspaper in 2010-2011, depicted in the initial article on Sudan exactly what the stakes might be. Her article, “Students organize over Sudanese conflict,” reported on Griffin’s talk and the response by CRS student ambassadors on campus.

Cabrini College students are rallying together to raise awareness and prevent what many are calling a potential massive war in Africa. If Southern Sudan votes to separate from the north in a January election, a tragic war could break out, adding to the four million casualties of the last war and the suffering that still exists in the two poor regions of Sudan Southern Sudan and Darfur.

“Our goal is to get the attention of local media and eventually national media by partnering with other colleges and universities in the area,” senior Eric Gibble, president of Catholic Relief Services Ambassadors at Cabrini College, said.

Quickly, a group of video students responded and produced a video that CRS could use to explain the issue to other students. Kara Schneider, a 2010 graduate of Cabrini, became the producer and engaged current students in the production. The video, “Never again begins now,” was featured on the CRS website.

Kelsey continued her reporting on Sudan throughout the year as the government of Sudan and region of South Sudan negotiated the potential referendum regarding independence. After reading Dave Eggers‘ book, “What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng,” a novel based on the true story of a Lost Boy of Sudan, she attended a media event organized by CRS and was able to interview a Lost Boy, the now-grown Malual Deng Duot. Her profile of him was accompanied by a video interview done by Danielle Alio.

To accompany this multimedia package portrayal of Malual, Kelsey wrote a profile of an exceptional woman, Barbara DiLucia, who received six so-called Lost Boys into her home and raised them over a period of years.

The first time she met them, Barbara didn’t know they would become her “sons.” They were the orphans who trekked across East Africa. They were the “lost boys” of Sudan. Now they were living in her town.

She didn’t intend to take any of them into her home.“I prayed about it for quite some time, and because I’m a widow now and I live here by myself and to take in some strange kid from another country, you know especially some man, was kind of a daunting challenge,” she said.

Barbara Di Lucia met the Sudanese lost boys through her parish. She, along with other members of the church, agreed to sponsor six young men that had endured years of hardship in a place where war had taken their family, friends and childhood.

Kelsey dramatically tells the story of a woman who did not intend to do anything exceptional but who just continued to make choices that seemed right to her and that led her down a path to accept a group of Lost Boys into her heart and home.

One of the lessons for journalism students here is that a speaker in one class can lead to a series of exceptional media creations. A number of students realized that the speaker was introducing them to an historical moment and that they could report on changes happening half-way around the world. Great reporting, writing, and video were able to make distant events vivid and personal. Energetic background reading, research, and hunting down sources paid off for the reporters involved. Kelsey submitted her Sudan package to the Religion Newswriters Association contest and her stories won second place in the Chandler Award for Student Religion Reporter of the Year. Danielle’s video was part of a package of video reporting that won her first place in Maryknoll Explore My Mission contest, which resulted in a two-week trip to Asia for her. Danielle’s submission can be viewed here.

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Editor’s note: The original story and video is located at http://theloquitur.com/?p=7786

Zenebech Gashaw, like many other women in Ethiopia, gets up at 4:30 a.m., prepares breakfast for her husband and children, walks the children to school, which takes up to an hour and a half, and then works all day cooking, fetching water and cleaning.

At dinner, women like Gashaw feed their husband first, children second and themselves last, which often leaves them with no food.

Women being a low priority is the condition of many women around the world.

Women in countries all over the world, especially in Africa and Latin America, are often seen as unequal to men, are rarely educated and are often the targets of rape and abduction in unstable areas.

Finding ways to empower women is the focus of a worldwide movement now.

Bridget Flynn, senior special education and Spanish major, experienced the empowerment of women firsthand as a 2008 CRS International Intern in Ethiopia.

She explained that Ethiopia is a very male-dominated country and Flynn saw women like Zenebech everyday. Flynn said girls are often not educated because they are needed to stay home and help the women with chores.

Even for girls who are able to attend school, it is an extremely dangerous journey.

“A girl would take a 10-mile walk to high school with fear of getting raped or abducted [along the way] or raped at school by her teacher, and she would still go. I complain that the line at the caf is so long, but really what am I complaining about? I have nothing in this world that I can complain about,” Flynn said.

Educating women allows them to live up to their full potential, help countries grow economically and improve the health and wellbeing of all people. Women who are educated not only learn skills for various trades, but receive knowledge about diseases to improve the health of people living in developing countries.

Organizations working on women’s issues understand that one cannot fight poverty effectively unless women are educated and empowered.

“Every time someone makes that decision to say instead, ‘Today I’ll go to school,’ or instead, ‘Today I’ll feed my child first’ or instead ‘Today I won’t let my daughter be hurt by anybody,’ you know anytime that decision is made, it’s a step closer to empowerment for them [women],” Flynn said.

Education is the key, according to experts in women’s empowerment. “I can’t give someone empowerment, but I can give them the tools to empower themselves, and education is certainly one of the biggest tools one can use to empower themselves,” Abiosseh Davis, project associate for the Global Women’s Project at the Center of Concern and a speaker at Cabrini’s Founder’s Day, said.

Currently, about one fifth of the world’s adult population—771 million adults—do not have basic literacy skills; at least two-thirds of these are women.

In March 2009, the U.S. State Department declared a new position of special ambassador on global women’s issues in order to consolidate all work dealing with women and to raise greater awareness that international women’s rights are a critical component to the U.S. foreign policy. Organizations such as Catholic Relief Services create programs that work to gather women together and give them access to opportunities, education, economic means and in some cases technology, so that they are able to improve their lives and move beyond the restrictions they are presently in.

“One should empower women because women have the right to be empowered, simply because we are human beings. We’re here and we’re productive members of society, so really the biggest benefit is that we are creating a more just and equal society when we empower women,” Davis said.

While empowerment may seem intangible, it can be achieved and is essential to the development of a nation. “Once you raise the standard of life for women, you’re also raising the standard of life for those children she cares for and also for her own country,” Arlene Flaherty, justice and peace liaison for CRS, said.

Flaherty said, “To the extent that we can educate women is the extent to which we can empower and mobilize women. Once women are empowered and mobilized and are contributing fully their gifts and their abilities to their families, and also to their nations, then justice and development will occur.”

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by Liz Garrett and Diana Trasatti

The brutal and vicious realities of war are an everyday occurrence for the people of Iraq.

Violent outbreaks have caused persistent and abundant visual images of injury, death, kidnapping and torture to the citizens of the country.

Physical effects of the war are damaging and apparent; but the impact of the emotional and psychological damages that the war in Iraq is causing has gone unaided, until now.

A new program has recently been developed by Catholic Relief Services to provide psychological treatment for the Iraqi refugees who have experienced these traumatic events first hand.

“There were cases of persons, someone from their family was assassinated in front of their eyes. We have many children also who were kidnapped or in front of them they saw severe scenes of torture,” Isaaze Saade, employee of Caritas Lebanon, said.

Six-year-old Omar was kidnapped in Iraq. He was captured because, even though he is a Christian, his name is Muslim. With the religious wars raging, Omar was imprisoned with numerous other children of the same name.

“He has been refusing, until now his parents call him by his name, so he changed his name. He hates his name,” Saade said.

Cases like Omar’s are not uncommon and the Iraqi Refugee Trauma Relief Program provides counseling, medical attention, education and psychological follow-up to the citizens of Iraq who have been a victim of torture, imprisonment, kidnapping or a witness to any of these events.

While addressing these issues are imperative to the psychological well being of refugees, they do not always actively seek the help that they need.

“If we remove the idea of a diagnosis from the idea of trauma and just really help people to understand that trauma unfortunately is an effect of the many unfortunate consequences of war. It’s not just about removing the stigma but trying to give people a reason to understand that what they have is not something of a deficit but a consequence of circumstances under which they have no control,” Arlene Flaherty, CRS representative, said.

Flaherty was instrumental in initiating the program. Even though there was some hesitation from Iraqis to go through with the program, since its start this year it has gained acceptance and the number of clients has grown so significantly that there was a need to hire an additional psychologist.

The trauma programs are organized into groups that relate to the experience of each Iraqi. Victims of rape, torture, kidnapping and imprisonment all have a forum where they can gather to share their story, listen to others and move past their painful encounters.

The Iraqi culture places great importance on community, so CRS uses this as a tool for the program and provides training for Iraqis who wish to assist as counselors in the program.

“There’s a real big strength, which is the strength of their family and the strength of their tribe, their group, their town. So it’s really helpful to work with the families together, to help each family to be able to understand how to support family members and to help each community of Iraqis to understand trauma, so those communities can actually help support people who are in fact, traumatized,” Flaherty said.

Iraqis who are fleeing from the turbulent state of war, often seek safety in other countries, but their struggles do not end there.

Refugees in Lebanon cannot legally hold jobs and have difficulty keeping up with living expenses. Any refugee who is found working, runs the risk of becoming imprisoned. This can bestow a helpless feeling upon the refugees, especially men, and may cause them to enter a state of depression.

Refugees entering the United States do not have it much easier. Even if one gets passed the tough immigration laws and obtains a job, there is still difficulty adjusting to American society and breaking through prejudiced mindsets of others.

“I think Iraqis who are accepted for resettlement in the States are facing a lot of difficulties of integration and are really suffering a lot, so for us it is very important for the American people to understand that this person came from a different culture and to welcome them in a better way,” Saade said.

Even though the Trauma Relief program has been providing aid and treatment, war is still lingering in Iraq and atrocities are being committed each day.

Leaders of the program believe that a deeper understanding is needed between countries to end the catastrophic events that are essentially causing the trauma.

“In the long run we are people, and even though we may be on different sides of the conflict we share a common humanity that suffers and is vulnerable to the violence of war. We need to be able to support Iraqi refugees who are trying to get home and who are also traumatized. You know to that extent that we begin to heal these wounds of war in each other so that we will really be able to achieve the outcome that we want, which is deep peace-building between the people of Iraq and the people of the United States,” Flaherty said.

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by Eric Gibble

Making the decision to journey to the U.S.

Nine years ago, a woman from Guatemala made a decision that would change her life forever. It’s a journey that would force her to face challenges and dangers she never would have expected.

Roberta, a resident of Philadelphia, requested her real name not be used due to the recent validation of her visa. She was once a part of the more than 11 million undocumented immigrants already living in the United States.

This precarious journey northward was also one she didn’t want to make.

“I was praying we wouldn’t have to go,” Roberta said. “I didn’t want to leave my family.”

After growing up in Guatemala City as a child, she moved to the outskirts of the city after 12 years. She later married and had two children, one girl who is now 14 years old and a boy who is now 12. Just like any other average Guatemalan, Roberta led a seemingly normal life.

However, a normal life to Guatemalans is in stark contrast to the normal life of an average American. According to the World Bank, about 75 percent of Guatemalans are below the poverty line with 58 percent of the population living in extreme poverty. In addition, seven out of 10 children under the age of five are malnourished.

Current economic conditions in Guatemala have worsened since the 1990s with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA has benefited the large agribusiness companies of the United States, but has decimated the middle class and farmers in Central America.

Due to the economic disparity in her own country, Roberta was forced to be separated from her husband for weeks at a time. Her husband would make the long passage through Mexico to the United States to work in Texas in order to provide a living income for his family.

Over time, a family can live under the strain of separation only for so long.

“My husband wanted me to come to the United States with the kids. It was hard for him as well,” Roberta said.

Facing the challenges of migrating without documents

Roberta made the decision to put her family first and come to the United States. The first option was to come to the United States legally. But reality soon set in for Roberta.

“It’s almost impossible,” Roberta said in reference to obtaining a visa.

Current immigration laws only allow for 66,000 low-skilled labor positions for people across the globe. This leaves a gap of 434,000 in the labor force as there are 500,000 generated every year. In addition, it can take over a decade to enter the United States even if a person can get through the process.

Roberta and her children wouldn’t have to jump from boxcar to boxcar on the northward trains like many heading to the United States do. Because of her husband’s connections, she was able to secure a safe passage to Mexico. But, that came with a price. Undocumented immigrants are known to pay up to $5,000, the yearly wages of a Guatemalan, to assistant them in entering the United States.

“He [my husband] had to pay, but because he was a friend I think he didn’t have to pay as much,” Roberta said.

The ease of her journey would abruptly end. The next challenge would be to cross the Rio Grande River bordering the United States and Mexico.

“I was told ‘Someone is going to help you cross the river,’” Roberta said. “These people work doing that all the time. I said ‘How? I don’t know how to swim.’ They said, ‘You’re going to sit in here and then we’ll push.’”

With her children next to her, she crossed the river into the land of opportunity on a raft in fear of the possibility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement turning her right back around.

Even more frightening was the possibility that these people were not friends but human traffickers. Approximately 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked to the United States every year for labor or prostitution according to the U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report.

Luckily, Roberta and her children would not be subjected to this fate and she made it to the shores of the United States safely.

“They had a house where we stayed for a few hours. While I was there, I was scared they could do something,” Roberta said.

Learning a new language

After what seemed like a never-ending wait, she was finally united with her mother-in-law in Texas where she stayed with her children for a short time. Yet obstacles were still being thrown at Roberta and her family.

“I didn’t speak any English. I knew how to read and write some, but it was hard to speak. It was hard to ask questions. I needed people to help me,” Roberta said.

The reality of having to pick up a second language was not new to Roberta.

“Of course, I knew that I needed to. I do love my Spanish though,” Roberta said with a laugh. “I know people who come here and they want to learn English. Even the older people still want to learn.”

Her children, having been thrown into a completely different culture, would also be faced with this obstacle. Many Americans are concerned that English would be overtaken as the primary language spoken in the United States.

Yet a report on language assimilation by the Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research in Albany, N.Y., found that 91 percent of second-generation immigrants, like Roberta’s children, will become practically fluent in English.

“They speak English and Spanish. My daughter speaks both perfectly, but my son’s first language is English.”

Within a few weeks, another journey lay ahead for Roberta.

Adjusting to America

“A friend in Philadelphia said, ‘Come here, you can save money.’ I said okay, let’s do it. It was expensive for me. I took a Greyhound bus,” Roberta said.

Life wasn’t what she expected it would be in the United States. Her pursuit of happiness would be a struggle to obtain as she recalled the first few months in Philadelphia.

“There were four of us in one room in this house. It was awful, there was no space for us. We stayed like that for two months until my husband got the money from his job,” Roberta said.

Because she did not have a social security number due to her undocumented status she was unable to find a place of her own.

“You can’t even rent a house. Oh lord, it’s so important to have a social security number.”

Her first jobs included tasks that even teenagers searching for jobs wouldn’t subject themselves to.

“I was lucky a lot of people knew me. I had a friend and I started working cleaning houses. I didn’t know I could make a lot of money,” Roberta said.

Without the protection of the law, she was subjected to low wages.

Recalling the experiences of others she knows, she noted the long hours and small amount of pay they receive.

“People will have to work many hours in a day and they don’t make money,” Roberta said.

The adjustment to life in Philadelphia for her and her family was a constant struggle.

“Life is completely different. Everyone stays in. I don’t even know my neighbors,” Roberta said.

“There are so many drugs. I never saw people doing that in Guatemala. I walked out the door here and it’s happening.”

She soon found help in the area from the Sisters of St. Joseph Welcome Center. The sisters at the center help immigrants improve their English and make the transition into American society easier.

“It’s amazing though. They’ve helped me so much,” Roberta said. “Thank God everyone was pretty nice.”

In 2000, Roberta adjusted her status when her husband applied for a Family Based Green Card.

“I’m very happy now, I can help the way I was helped before,” Roberta said.

Cabrini SEM 300 students learn about issue firsthand

Students at Cabrini have been able to address the issue firsthand. Taught by Dr. Jerry Zurek, chairman of the communications department, the SEM 300: Working for Global Justice class immerses students into issues such as extreme poverty, human trafficking and immigration.

“Students will take knowledge and desire and use that knowledge after they graduate,” Zurek said.

Students have also been able to visit the Sisters of St. Joseph Welcome Center and the Northeast Regional Office of Catholic Relief Services.

“The class has opened my eyes to the myriad of issues that face immigrants in America. Although it seems like a cut-and-dry situation, the challenges they face once arriving here are unbelievable. I think before I thought their struggles ended once they successfully crossed the border. Now I know that isn’t the case,” Monica Burke, senior English and communication and biology major, said.

Before engaging in the class, Burke found that she was not as informed on the issue as she thought she was.

“I thought I was pretty in tune to immigration issues,” Burke said. “Now, after learning more and more, I see that most Americans have barely scratched the surface of understanding what faces an immigrant once they decide to migrate.”

Burke believes that people like Roberta also deserve the help of the community.

“It is the responsibility of a community to care for the weakest of its members. By being educated about the challenges and issues that face immigrants, Cabrini students can advocate for these members of our community,” Burke said.

Roberta also holds high hopes for the future and hopes to be a part of this community that helps out those that are making the adjustment into American society.

“This is a wonderful country where we can learn and support our families. For those that are living here undocumented, there is hope. There are wonderful people who can help,” Roberta saidby Eric Gibble

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Caitlin Friel, Gillian Davis, Mallory Terrence

Listen to a 4-minute demo version of “Road of Insecurity”

“Road of Insecurity: The Global Food Crisis” explores the current conditions of those living without food in the world and what is being done to address the problem.

This award-winning radio documentary seeks to educate people on an issue present not only here in the United States but to an extreme degree in the developing world.

The documentary aims to explain why it is important to care about issues overseas and to fund programs that aid the developing world.

The concept for the documentary originated in a social justice course the three students participated in, Working for Global Justice. As part of the course, they interviewed representatives of several national and international organizations involved in developing sustainable policies for food security.

The students interviewed representatives of agencies like Bread for the World, the national organization to end hunger at home and abroad, and Catholic Relief Services, the international humanitarian agency of the American Catholic Church.

The documentary was reported and produced by Gillian Davis, Caitlin Friel, and Mallory Terrence.

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What other college reporters have done:

• The trailblazing athletes of Lingira Island, Uganda by Michelle Mazzeo, University of Wisconsin, Madison, tells the story of how football can be a safe and productive outlet for girls on Lingira Island, Uganda, where violence against women is otherwise epidemic. Read her story also: The trailblazing athletes of Lingira Island
• Empowering women to end worldwide poverty by Shannon Keough, Jessica Wegelin, and Jen Wozniak, Cabrini College Loquitur, shows that “while empowerment may seem intangible, it can be achieved and is essential to the development of a nation. ‘Once you raise the standard of life for women, you’re also raising the standard of life for those children she cares for and also for her own country,’ Arlene Flaherty, justice and peace liaison for CRS, said. See also their video Empowering women.

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Watch this movie about the trailblazing athletes of Lingira Island, Uganda :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRPhTtbVigs

As you can see from the video, this team has a lot to bring to Lingira Island. Sadly, the setbacks are far from small. Violence against women is an epidemic on the island. Almost every girl at the island school has engaged in an illegal relationship, been raped or forced into prostitution. Some girls are married off young before being able to finish school. The banality of violence against women is also reflected in the fact that hardly any perpetrators are sent to prison. This in part has to do with woman’s low status in society: most girls and women do not even report violent acts committed against them. In fact, acts of violence against women have become so normal that some mothers have been known to sell their daughters as prostitutes in exchange for a small amount of sugar.

Since this movie was made, EDGE found out that one of the girls on the team was recently defiled. Defilement can mean anything from rape to an inappropriate relationship with a minor. In this particular defilement case, the community raised the funds to send the man to jail and get the girl tested for rape. Because the girl’s family hid her for 5 days after the incident, they were unable to gather conclusive evidence. Regardless, corruption enabled the perpetrator to return to the island after only a couple weeks.

Now is a time to use the foundation that LGFC has created to spur social change against the widespread violence against women. This semester, EDGE interns on the Women’s Empowerment Research Team have been researching methods for making the LGFC a more effective route for empowering young girls. We must urge the community not to give up on investing in its girls– not to fear change. Instead, EDGE is encouraging them to take a firm stance against all of the incidents of violence against girls and women.

The LGFC girls are the future– they must be given opportunity and a voice today in order to change their world for the next generation.

The girls of Lingira need support more than ever, as one of their only productive outlets is being threatened by the violence against women epidemic on the island. We can all make a difference in this situation, by supporting the creation of EDGE Project’s new, comprehensive and sustainable strategic plan that will ensure, through checks and balances, that football is a safe and productive outlet for girls on Lingira Island. See our website for updates: www.wisconsinedgeproject.blogspot.com

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I came to Uganda with EDGE Project‐-a group from the University of Wisconsin‐ Madison that enables students to carry out detailed research with professors on campus and subsequently implement small projects in partner communities in the developing world. When I arrived at Lingira Island in the middle of Lake Victoria, I had no idea that I would be working full‐time as a soccer coach to a group of young ladies.

Before the soccer team began, I spent over a month just getting to know the Lingira island community. I found that most people spoke broken English, if any, and had preconceived notions about why I chose to come to their small and remote island. It was difficult to get to know people well in such a short period of time. However, the rapport I built simply from trying helped me later when I decided to report on this story. One evening I invited myself to play soccer with some of the men from the island. After only a short period of time, I found the men and boys were shocked that I was able to kick the ball in the right direction and I was famous within a matter of hours.

Of course, all this attention just for playing some soccer did not sit right with me. Girls should be encouraged to play the beautiful game just as boys are. Once I did some background research with the schoolteachers and other community members, I discovered that girls were much too busy cleaning, cooking, gardening, tending to children and caring for their family members to enjoy a refreshing and fun game of soccer. I also learned that many of the girls engaged in prostitution, premature sexual relationships or were victims of rape, which is extremely common in the community.

I immediately began to work with a young native of the island, Tony, to put together the first girls soccer team. Of course, the team was a complete novelty to the island and watching it fall into place was an inspiration to everyone. However, working with young, vulnerable girls in a marginalized community such as this one, requires a lot of care and close monitoring. I depended almost exclusively on the male coaches to translate when I wanted to communicate with the girls about filming them. If I were to document a story like this again, I would try harder to find a woman as a translator. In general, when reporting on a situation that challenges social norms of girls and women, asking a woman to translate is probably a good idea.

I would also make my goals and objectives in documenting a story like this extremely clear to the participants and community, all of whom are already keeping a close eye on the activities of any outsider. The more the locals understand your purpose, the more likely they will be to help move along your project.

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A small crowd gathers at the door asking for help. They want an answer or even a piece of hope to hold on to.

It doesn’t matter that it is late at night or early in the morning. They stand at the back door of his home waiting for the man that can help change their lives.

Luis Tlaseca has been the light of hope for the farm workers in Kennett Square, Pa. He has dedicated his time to CATA, a farm workers support committee or El Comité de Apoyo a Los Trabajadores Agricolas, that empowers farm workers to organize for better working and living conditions. He was also one of the founders of the only union for mushroom farm workers in the region.

Tlaseca is the coordinator of the Pennsylvania CATA, which also has an office in Southern N.J. He strives to unify mushroom-farm workers and give them a voice to fight for what they deserve.

“My job, it’s difficult, it’s challenging for me to try to organize,” Tlaseca said.

Tlaseca, like many of the farm workers, is a native of Mexico and came to the United States undocumented to pursue a better lifestyle.

Tlaseca said that he left Mexico in 1978 due to the poor conditions and lack of income. Upon arrival in the United States, he worked a low paying job picking apples and peaches. He eventually moved on to the mushroom industry where he experienced terrible working and living conditions, as well as low wages.

Tlaseca said that conditions were bad at Kaolin, the mushroom farm he worked at in Pennsylvania. He explained that he worked in these conditions for 10 years until May of 1993, when he realized that it was time for the workers to stand up and be recognized for the hard and necessary work they do.

He organized workers and led a strike to get a union recognized. Following the workers going on strike, it took nearly 10 years for the Kaolin company to finally recognize the workers’ union and to negotiate the first contract with the workers for better wages and working conditions. Over those 10 years, the company fought the union in court.

Today, approximately 300 mushroom workers at the Kaolin farm are members of the union. They receive better wages and live and work in better conditions thanks to Tlaseca and the union. However, the remainder of the 10,000 mushroom pickers are still trapped in poor working conditions because they are not members of the union.

Although Tlaseca has successfully helped hundreds of workers through the union and through CATA, his job is never done. There are always more mushroom farm workers looking for an answer.

“My position is very hard because I represent the union and workers and to organize and coordinate the office in CATA,” Tlaseca said. “It’s a difficult situation when I visit the workers and different companies. The companies, they know me. The offices, they talk to me and say go, get out! They don’t like you to visit the workers.”

Everyday Tlaseca meets with workers to help them find a way into the union. However, it is not an easy task to get in touch with the workers.

In one situation Tlaseca said he visited seven workers at their company to discuss the union. When the owner arrived he blocked Tlaseca’s car in and called the police. Eleven different police units including the state police arrived to arrest Tlsaeca. He tried to explain that he worked for CATA and was only here to help. The police did not care. They forbade him to remain on the property.

At present, the farm workers union is negotiating another contract with the company. Although in a union, the workers work most days of the year, including holidays. They only get holidays off if it is their one day off a week. They are asking for paid holidays, a pay raise higher than their annual raise of two percent and the right to take unpaid leave to visit their families in Mexico.

Tlaseca, married with two daughters in college, has dedicated his life to improving the working conditions of mushroom pickers, who make about $20,000 a year. Although he has been part of the struggle for more than 20 years to improve conditions for the immigrant men and women who put inexpensive food on the tables of Americans, he knows that much remains to be done. While much remains to be done, he says he’s supported by the people he works with and for.

“My job, I happy because I have a lot of friends. The workers, they know me, they like me because I try to support them,” Tlaseca said.

http://media.www.theloquitur.com/media/storage/paper226/news/2009/11/19/News/Migrant.Farmers.Rally.For.Rights-3837805.shtml

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