 Okay. I think I'm ready to start this program. Good morning, everyone. Thank you all for being here. I'm Ramiro Salazar. I'm the Director of the San Antonio Public Library System. It's so good to have you here. We have a very special guest. He will be introduced shortly. Thanks to Councilwoman Gonzalez. So thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez, for being here to be part of this program and for introducing our special guest. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the San Antonio Public Library Foundation and the Friends of the San Antonio Public Library for their continued support of our programs throughout the library system. They've been instrumental in providing additional resources so that we can bring important speakers to the various communities that we serve. We have 27 branch libraries and we have two more that are under construction and we'll open later this year. And so this is, we have a large footprint. This is a way we can impact the community in a positive way. This program was also made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. At this time I would like to welcome and recognize some special guests that we have here. Today I'll start with Dr. Diane Imeldi, who's the president of our late university. We also have the Friends of the Las Palmas French Library, who she, along with her team, worked very hard to support the Las Palmas French Library. Delia Trimble. Delia, there you are. Thank you, Delia. Thank you so much. We have Ernest Martinez representing Jaime Martinez. Jaime has, as you know, been very involved in the community and promoting the Cesar Chavez march and also enlightening the community about Cesar Chavez's legacy. So, welcome Ernest. We have Henry Pobrigues, president of Lulac's Apatista Council. Actually I'm just the executive director. I'm the gopher, okay. And this is Rosa Estrada, she's our secretary. Welcome Rosa, appreciate having you here. We have Gloria Almaraz, also, who's not only a member of the Friends of Las Palmas. She's a local community advocate. She's a freelance writer. She's working on a project and will be published very soon, right? Next week, I believe. Thank you, Gloria. We also have Choco Mesa, who is the chief of staff, Councilwoman Gonzales. And we're happy again to have Councilwoman Gonzales here. And I will invite her to the podium very quickly. I'd just like to recognize a couple of staff members, PD Morganti, the adult services coordinator, and our branch manager, Mary Kay Raffke, first Mary Kay. Thank you all for putting this program together. And at this time, it's my pleasure to invite to the podium Councilwoman Gonzales, who has been extremely supportive of libraries throughout the community, especially in her district. And I greatly appreciate her continued support, her efforts to bring additional resources to the library and for her involvement and engagement to our libraries. Thank you for your service to the community. And at this time, I would like to invite you to the podium. Good morning, everyone. So happy to see everybody here all recovered from fiesta. I know I thoroughly enjoyed my fiesta week and I hope you had an opportunity to visit some of our great fiesta events. And so it's fitting that we're here with with Arthur Rodriguez to talk about his experiences with the United Farm Workers. And I think it's especially fitting that here on the wall behind me, we have some of our great Latino icons. As many times as I've been here, I have to say, I've not noticed this wall. And I stand in this area all the time with my children, maybe because we are back here looking at the books. But I think you can see Cesar Sarchavez and Dolores Huerta and Henry de Gonzales back here, supporting all of our Latino community. And I think it's really special that you get to be here and have them in the foreground, reminding you always of the work that you're doing and the seriousness and of course the commitment to all of our community. Almost, I think, oh no, the Dolores Huerta still lives. So I know many of them have passed on. So I think it's so important that we continue to preach the message and to deliver the message. And that's why it is such great honor that I'm here presenting, introducing Mr. Arthur Rodriguez, hometown here in San Antonio. And he was introduced to Cesar Sarchavez through his parish in 1966. He became active with the United Farm Workers Union Great Boycott as a student at our very own St. Mary's University in 1969. At the University of Michigan in 1971, he earned an MA degree in social work. Our feudal organized support for farm workers boycotts. He began serving full time with the UFW in 1973 and had a great privilege of having Cesar Sarchavez as his mentor for 20 years. Our feudal Rodriguez has more than 40 years of experience organizing farm workers, negotiating contracts, and leading numerous farm worker boycotts and political drives across North America. Under Mr. Arthur Rodriguez, the UFW is working to offer innovative alternative representation through benefits and services and to extend this representation to workers temporarily brought to U.S. to work in the U.S. agriculture. One of his other goals is preserving America's food supply through a strong and viable agriculture. And I want to say I also have the great honor of walking with Arthur and Hyman Martinez at the march a couple of years ago when he was a grand marshal of the parade and we got to talk a little bit about his history and his time at the University of Michigan where he was the roommate to Daniel Mesa who is the husband of my chief of staff. So we know that in you know in Latino communities we have like about one degree of separation between all of us whether we like it or not we might all be cousins. So thank you so much for being here and I'm anxious to hear about the work being done today and with that I introduce Mr. Thank you very much Councilwoman Gonzalez and I too want to recognize a few folks that are here with us today in addition to the other folks that have already been mentioned. It always has been a pleasure to come back here to San Antonio and my wife actually graduated from Arleva Lake so it's great to meet the president thank you very much for being here with us. I just want to recognize a woman that's here in the back that's also here at the Library Mary Kaye. Mary Kaye and her family we met back almost a little over 40 years ago and she originally comes from the Detroit area and when we were when I first joined the organization with the United Farm Workers I was assigned to work with Richard Chavez as her brother there in Detroit Michigan and so we were in Macomb County as one of the places and we got a chance to meet the Ratki family there and they were tremendous supporters and all of a sudden I get a call from Mary Kaye a few months ago and hey I'm here in San Antonio at Las Palmas and I says what and so it's a lot of ways from Michigan but the all the relationship just continued in terms of our work and so forth and very very appreciative that Mary Kaye reached out and very appreciative to everybody here at Las Palmas Library Bromito and all the rest of the folks for really putting this event together and then also I have my brother here Rick that is here with his wife Delma and my sister La Cotterman that joined us as well married to my brother Ray but it's it's always a real pleasure coming back here to San Antonio I mean when you drive downtown or you go on the freeway and you see Cesar Chavez and you say oh man that's right and get a chance to come and see the the murals here that you all have done here at the library and all throughout the city there's definitely events that take place and actions that take place and I know a highman and a Nestle's dad Jaime Martinez has been along with a lot of other folks have really been ensured that the legacy continues to take take action here and do and be engaged in different events of being engaged with the community work that's so important and today marks I guess two days after the 23rd anniversary of Caesar's passing so it was uh Saturday was a traveling day for me this particular time but I know there was a bands all across the country that took place and transpired and I was kind of reminded about things when I turned on the radio this morning getting into the car on 107.5 at the Hano station all of a sudden I turned it on and little Joe cut his being interviewed there and little Joe has a long history with us in terms of all though the association between the united farm workers Cesar and little Joe and uh he was playing his song Las Nubes and that song was written about farm workers back in the 70s when little Joe did that particular song and so I talked with them on the phone I told them I was going to come here to Las Palmas and I said oh that's great and in fact next month we honor him at the ufw gala awards dinner on the may the 19th there in baguio california so it it's uh funny how all these types of things just come together in terms of what transpires and so forth but councilman Gonzalez was just sharing a little bit of the story and I know in 66 I was here we were born and raised on the south side of town and we were at St. Margaret Mary's church and our local priest father Marvin Dirkler he uh he came and he along with a lot of other other priests father Killian some of you might remember father Cheryl Smith a number of different Catholic priests decided to go participate and what was really the first strike here in Texas in the Rio Grande Valley and in Rio Grande city and it was a melon strike and so Father Dirkler along with all the other priests went down there and I was kind of surprised I didn't realize father father would be engaged in some activity like that at that particular time and I wasn't really aware about his knowledge of it but they went down and they not only marched on the march but they also got arrested because of the picket lines and so forth and he came back and he told us all about Cesar Chavez and he said gosh this man is really living the faith this man is really doing what we should all be doing fighting for social justice for farm workers for the poorest of the poor for the women the men that harvest our fruits and vegetables and so forth and so that piqued my interest at that particular time and uh when I went to college and another person that we've been very close to here throughout the years from San Antonio a woman named Rebecca Flores who Danny and I both know very well about and as well as Choco but Rebecca she was now at University of Michigan and so she came down to recruit Latinos to go up to University of Michigan and so the next thing I knew is that Rebecca was down here and say oh you got to go up to Michigan it's a great place we need Latinos up there we're out there recruiting Latinos and so forth and I had never really been in the snow or anything like that and they said well might as well and in fact our Lady of the Lake Gil Murillo who was at that particular time a counselor I went to Gill because we were also accepted our Lady of the Lake and I asked Gill you know Gill what do you suggest he says look Arturo all these universities are good universities for the School of Social Work and for community organizing sequence and everything and he said but my advice to you get out of town and so I said what well I went and told my brothers that you know what I'm leaving town my dad and mom didn't particularly care for it but it was the uh it was probably one of the better decisions I made because then I got a chance to meet Caesar Richard personally when we were at University of Michigan I got a chance to meet Danny and so many of our other friends that we still know and hang around with one another but it really became a transforming part of my life in terms of being able to have that opportunity and to share with that and because of that we uh learned just a tremendous amount this year and I'm going to provide to Ramiro to y'all here at the library more information on it as we get it but Rebecca Flores who worked for the United Farm Workers for many many years and she really established the offices here down in the in the valley in the Rio Grande Valley they're in uh different communities there throughout the Rio Grande Valley San Juan and some of the other places her Juanita Valdez Cox they are putting together the 50th anniversary celebration of that strike that took place on June the 1st of 1966 so that there's going to be a series of celebrations all throughout the state actually and one it'll begin on June the 1st in Rio Grande City uh where myself and Paul Chavez the son of one of the sons as well as the president of the Caesar Chavez Foundation will be attending and I believe the Lordess is going to be there with us as well and joining in with those strikers and those marchers from back in 1966 and then there'll be an event here in San Antonio on Labor Day the Archbishop Archbishop Archbishop Archbishop okay agreed to celebrate a special mass here in honor of those 50th uh those strikers and marchers from back during that particular period of time so that we'll be joining in with that as well so that there's going to be a lot of activity this year and celebrating that 50th anniversary strike and I know that we're going to be in Austin Texas at some point because those marchers went and marched all the way from Rio Grande City to Austin Texas and to celebrate and to really talk to folks and make folks aware about the struggle that was going on and taking place with farm workers here in Texas as well as in California and throughout the nation and that was like I said a very historic point in our history here but it was also the time when I became aware of what farm workers were doing and it turned out to become my career and a tremendous opportunity to be able to work with Cesar uh those 20 years before he passed away on April 23rd of 1993 but one of the things that they really did is is that they had this vision Cesar of the Loris, Richard and so many of the other founders too really look upon establishing not just a union but much more than that because their their viewpoint was is that look a farm worker is not just someone that goes in toilets in the fields eight hours a day or ten hours a day whatever it might be they come home and they have their families and the community they live in and everything else and so that we needed to create not just an organization to deal with the labor issues but simultaneously to deal with all the rest of the issues and so because of that back then and we celebrate the 50th anniversary for that organization this year the National Farm Worker Service Center was created and which was a non-profit organization and today it's known now as the Cesar Chavez Foundation which Paul heads up as the president of that particular organization but that deals with affordable housing a huge need for farm workers and in fact uh we've started off in California building that affordable housing and complexes and farm worker communities throughout the state but now we've developed a number of those affordable housing projects right here in Texas mostly in the Rio Grande Valley two projects I believe here in San Antonio one that last year was named after our father Rickon and our our family's father who passed away about three years ago and right here on Nacogdoches Road I believe is is where it's located at and then there's complexes in Houston and Dallas it was just a new one opened up in Dallas Texas here this past week and so there's a lot of going on to continue to expand that particular work and then they also deal with radio stations Spanish-speaking radio stations because it was always a dream of farm workers to have a way to communicate with themselves and to produce educational programming and that type of thing so consequently we put together a series of educational radio stations that run from Washington state into Oregon and to throughout California especially in the major harvesting areas like the San Joaquin Valley from running from Bakersfield to Sacramento and then the Salinas Valley which are the two richest agricultural areas not only in California but throughout the nation and so as a result we reach out to farm workers every day and then some educational programming was put into place as well so that's that's a very very important part of the work that we do in addition we've set up a whole lot of other organizations one was set up because farm workers never had access to medical care or medical plans or things of that nature so we set up the Robert F. Kennedy Medical Plan and then we set up a pension plan that they can have access to so they have some funds once they retire and those two organizations combined have we've been able to provide over half of billion dollars 500 million dollars in benefits to farm workers whether it be medical or pension benefits and that type of thing and then the UFW Foundation which is a sister organization of ours is another nonprofit that really highlights and focuses in on two areas one is immigration which has been one of the issues that we've championed down for the last two decades we were very much involved in the first immigration reform that took place back in 1986 and now our focus has really been on doing something else to take care of the well close to 11 million or possibly beyond immigrants that are in our nation today and in particular hoeing in on farm workers and really figure out what is it that we can do to ensure that farm workers are included in whatever type of immigration reform legislation gets passed and that we're able to be a part of and so forth in fact three years ago in 2013 when we almost had an immigration reform bill that was actually passed in the senate the us senate but the house refused to do that we sat down the ufw myself and one of our other folks sat down with 12 different of the agricultural organizations national organizations in the country to sit down and negotiate what the immigration reform package would look like and senator diane bine sign senator michael Bennett were very instrumental in working with us and convening we did all the meetings and senator bine sign's offices there in washington dc and then we worked also with senator marco rubio at that particular time he was representing the republican party in those negotiations along with the grower organizations and so we developed a package there that would have well there was completely included all the needs of farm workers the seasonal nature of farm workers and how they would qualify and everything of that nature but in the end you know we know again that the house wasn't willing to vote on that but the section that we had negotiated or i should say the bill that we negotiated was included in the senate package as we negotiated it and it would have became law and so forth and actually just on the way over senator feinstein's office called because she wants to reinitiate those negotiations so that we're going to be looking into that and see what we can come up with but the ufw foundation their primary work is like a sister organization of ours is down in the rio grande valley la guadena del pueblo del lube and those two organizations hone in on becoming experts in the area of immigration so that the we have now offices for the ufw foundation throughout california and in arizona and then we have other offices for lube the sister organization over here in texas all throughout the rio grande valley and four different areas in the rio grande valley where the main office is there in san juan texas and so they have trained and individuals that are what they are experts in the immigration field and so they can operate really as quasi attorneys and do all the immigration work we have the largest number what they call bi reps bureau bureau of immigration appeals reps in the entire state of california we have 16 of them now and we have second most highest in the entire nation and so the catholic church is the only one that has any more than what we do at this point in time and we work very closely with them to cover areas where we're not necessarily present at but that has become a major focus of theirs in terms of trying to do that and last week we had last monday we had a delegation of about a dozen folks farm workers that were there in washington dc joining with everyone else in front of the us supreme court to advocate for the supreme court to take and make a rapid decision as well as one that's going to be favorable towards immigrants and we're very hopeful of that and the other areas of course civic action the whole aspect in terms of getting people registered i mean naturalized first of all the citizens and then registered to vote every year you might recall that in 2012 president obama went to where says that chavis is buried at where our national offices are at it's located in the small community called king california and he went on october the 12th and he dedicated that is one of the national monuments in our nation so it's the 398th national monument first time ever that a national monument has been named in the country after latino and the first time ever of someone that was involved and engaged in the labor movement as a part of that and so as a result when he did that then the national park service now operates and manages at least a portion of what we call the pause which is our main headquarters and operations and things of that nature and so every year to celebrate ceasar's birthday on march 31st then we do a naturalization service and so we did that again this year and we have literally dozens of folks that come i think this year they were from seven different countries where people were present to be a part of that and then as soon as they walk out the door we register to vote and so it's like a it's an effort to really make sure that we're not only just dealing with the with the other aspects of someone's life with it get them involved in the whole process and so that they can work on behalf of themselves they can work on behalf of their families and communities and be very much engaged and this year's presidential election has really spurred and increased i don't know if the same is happening here in texas but i know we have the numbers have gone far beyond what they normally do in terms of folks becoming naturalized and becoming ready wanting to register to vote and to participate because they feel this presidential election is so critical and so important for themselves as well as for our community and especially with the immigrant community and all the attacks that have been made against immigrants by the various candidates so as a result it's really done exactly what governor p wilson did back in 19 if you'll remember 1987 passed all these anti-immigrant laws and because of that latinos at least in california really kind of moved over change their voting patterns and everything else as a result of the actions that governor p wilson took against the immigrant community the latino community in particular there in the state of california so it seems like we have the same type of action and activity taking place here with this particular election and then of course you know the ufw is one of the other the other pillar organization within what we call our farm worker movement and so there you know we still are engaged in the traditional work that we started off with back in the 1960s and of course that's getting contracts with different kinds of employers and so i was mentioning to a little bit earlier i think to to danier chockel that last week we had an election with a vegetable operation down there in oxnard california that we won two to one there so that was very very important but over the last few years we've been able to make some major gains and significant gains in for example the wine grape industry and so i know that when some of us were going to school back in the 70s and 80s you know we had to lay off all the gallant wines who couldn't drink boon's farmers strawberry hill or any of those kinds of wines because if they were all made by gallo so as a result we had the big gallop boy cotton i know on weekends there in michigan at least in an arbor we spend friday evenings picketing in front of all the liquor stores and those types of things well now we have a contract with gallo so the strawberry hill the boon's farm all those you know they taste a lot better now it's union workers that are picking them in their their kosher at this point to be able to drink but we have the largest winery now in the state of washington chateau san michel under contract we have another good quality wine sunsupri there in napo valley that's under contract and so that's been able to grow within the wine grape industry in the strawberry industry we have one of the major employers dole that's under contract now in the vegetable industry we've got one of the top five vegetable growers in the nation john derigo under contract and a host of others the largest dairy in western united states three mile canyon is located in hermeston origan that particular area and then several other particular areas major areas where we've been able to make significant gains i know in the last three years and particularly the tomato industry the fresh tomato industry there in the northern san Joaquin valley has been our target and will be our target again this year but where we've made the most gains and i know they sell them here in san antonio so this is the one besides the wines the one label you can look for on mushrooms the people like mushrooms how many of you all eat mushrooms yeah good but uh look for monterey mushrooms the packaging for there i know they carry them in a lot of the stores they have several different operations there in the state of california and there we've been able to make the most gains for farm workers i think their wages average because they're year-round workers anywhere from 35 to 40 thousand dollars a year which for a farm worker that's a lot of money in comparison to what where they started that and most people being at minimum wage and everything else and then they've got uh paid holidays they got more paid holidays than actually we do uh in their contracts that they have and they've got paid vacations and the medical plan and a pension plan and some other benefits but the most important thing is is that they've developed a relationship there with shock is even who's the employer that really does create uh a mutual type of and a beneficial collaborative type of relationship there with the employer and so it works very very good in that respect and we're very very much proud in terms of what's been able to be done there and then in addition to our collective bargaining we do a lot of uh political and legislative work as well and in particularly in legislation we see a lot of things you know are very difficult to get at the bargaining tables but we can legislate these changes so for example because farm workers have been excluded from the national labor relations act they were excluded from the uh the uh farm safety act that was passed back in 1938 so that as a result most laws that cover other workers throughout the united states do not cover farm workers so for example unemployment insurance minimum wage worker comp all those particular laws are just spotting throughout the nation so one of the major areas has been the issue of pesticides which impacts not only in the farm worker and their families but just as much as the consumer and uh that's very much a part of what what happens and what transpires with the agricultural products and so that we worked very closely this last year with the administrator of the environmental protection agency Gina McCarthy from the Obama administration to sit down and try to for the first time at least deal with the issue of pesticides and try to ensure that what covered and what protected other workers in other industries that utilize pesticides and the pesticide manufacturing and so forth would also be beneficial to cover farm workers and as a result of that we were able to this last year now get the same almost the same coverage for farm workers and we've been fighting decades for that that really took and uh protected workers in other countries and throughout the united states in regards to the use of pesticides another one was heat you know it's very similar to here all the Rio Grande Valley everybody knows how hot it gets during the summertime well that's the same thing over the San Joaquin Valley and the Coachella Valley and sometimes Oxnard area and so forth there but they're more on the coast but throughout the San Joaquin and Coachella Valley the Coachella in particular the temperatures during the summertime range anywhere from 110 to 120 out there in the in the agricultural communities and the San Joaquin Valley it ranges anywhere from 100 to 110 on typical days starting next month all the way through the month of September well we found and it very well may exist here in this state as well but we found literally every year there were farm workers that were dying because of heat exposure and again it was another area of work that we had fought now for decades to try to set aside or to develop I should say laws that would protect workers when they were working out in the hot sun and that type of thing and so in particular there was one particular case that really kind of helps spark and it was extremely unfortunate and it was a real tragedy but there was a woman named Maria Zabel Vasquez Jimenez she was a young 17 year old immigrant they came over from Oaxaca to work in the fields and she had her mom and her siblings still over in Oaxaca so she had to come here to raise money she didn't have papers so she had to pay someone to bring her across the border several thousand dollars and she went and lived with her uncle which was in northern California up just south of Sacramento in a little community called Lodi which is a wine grape area and so forth and so it was only her third day of work at this particular company that she was at and the temperatures were well over 100 degrees and so she was a very petite woman I think she weighed like 95 pounds she was pregnant and so she was working on that particular day and about three o'clock in the afternoon she was exhausted because she was carrying these 25 pound boxes of grapes back and forth up and down the rows to be able to complete her quota and the foreman was there watching to see if she was doing what she was supposed to be doing if she was doing it with quality and everything else and ensuring that she was meeting the quotas that was necessary well by three o'clock in the afternoon she just collapsed right there in the field and the foreman at that particular crew instead of calling 911 instead of calling someone to come and take care of her they just drug her under a set of binds over there and left her there the rest of the afternoon and they put you know a wet cloth on her forehead thought okay that's it that's all we need to do at the end of the day when the harvest was done on that particular day they took her along with the others that go in this particular van to take them transport them home that day and the van had been sitting out in the hot sun so it was like a furnace getting inside that van they got inside and shortly afterwards her uh her boyfriend florentino told the van driver hey look she marisa veils very sick we need to take her to a clinic so the driver contacted the foreman the foreman said okay but told florentino that whatever you do don't tell her she was working in the fields say that she was she got exhausted while she was out exercising out jogging and so they got her over to the clinic a few minutes later and by the time they examined her and looked at her her body temperature was 180 degrees and so consequently literally her organs internally had had burned up and by the next day she passed away and that was for at least in terms of publicizing what's happening to farm workers and folks that were exposed with heat exposure and so forth that helped us do a tremendous amount the uncle i'd never met him before we talked on the phone his name was doroteo Jimenez and doroteo also didn't have papers and he you know he lived off of farm workers he had his family and i went to visit him oftentimes there in their apartment up there in lodai and the first time i talked to florentino i asked him florentino what do you want to do because we really didn't feel like it was our decision to make it had to be their decision if they wanted to take some type of action or not and his response doroteo's response was is that look i don't want to be her her death to be in vain and so we talked about well are you ready to go and to be public about this and put the pressure and everything else and he said yes and so the next in the next few days we planned a march they went from lodai to sacramento we met at the catholic church there in lodai and that became our starting point and i forget i guess it was about a 50 mile trek that we had to do over a few days but doroteo made the decision that he was going to leave the march now again i mean we might think oh well there's nothing wrong with that that's not going to impact on him and yet it did because the moment that he put himself in the public eye now all of the agricultural community knew who doroteo was he was immediately blackballed he lost his job at the company where he was working at and he couldn't get a job in other areas and other with other employers within the area so now he has to commute every day from lodai to santa rosa to the wine grape country to be able to get employment because of the decision he made the good thing was is that this resulted in the first regulation that we could get around the issue of heat there in the state of california after decades of fighting for that those kinds of protections for the workers and then this past year we were able we were successful in working with governor jerry brown and his administration to pass a heat regulation that's now in existence where that when the temperatures rise to be 90 95 95 degrees at that particular point workers get 10 minute breaks every two hours that are paid for by the employer they get additional water all the supervisors supposed to be trained on what actions to take place when somebody becomes ill there in the fields and those types of things so there's been huge gains that have been made unfortunately it takes those types of tragedies to really highlight in terms of what's taking place but the beauty of it is is that dorotheos wish was granted as a result of the hard work that he did despite the difficulties that he still goes through and then there's again been a lot of other areas of work with legislative this year our big focus in the state of california because we feel we have to set a precedence here in the united states as for farm workers to be able to be protected under overtime laws they don't have the protections like other workers we're the only group of workers that did not get overtime after eight hours in fact in most states there's no overtime coverage at all so that you can work 10 11 12 hours whatever it is that you the employer wants you to you're obligated to work that with no extra additional pay so we felt that we many years ago back in 1975 in california we were able to get overtime after 10 hours now our our fight is to really get overtime after eight hours of pay and we figured if we can establish that there then hopefully we can be able to do something nationally especially if we get a an administration that's favorable that's willing to take those types of risks in terms of going out and doing that and so that's again a key part of our work is all of the legislative and political work that we can do things that it's not because we have a contract with those workers but we feel it's the right thing to do so that we work on behalf of all farm workers regardless of whether they're union members or not union members to us that's minimal i mean it's important and we'd like that but we feel it's more important to be doing this kind of work on behalf of everybody to better their lives and so forth and again that's where our roots are that's what sets out and all the other founders they felt was very important is that we need to take action beyond what the contracts might be that we have we need to take action on behalf of all the workers the new area that we're really exploring and excited about today is is that you know agriculture's changed dramatically over the last 50 years since we began and so it used to be that all of the fruits and vegetables are the majority of fruits and vegetables that we consume here in the U.S. as adults as children and so forth we're all produced here in the U.S. that's no longer the case probably at least 55 percent of the fruits and vegetables that we get today are produced someplace overseas or out of the country whether it be Mexico whether it be some other place and a lot of that's happened because you have one you've had tremendous retailer what we call retailer consolidation so that you have the huge stores Walmart being number one and then you have the Kroger's and they've bought up all these other smaller chains and so forth i'm not sure where H.E.B ranks but they've got to be up there as well in terms of their consumption and their sales and that type of thing Costco and other retailers like that so they the top five retailers probably take in about 40 to 45 percent of supermarket sales throughout the nation and throughout the world in many particular cases and so consumers we being who we are you know we got used to as things began to change saying you know what i don't want table grapes just in the when the Coachella Valley harvest used to start and that was in May down there in southern California and then we'd have table grapes from May the end of May all the way through October but we finally said no i want table grapes all year around and so then we got started getting table grapes from Chile and Chile would then bring them in in January and February and March then there was that gap between April and May before the Coachella so now we get additional table grapes coming in from Sonoro Mexico so half of our year is really table grapes coming in from other parts of the world other than other than what we produce here in the US and so that's happening with all the various crops avocados that went to H.E.B with one of my brothers with Carmen's husband yesterday and 45 cents of avocados and that was great i said i was buying and then we looked and said yeah they're from Mexico but they make in Michoacan is those of us that are come from that particular area know that they probably have the best one of the best varieties of any place that you can find in the world in terms of avocados and so forth so because of all that we said you know it can't be a union we can't take a union and establish a union in Mexico or we can't establish a union in some other country we have to develop organizations and create organizations that can operate and function other countries but at the same time can raise the standard of living for farm workers in those areas as well as continue working with farm workers here in the United States because there's just a huge gap a couple of months ago one of the areas that we're working in as a result of that is Nicaragua and so we went to visit one of the plantations there called La Ramancha coffee plantation located there in Nicaragua and the salary for those workers is the equivalent of six dollars a day here in the United States so you can't even begin to compare i mean even the worst of situations don't doesn't matter there i went to visit at the place where and this was a better housing area than where most live there on the plantation itself and you know you go to uh where their homes are at and a whole home would be safe from this pillar to the wall and maybe to where this this cabinet is right here that would be a whole house for a family of three four five six or whatever it's all just one room and it's it may have some type of divider i know in this one particular house that we were in and the family was very proud when we were there visiting with them but they had a curtain over a particular wall space there that really served as their bedroom all all dirt flooring but they were happy and the one thing that was so excited about is that they were able to put a division between the kitchen area and where they slept and where they ate at and they thought that was great but still the stove was right inside the house so it's a stove that's made out of earth that they put together like adobe that type of thing and so all the smoke stays right inside the house so the children everybody the family's exposed to that the whole time and but we felt that if we're gonna continue to to be able to improve conditions of farmer in the u.s we also have to begin doing the same thing on a much more global basis and the retailers they're demanding the same type of thing because they're always worried about food safety issues they're worried about legal issues that they are confronted with and contamination those types of things and so we felt well but this is a way that we could be of value to the retailers because where we have our strength is with that worker support and the trust that workers farm workers have in what we do and and what our organization means to them so it's a whole new area that we're learning every single day in terms of what we have to do we were just last week actually meeting with an employer that's based here in San Antonio that produces the little wine grape the grape vets and the small cherry tomato grapes and so forth it's called nature suite and so if you ever see nature suite around I know they're excellent but they have operations all throughout Mexico in several different places and now they just open up an operation in Arizona so we're working very closely with them and ensuring that those operations that we help them train the labor force to deal with food safety issues to deal with productivity issues to deal with all those different areas of importance so that and at the same time get economic gains for those workers whether they be in Mexico or whether they be here in the U.S. and we can do that under the guise of a nonprofit organization so that we're developing those nonprofits now and other types of organizations so we could be able to engage in that particular way with workers from wherever they might be throughout the throughout the globe throughout the world and that we deal with this global agricultural industry that now is really in effect here in the United States today and that consumers here are impacted by it so there's a whole lot more to share with folks but I wanted to just comment on some of those things and then I think Mary Kay do we have or Marvita do we have time for questions so that open it up for questions but that gives you a little bit of background in terms of some of the work that we continue to be engaged in that we're looking forward to that we're planning for for the future and so that we can maintain our relevancy is an organization that not only benefits farmworkers but benefits those others that are part of the food supply chain whether it be consumers or retailers or growers and we're just learning a whole new way of doing things that that frankly when I came into the organization I never thought I would be sitting down with a grower talking to them about all these kinds of things and working things out but but that times have changed and we've got to be able to do those kinds of things in order to ensure the progress for consumers and for for others here throughout the United States today but yeah I'd be happy to try to answer any questions that folks might have or something that I didn't that I said that wasn't very clear or whatever yes good thing you asked that question thank you very much so Ernesto do you want to say something about the organizations you all have yeah well first we just finished up the 20th anniversary of the Cessna Chavez March for Justice in San Antonio which is co-sponsored with the city of San Antonio uh this year Grand Marshal was Charlie customary Charlie Gonzalez so we do have about 20 years we've been marching to preserve the life and legacy of Cessna Chavez and that's very important that we do that for for education outreach but also important uh is on the education side of the scholarship you have the scholarship program that we have we awarded uh $27,000 in scholarships I would encourage you to visit our website uh c-e-c-l-e-f dot award you see me afterwards I'll give you a card uh and and encourage the students to apply uh the scholarship is growing their volunteer opportunities at the Cessna Chavez Center located at 1504 East Commerce so there's a lot of opportunity to participate in and here in San Antonio I think we've done a pretty good job of preserving the life and legacy of Cessna Chavez an American hero and role model for all our students so if you want to participate by volunteering and doing something in a local library visiting a school we welcome that definitely so I'll give you my name and number afterwards come see me we won't have to plug you in thank you very much head to nestle yeah and then in addition as I mentioned we're going to get information here for the library for Councilwoman Gonzalez about the event that'll be taking place here on labor day at the cathedral where the mass will be held in honor of those strikers 1966 and also I might ask before you leave today just take a moment to fill out this card if you don't have one if you didn't receive one just raise your hand and we'll be happy to to get one to you but we just were more interested in your name and your address especially your email address because again one of the things that we've changed over the years is that when I came into the organization I mean the only way that we were able to do things was do picket lines in front of I remember going out at 4 a.m in the morning and picketing here at the produce terminal and my dad would be wondering where are you going at this hour and then after that we have to go to school at St. Mary's and continue all that work and so forth but but today I mean the with technology being what it is I mean we do a lot of work via email via Facebook via all the different types of technology that exist and so Twitter and so forth and thank goodness we have a very talented staff that really knows about all these kinds of things and it can do it so I'd ask you to please fill it out and you could give it either to Mary Kaye in the back of the room there Mary Kaye just raise your hand either Mary Kaye or myself and we'll be happy to to take the cards was there another question yes how many states is the UFW functioning so let me just take it from the farm worker movement we have we're operating today in Washington state, Oregon all throughout California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Washington DC we have our offices there as well those are the primary areas we're at right now and we'll soon be in Colorado be moving up there we're already doing work with them over there but we'll have offices there and so forth and after Korea yes yes Ernesto congratulations on the progress and thank you for all that you do on behalf of the farm workers I'm curious to know about the progress of the national holiday I know a few years ago there was some momentum being built with some other people that came out to advocate for the national holiday is there anything we can do locally what are some of the things happening there in the national you know I mean thank you for the question Ernesto you know that's for us it's not issues that we directly have gotten involved in a lot you know because frankly there are so many folks that have been responsible throughout the decades of really creating and building the organization that we have today that we oftentimes you know feel a little embarrassed about all the focus being put on Cesar or Dolores for that matter or some of the other leaders and that you know I mean we've always had a very vibrant group of people here in San Antonio for example that the recognition will never be there at least on a national basis for those individuals so there have been groups that have worked on that we don't to be very honest with you we don't spend our time and resources on trying to really make that happen because in politics I mean and Shirley knows as well and others I'm sure is is that you know everything counts and so the moment you ask for this then then they then you're indebted to them and so we'd rather go to the national politicians whether it be the president or anyone else and ask them to do things that are really benefit farm workers directly or benefit our communities that we're working in things of that particular nature so we're fighting for immigration hopefully with the new administration we'll be fighting for overtime we got pesticides this last year we're always looking for those kinds of issues and we don't want to be trading with them the issue of a holiday and so that's something that happens it's going to happen because other people want to see it happen and they'll create the kind of movement and that's necessary to do that and to figure those things out but not that it's not important it's very important we just don't want to use our chips the few we have in that particular way i'm trying to bargain with as much as we possibly can other questions that folks have yes sir you know we uh the sassan chavez foundation as i mentioned is the one that focuses in on affordable housing they have developed and built about 5 000 units now in the different states that i've mentioned um washington origan california new mexico and narizona and texas and so you know anybody is welcome to come to our website and to see where those are located at and to apply to live there and especially if they're in need i mean those are the ones of the folks that we really try to help out a lot within the various communities and so that probably would be the best way right now at least to connect is going to the sassan chavez foundation website and seeing where those communities are located at working in that ticked away thank you yes quite welcome any other questions that folks might have yes sir so in the area of immigration is the organization doing anything uh to the people of immigrants that are farm workers help them get citizenship or perhaps a work firm that's not available yet right now yeah that's i mean it's a critical issue for us because the reality is is that farm workers today the demographics have changed since many of us worked in the fields our families worked in the fields and so forth in the 60s it was still no largely a population that was born and raised here in the united states whether it was african-americans or latinos or anglo-americans there were still lots of folks from the dust whole days that were still working in ag and so forth since then by the 1970s it was more and more immigrants coming in because folks here in this country especially after immigration laws were passed decided you know i'm going to now that i have the opportunity i'm going to move into some other kind of industry and so consequently you know probably about 70 to 80 percent of our workforce are undocumented immigrants today that work in ag and so we're constantly looking for ways that's why we spent so much time and energy really on doing this and two weeks ago the secretary clinton hillary clinton called and asked me to chair their immigration policy committee so that i'm doing that on a national basis working with our folks and we have about 50 about 75 other organizations throughout the country that are part of this national policy committee and it's funny you ask that because this afternoon i head to austin and we have our first immigration policy committee meeting that'll take place and looking at that so we're very much looking at what the policy is but at the same time to see what we can do immediately to deal with those particular issues and the ufw foundation that is their primary work is to try to figure out what we can do in fact you know this one of the orders that went under president obama's executive action order last year was to deal with the parents of young folks that were born here in the united states and there was a woman that i was with uh a week ago last sunday in delano california we were marching there for overtime pay and to also for immigration reform and she was telling me her story maria that she is a woman with she had 12 children uh two of them passed away she came here to this country without any papers so and two of her daughters stayed back in the two of her children stayed back in mexico and so there's been and prior to that time two of those two other children of hers were back in mexico as well passed away she couldn't go there that's why we decided to be a part of the immigration policy committee with the secretary clinton's campaign and to do everything we can to to push that the one you know depending on what happens on the elections the one commitment that secretary clinton has made is that within the first hundred days of her administration that that would be one of the legislative areas that she would definitely file legislation on within that first hundred day period so again that's why we're part of this to help develop that policy to put that legislation together and to have it ready in the event that we can utilize it thank you yes henry yeah um needs some information um in terms of uh so that we can use see our national convention is coming up in uh in july for lulac and we certainly we want to push a some resolutions one having to do with the immigration reform package then that that farm workers be included the other one would be um for farm workers other than the the us of a and so that we can have that information and really put something that's really uh that makes sense and we can push it uh at the national level before you leave everyone should give me your car and yes i will make a note because it just so happens that we have every four years we have our convention with farm workers and we're having in bakersville california on may the 20th and 21st and 22nd and uh i will send you some of the resolutions that we'll be utilizing during that convention and that's the delegates yeah great thank you sir thank you very much any other questions so i want to again thank you very much uh all the folks here from las palmos public library mary k thank you for reaching out and not keep maintaining that as they call in for organizers they say fire in the belly that uh you have to maintain that passion about an issue that you're very much interested in and a part of it so forth and thank you so much for not losing that in any particular way and uh certainly we want to thank everyone that's here today that have joined with us councilwoman nosales and orley the lake um all the other friends that we have here daddy and choco and and and nesto and my family and so forth so thank you and all the best see you support it thank you mr odry yes uh thank you for your leadership and thank you for the good work and services united farm workers of america provide to our farm workers um i was very enlightened by your comments and remarks i do want to share that uh your remarks will be shared and at this time i'd like to recognize recognize now cast and charlie and locus who is the executive director now cast is a non-profit um entity that provides public information regarding public policy events and activities and information that's important to the community uh we partner with them because libraries uh as well as now cast believe that we can empower the community by providing information and by educating educating the community on issues that are important and so certainly your remarks today are extremely important and they will be shared with hundreds and thousands of other individuals through now cast so thank you charlie then also for being here thank you councilwoman nosales for being part of our program um and also as a closing remark i wanted to indicate two things first of all um all libraries in texas are official voter registration sites so at the time that an initiative in texas is put forth by the united farm workers of america but regarding voter registration uh please keep in mind that all of our public libraries we have 29 throughout the community and we'll have two more by the end of the year uh board voter registration sites most of them are voter polls as well uh so i wanted wanted to share that with you and uh in closing thank you all again i want to show me sort of the videos and thank you all of you for being part of the program we have some refreshments so please enjoy thank you