De Colores Means All of Us

Elizabeth Martinez is very opinionated in her book, De Colores Means All of Us. I like how the reader can tell that she’s very passionate about human rights and the fight for equality. Chapter 10, “Levi’s, Button your fly – your greed is showing!” talks about how women working in maquiladoras struggled for human rights. The union, Fuerza Unida, asked for support from the public by cutting off all Levi’s tags/labels and mail them to the company headquarters. This brought me back to high school because a student did the same thing, but with a different company, Forever 21. Around 2002, 2003 there was a huge campaign about Forever 21 not paying its workers the proper wage or making them in harsh conditions. My friend asked all of the girls to cut off their Forever 21 tags and give them to her because she was going to add them to their even bigger collection that to include a letter and pictures of workers. The Garment Worker Center fought on behalf of the maquiladora workers and stated their facts, which are on this link:
http://www.garmentworkercenter.org/media/f21/Fact_Sheet_on_Forever_21%20.pdf

Nickel and Dimed

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich is an interesting read. At first, I thought it was going to be a snobby white woman who thought that the labor she was submitted to was not her cup of tea since she’s a journalist living at a comfortable pay. But as I kept reading, I noticed that her target audience was not big industry professionals who look at Wall Street or watch FOX Headlines all day. Her tone throughout the book is comedic and conversational, I could not stop laughing because of the small anecdotes she would add about her daily experiences. For example, while working in the Convalescent home and housekeeping/maid service in Maine, she wrote about how hard it is to find a place to live for cheap. The only places to live were motels and we found that to be a common theme throughout the three states she experiments, but I found that it’s also a theme here in Los Angeles. My friend moved to Los Angeles from North Carolina and had to move right back home after three months because she could not find an affordable place to live. She was paying $175/week at a motel with a bed and shower. Most of the apartments only rented singles for about $900/month or a one bedroom for $1200/month. She had to move back home because she was living with her parents in a four bedroom house in with rent of $750/month. I just found it all amazing… I also found this article from Virginia, which showed that more people are becoming homeless, but it doesn’t include those that are living in motels.
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/022009/02282009/448316

Van Nuys

I was considering changing my topic to something else that's relevant in Van Nuys, I feel like it is a bit more appealing, and hopefully easier to tackle. I remember The Daily News covered this story last summer about how a bungalow in Van Nuys that's been around since 1921, and was declared a city historic cultural monument in 1979, serves as a store for underprivileged children to come get new clothes for school at no cost to them. Sometimes local teachers made the trip with students to the bungalow so they could shop. As written in the article, "It is owned by the Volunteer League of the San Fernando Valley, a group of 19 dedicated women who raise funds to buy new clothes for more than 1,400 needy kids in the community every year. "
With the current economic situation, I'm sure there have been more families in need of these services and I'd like to see if there has been a steady flow of money and donations so that the community's needs are met or if there has been an influx of need so as to cause some sort of shortage or scarcity of supplies or clothing.

Here is a link to the full article


14603 Hamlin Street,
Van Nuys, CA 91411

De Colores Means All Of Us

From Chapter eighteen and on...this book gets amazing!

Part five talks about the pursuit of Latina liberation. The main goal is to demolish the stereotype of the "passive Latin woman." Elizabeth Martínez talks about many Latina leaders, one of them is Micaela Bastides. For those who don't know, she was an Inca who led the revolt against Spain's rule in the eighteen century, along with her husband Tupac Amaru. As Gutierrez said: "In Mexico, many women helped to launch and later participated in the Mexican war of independence from Spain (from 1810 to 1821) and the Mexican Revolution."

Martínez also recalls how the Mirabal sisters from Dominican Republic, known as "the butterflies", gave their lives to end the long Trujillo dictatorship. Nowadays, the day they were assassinated  in 1960: November 25, is commemorated all over Latin America as the Day Against Violence Towards Women. And Rigoberta Menchú, a Mayan from Guatemala who is an activist and also became the first indigenous person to win the Nobel Price for peace. The author recalls that Rigoberta lives on as a symbol of defiant survival.

I'm telling all these because the question is: Why do we usually hear all the brave stories about male heroes? Example : César Chávez. I don't have anything against him, but Martínez is right when she writes that many times, even within our own race, we as Hispanics, Latinos, Chicanos or Chicanas, give little or no credit to the merits of women...as if it is our obligation to protect others, as it is in our true nature. I now started thinking about one of her statements: "Mexican women and Chicanas have been confronting male supremacy during the past 25 years." 

Also, she mentions the lesbian Latinas liberation. The author says that they would have stayed in the closet longer without the national women's movement which encouraged them to come out. How important was, is and will be the role of women in the society!

When she talks about working women there was a formula that the author mentioned that got my attention: The corporate strategy: hire them young, suck out the best of their energy, exploit their inexperience as workers as they fear of angering the boss--then toss them aside like so many rag dolls when they become pregnant, injured or "trouble-makers." 

This is so true! Especially with maquiladora women. But I understand that these bosses, who are abusers, also abuse from the economic need of these women, most of all. I think that is one of the main reasons why they get themselves get exploited like that, and not because they don't realize that they are being abused...they just need to feed their families.

As a woman, these parts of the book reached very deep inside of my consciousness and my unity to fight for women respect and rights grew! My respect to all the women who fought throughout history!