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Grupo
de Trabalho 6 Some comments on the text‘s trajectory This
article is based on an old affair of mixed complicity, research and militancy
with women in labor unions in Brazil since 1989 up today in the city of
Salvador, in the Northeastern Brazilian State of Bahia and an attraction,
that began with a research on Colombian women in New York, in 1982 (Castro
1982) and was reaffirmed through another on going research inaugurated
on 1993 on “Latinas”[2],
specially Puerto Ricans, in leadership positions in labor unions in the
present and in the past -cases that will be discussed in this article. First,
I advert that the term Latinas was quite used by Puerto Rican women I
interviewed as well as those who were interviewed by other researchers
from the Centro de Estudios Puertoriqueños (Hunter College)—El
Centro-(see note *), anyhow I am aware of its limits and critics presented
by scholars, what is more referred in note 1, and its potentiality to
a contra hegemonic bloc formation (Gramsci in Adamson 1980). I
was fascinated on how Latin American working class women in New York reconstruct
an engendered and enraced class, desterritorializing or multiplying territories
of Nuestra America[3]
in the North, through continuities and ruptures with Latin American identities’
traits (or stereotypes of such) in such a process, taking into account
testimonies of Pioneras—Puerto Rican women who arrived in New York in the 20s and
30s (see Benmayor 1994, and 1992a) and their heirs—hereby called the Latinas
generation of the 70s, period they commonly became active in labor unions
in the U.S.. I was also fascinated with the process of switching times
and spaces, reading the Pioneras testimonies and interviewing in New York,
in 1993, a daughter of one of the Pioneras I address and others, who commonly
also came from families with Puerto Rican militants, as well as re-visiting
my texts on Brazilian women union leaders. The
idea that I was entangled in a transcultural reading when re-reading my
experience in the South, in labor unions in Bahia, while getting acquainted
with the way that Latinas in labor unions in the North negotiated identities,
came through feelings and intellectual reasoning (and as posed by Marx,
there is no better way to get political consciousness than getting these
two sources of knowledge together). In
New York, I lived an experienced that went beyond the classic colonial
foreign informant/native researcher relation, since some commonalities
where shared and imposed—despite being a visiting researcher by eye language
and by the paternalistic way of dealing with my broken English, as well
by other codes, I was treated in daily street contacts, as a migrant,
and taken by Mexican, Puerto Rican or ‘Hispanic’ by Anglos—na identification
that Brazilian migrants would commonly also complain and feel unconfortable
with—na issue I address later in this article. In
my transcultural or switiching South-North-South readings,
I highlight the plasticity of the use of terms as gender, class,
race and nationality by the Latinas I interviewed, and also by the Brazilian
women in Bahia. On the other hand, among the Latinas labor unionists and
scholar friends as well as among the Brazilian labor unionists I fel to
be part of a “community of feeling” (Williams). I got involved with friends
who supported me emotionally and intelectually, reproducing up to certain
point a dwelling that supported my travellings. Friends/ informants/ teachers/
travellers/diasporic migrants crossing and putting together languages,
‘la rumba’, the activism, the intelectual discussion on projects against
neo-colonization practices and imposed cultural/class subalternities of
the dominant society in each country, what some times take the form of
racial and, or gender supremacy codes, other times or altogether of class
inequalities, as well as other politics of assymetrical identical. But
the concept of transculturation has an important intelectual reasoning
construction that is hereby appropriated with some simplification. And
I confess that I just got aware of my trivial appropriation of the concept,
when alerted by Agostin Lao and Arlene Davila (editors of the book), when
they read the first version of this article. Lao and Davila called my
attention on the work of Fernando Ortiz (1940), Mary Pratt (1992) and
Angels Rama on the concept of transculturation. Despite this ex post factum
introduction, I claim that indeed the concept, as discussed by those authors,
feet well my intention to highlight creative and singular ways that Latin
American women in labor unions in the US and in Brazil engender these
institutions and contribute to their renewing. The
concept of transculturation was inaugurated by the Cuban anthropologist
Fernando Ortiz (in 1940-1995) and was re-accessed by Pratt (1992) “to
replace the concepts of acculturation and deculturation that described
the transference of culture in reductive fashion imagined from within
the interests of the metropolis” (Pratt: 228). Such concept calls attention
to the creative ways that “subordinated or marginal groups select and
invent from materials transmitted to them by a dominant or metropolitan
culture” (Pratt 1992:6). But
I did not develop in depth historical-anthropological studies as those
conducted by Ortiz and Pratt on social and imaginary formations. As mentioned,
I combine living in activism and academic sociological close up research,
on texts and testimonies, so, some simplification are done in the use
of the concept of transculturation. In
this article, I claim that different transcultural readings of North feminist
categories by the South in the North and by the South in the South, takes
places when focusing the case of women in labor unions. Through such transcultural
readings or lens, I re-visited my experience in Brazil, and I discovered
new issues, some commonalties but also quite different practices and visions
on gender, class and race, specially on their combination between Brazilian
women and Latinas, despite the fact that a core main site of negotiation
of identity and reference was shared by militant women focused here, I
mean “our union”, as a Brazilian woman and a Puerto Rican woman in the
1199 labor union in New York stated, or “the union” as set by another
Puerto Rican in the ex-ILGWU. On the other hand the strongest commonalties
ran on account of the combination of gender and power systems, by which
in the Americas women are discriminated even by comrades of struggle and
codified in the ‘public’ by sexual divisions of power and labor reproduced
in the ‘private’. Instead of interviewing Latinas, I used to discuss with
them Brazilian cultural traits on gender in labor unions, and the idea
of a transnational gender culture was shared by interviewees, as presented
in pieces hereby enclosed, at the end. An
academically correct research was conducted with women in the leadership
position in the Banking Sector Labor Union Employees in Salvador, from
1989 up to 1993, through continuous relation with unionists, but I am
able to report changes and contemporaneous mapping of gender and race
in Brazilian labor unions for the organic political and affective relations
I do have with the Brazilian labor unionists in Salvador. My
approach to the Latinas cases is somewhat different. Interviews with Latinas
in higher positions the ex ILGWU—International Labor Garment Women Union,
hereby referred as ILGWU—and the Local 1199—The Drug, Hospital and Health
Care Employees Union in the city of New York and analysis of oral history
archives on Pioneras of El Centro
were developed in 1993/1994 (see note * and the Appendix 1) From
the Centro’s oral history and cultural studies task force interviews,
I extracted pieces of interviews conducted in 1984, by female researchers
of the Centro, with female workers in the garment industry who in the
40s and 50s became chairladies on the shop floor (see Appendix 1). Centro’s
researchers with their research questions structured the Pioneras’ testimonies.
They come to me as secondary source. The Pioneras' visions of their fights
are dealt here as complete texts. they are “story's tellers” (according
to a text from Benmayor 1992). I recur to them also as history's tellers
by their own. With such perspective I present at the end, few vignettes[4],
visions on dimensions such as: race and ethnicity; “’Puertoriqueinidad’;
and on ‘colored’ ‘gendered’ class. They are pieces with voices from the
past and the present, from Latinas of different generation. Topics and
matters I consider emblematic of such visions are highlighted but still
more elaboration of such rich material is needed. I
also advert that the article is short to register recent changes in the
US labor unions, as the fusion between the ILGWU and the Amalgamated Union,
the elections in the AFLCIO in 1995, the recent visibility and legitimacy
of gender and race in that Central, and the empowerment of Latinos and
Latinas, at least at the level of formal representation, considering the
indication of the Chicana Linda Chavez Thompson as vice president of the
AFLCIO, and declarations from the actual president, John Sweebey on the
importance to orient programs to migrants and to be more attentive to
the Latino’s needs in the community and at the work place (on the ‘new’
labor unionism in the US see, among others G
, 1998 and Aronowitz,
1998). My
hypothesis is that if some engendering and coloring of labor unions arrived
at the top of the union’s bureaucracy, it is related to an on going process
of struggles of many Latinos and Latinas. Latino‘s indeed represent a
power with potentialities to form a contrahegemonic bloc in the Anglo’s
politics, and the perspective of reaching out community—what is more discussed
in other part of this text— might revitalize the concept of class beyond
the focus on formal workers, reaching also migrants and workers in the
informal sector (see Castro 1996), factors that might contribute to some
union’s revival. So, to register Latinas’voices from the past and the near present is to document part of such historical trend. On the other hand, I advocate that some trends that contribute to a sutile discrimination against women, specially Latinas and Afro Americans persists at the daily practices of labor unions in the US, specially because the cultural politics of subalternity and neo colonialism has a dynamics that goes beyond conjuctural and located changes, as well as for the transnationality of a gender culture. In this way the voices and visions I register are not part of a past past, but parts of an ongoing process of identity and other identity, not subaltern ones, or non identity (Butler 1993) re-configuration by Latinas. I
try to read on the South in the North, through Southern eyes. In other
words, to present the readers with two entangled texts: one that is not
a research on Latinas in New York, but on a Brazilian feminist researcher
(me) reading, selection and fascination with what might be common sense
to Latinos experts or to the comunidad;
second to perceive singularities in both cases, that of Latinas and that--my
core academic and militant affair—of female labor unionist leaders in
Brazil. I also advert that here just brief references are made to analyses
on the Brazilian case, explored at length in other texts (see Castro 1995
and Castro 1998, forthcoming), and I jump to inferences on commonalties
and specificity’s at the end. I
highlight that I do not pretend ‘translating the other’, the Latinas,
by interpreting their testimonies, and then explaining culture and politics.
Many of my remarks and enthusiastic discoveries, such as the figure of
borderlands[5],
is part of the literature made up by Latinos and Latinas or by experts
on Latinidad in the US.. The point is to include the camera, my discoveries,
in the framework—the space off mentioned by Lauretis (1993). The
point, for instance, is no more the relevance of the figure of borderland
to the Latinas case, but to question its universality, or its “latinidad”, or adequacy to the “America
Nuestra”—considering the utopia of an America mestiza in Latin America
and the Caribe of José Marti. The debate on such ‘latinidad’ is not only
on identity in terms of traits of identification among Latin Americans
in the different Americas, but also on its potentiality as a subversive
“non identity”, as claimed by Eagleton (1990), Butler (1993) and Lauretis
(1993). I mean new identities in their making and re-making. The
exposure to the 'other', a sisterly other, Puerto Rican women of the working
class, who have to deal with different references in identities negotiation
and non identity or combination of identities in new configurations, contributed
to my awareness of the interplay between sites of negotiations. Identities
and non identities in terms of resistance, ways of dealing with stereotypes
and cultural traits they follow or re-create as women, many as Black,
many as Lesbians, and all of them, according with some of the interviewees,
as “neo colonized people”. The transit,or the “in-between” claimed by
the Puerto Rican poet Sandra Maria Esteves (1980) is part of being in
and out of cannons, constructions of the subaltern other and also out
of militant male models. A state that might assume, according to Latino(a)
writers, a type of “border culture”, or a new collective political, social
and cultural identity in process and with effects that might go beyond
the Latinos(as) communities (see among others, Acosta-Belén and Santiago
1995 and Benmayor 1993). I claim that women in traditionally male dominated agencies, such as labor unions in neo colonial and/or authoritarian 'class(Ed)', 'rac(ed)' and 'gender(ed)' societies deal with “in between” as well as “neither/nor” (Esteves 1984 in Acosta-Belén and Santiago 1995) choices/chances in an open process of making collective projects as politically cultural subjects. Brazilian union leaders tell stories of conflicts between the loyalty to the party or the union’s comrade and the antagonic vision on love, women’s humanity and rituals of union’s practice. Activist women do not feel at home in mixed activities, especially in meetings, but they are there, and fighting not to “dismantle” but to implode the “master's house”. When they talk about the directory meetings in labor union (Lorde 1981), they spontaneously suggest common power-gender conflicts: At
the directory board meetings, the guys keep interrupting me, and since
I do not speak so loud, I think about giving up, but no way, this fight
is our too, now I knock on the table (Rebeca SerraVale, from the Directory
Board of the Bank Employees Labor Union of Bahia, Brazil—Interview to
the Author in Salvador, 1995—Original in Portuguese.). Some
times I express a position, they act as if they did not hear it, and then,
some minutes after, one of the machos [a male director] express the same
position, and they, the other machos [male directors] will agree and congratulate
him. Come on, it was my idea! but they did not hear me (Patricia Rocha
Ramos, id.). If
they heard us a little more, they would perceive that we are as much as
clever as they. Yesterday, in a meeting I expressed an opinion, nobody
said anything. Few minutes after, another vice president said the same
thing, and they all said: Great!.
Some times, it is not easy to get along with the compañeros!(Aida
Garcia, Vice President of Local 1199, interview to the Author in New York,
1993). In conferences and meetings, it has been observed that women are regularly overlooked when they speak: male speakers refer to contributions of other male speakers, interesting to a male speaker, he refers to this by attributing it to a male participant. Nonverbal, reinforcing communication behavior of men is addressed to men, but not to women; and so on. Some years ago, women said that 'they feel uncomfortable' in those institutions, 'as if they did not belong to the community'. The last quotation is not from my interviews with labor unionists. It is a statement of the German sociologist, Krais on the academic world! (In Krais 1993: 73). In
this text I speak from the site, from the body, from the materiality of
feminism (Butler 1993 and Lauretis 1993), as a critical theory on life,
not just as a social movement in favor of women, not just as history of
victimization (women as victims) or a hymn on the essential immanence
of the feminine as motherhood or as family nurturers. The women I am speaking
about, are or were freedom fighters “for the workers”, “for the Latinos”,
“against the Colonial status of Puerto Rico”, “for my people” (mi
gente), “for women of the working class” (all expressions taken from
the texts I have been working with). They talk from what is supposed to
be collective political sites, labor unions. And many of them are or were
also members of political parties, political movements for liberation
of specific constituencies, and community oriented social movements. Of
course they bring to the public, imposed and (re)-constructed socialization
on women, as family members, but in their life histories ruptures were
made, sometimes quite painful ones. They departed themselves from an exclusive
individualistic ethics of just caring for those with one's own blood.
Some of them are mothers and wives, and they really like to talk about
this state, but above all, I want to refer to the women in labor unions
as I am quite sure they also want to be remembered: by their accomplishments
as labor unionists, as 'gendered' political activists, who act according
to social and cultural codes related to a gender system, but also as 'en-gendered'
subjects “between representations of gender”, class, race, ethnicity,
and other references, who mindful of or not might contribute to (de)-and-(re)-constructions
of more libertarian subjectivity (Lauretis 1987)[6]. The
female leaders in labor unions in Brazil and in the US I interviewed,
as well as the Pioneras, are also political activists who tried or have
been trying to make a difference in traditional politics. All visited
texts tell stories not only of struggles against the employers, but also
conflicts they had to go through, inside the structure of labor unions.
By diverse forms, they tried, they have been trying, to engender the organized
labor in the US and in Brazil. But
I do not intend to generalize on women labor unionists, or on labor unions
and not even to evaluate specific labor union's practices. This is an
essay related to cases, centered on certain Latinas' testimonies that
combine or select references, going through. Before presenting the mentioned
testimonies, I register my own testimony on why I interrogated the case
of Puertorrican women in New York, in the search of new meanings to my
Brazilian identity or non identities (Eagleton 1980 and Butler 1993) or
search of re/des-terriorialized ones What
puerto rican labor union women might say to a brazilian scholar? Whereas
the globalization of the economy, its linkages with a new international
division of labor and its effects on women's participation in the labor
market is quite a recent focus in the academy, among Puerto Rican's scholars
in the 70s such perspective was already a must (Ortiz 1994; Ortiz 1988,
Lauria 1964, Lauria-Perriceli 1989, and Rios 1983, among others). Laboratory in the 50s--through the Operation Bootstrap, Puerto Rico did not live one of the Latin America's utopias of the 60s, I mean, the ECLA's—Economic Commission of Latin America/United Nations--Prognostic, also, then, a dream of the Left: an import substitution model and the construction of a national bourgeoisie. Indeed,
Puerto Rico has been an uncomfortable reality in the Latin American nationalist
imaginary of the 60s,also considering the other utopia made reality in
the 60s, the Cuban Revolution. Something not to deal with (see Franco
in Flores 1993, the difficulty to Latin American authors, to have Puerto
Rico “assimilated”). The
silence on Puerto Rico in the social sciences and literature produced
in other Latin American countries, is not just the indifference for an
uncomfortable unframed other, or, in the case of Brazil, because for us,
Latin America is also a distant other, but also the avoidance of the pain
of the discovery of commonalties of a 'destiny', as well as differences
that collaborate to undercover national selves, molded among multiple
subalternities. As
commented by Morales and Bonilla (1993) at the same time that the island
of Puerto Rico presents one of the highest income per capita in Latin
America, Puerto Ricans in the U.S. stand up among groups in poverty. However,
the experience of working class Puerto Ricans in New York is a more vivid
lesson on the diversification of the reterritorialization of the nation
than hermetic discourses on postmodernism. On the other hand, the meaning
of such culture of resistance is a controversial issue (see Flores 1993,
among others) already highlighted in the sketches and vignettes of Jesus
Colon (1982). Jesus
Colón, a Puerto Rican Pioneer, who arrived in New York in 1918, was a
worker, an artisan, a political activist, and a writer who in 1950 collaborated
to different newspapers in the U.S.. According to Flores' (1982) introduction
to Jesus Colon's book “A Puerto Rican in New York and Other Sketches”: [He
wrote] of Puerto Ricans who were in New York to stay, and whose life drama
came to hinge less on their sense of contrast with the Island than on
their individual and collective interaction with North American society
and the workers of diverse cultures with whom they were coming into increasing
contact. (Flores in Colon 1991: xv) Jesus
Colón in the 50s makes sociology of the everyday life of immigrant workers,
combining an active militant life as international socialist with romantic
stories on common people of the community, an idiosyncratic practical
political concept in the Puerto Rican case, since, to them, community
does not mean necessarily just isolated equals related by common practices,
but also a strategy of togetherness that might assume the character of
a common project for the independence and/or the reproduction of a cultural
resistance, or a cultural right. Indeed 'comer
arroz y habichuelas' (to eat rice and beans) in the MacDonald's
country can mean a lot of resistance, but not necessarily the engagement
in a project for changes, as commented by Rosa Garcia, a Puerto Rican
labor unionist I interviewed (see in the Appendix 2, vignette 3 on Puertorriqueinidad). However, the creativity of Puerto Ricans to make their culture/place require talent and assume diverse forms, not necessarily registered, as reflected by Colon (1991): While
he plays I keep wondering how many Josés are lost in the basements and
top floors of New York City, with nobody telling them that they have talent,
that they are perhaps geniuses. That they are a product of that ever self-renewing
admirable mass of beauty and ugliness, enthusiasm and frustration
we call the people. (Colon, 1991: 89. Extract of a sketch named “Jose”.) The Puerto Ricans-in-New York plasticity, putting together accommodations, resistance, recurring to insolite code-switching not only between English and Spanish, but also between competent theoretical concepts and common street or homemade knowledge, as well as testimonies from different sources is highlighted by and part of the style of different authors (see, among others, Flores 1993, and Benmayor 1993 and 1994). From
the peculiar ambiguous site of a “free” colony of one of the most powerful
capitalist advanced economy, the U.S.A., and at the same time integrated
by culture and place in the world economy to the block of the ‘undeveloped
Third World’ countries of the Americas, Puerto Rico pioneer the export
of labor, through migration, and the import of foreign capital and industrialization
model based on the exploitation of cheap labor. Puerto Rico also illustrates
that the location of the nation (Bha-ba 1993) goes further than a territory,
and much more than a state. But Puerto Rican subaltern voices and postmodern
figuration, of a nation beyond a location are just beginning to be staged,
and still as a case related to itself, or by scholars oriented to the
history of Puerto Rico and by Puerto Ricans. In the debate of global economy
in the Americas more attention to the case of Puerto Ricans is needed,
considering our horizon of possible fates in the South, the contemporary
debate on race by scholars and Black movement in Brazil, as well as by
the recent (from 1986 on) growing emigration from Brazil to the U.S..
(On the history of the Puerto Rican migration, colonial status and place
in the international economy, see, among others: Bonilla and Campos 1981.) Women
stand up not just a character in the political, economic and cultural
history of the nationhood making. Puerto Rican women in the island and
in the mainland are central personages of stories that make the history.
As highlighted by different feminist scholars, such as Ortiz (1988), Romany
(1993), and Benmayor (1993) they were/they are there. The specific case
of Puerto Rican women in the garment industry in the New York city, since
1920 (Ortiz 1994) illustrates that the globalization of the economy and
its correlate, labor migration, is an old/new ongoing transformative process
that besides imposing patterns of work control and exploitation in Third
World countries, also affects Third world migrants in the U.S. and the
economies they are packed into. The
nation is located in the body, the stigma of colored ‘Third World’ comes
together. Here and there they are a 'gendered' colored cheap labor. Ironically
the jobs they get will be contaminated by the stigma too. Since the 1950s
run away shops, specially to Third World countries, and imports from Third
World countries contribute to the decline of a traditional niche of migrant
labor from Third World countries since the turn of the century in the
U.S., the garment industry. Third world workers here “compete” with Third
world workers there! The
history of Puerto Rican women in the U.S. also calls attention to the
pitfalls of a labor movement that compromised its origins through a pro-business
model, reproducing systems of discrimination by gender and race. Authors
like Ortiz (1994), and Laurentz (1980), among others, document how the
International Labor Garment Women Union--ILGWU--perpetuated a political
hierarchy that would preserve the high leadership to European descendant
males, excluding Latinas women from decision making processes, and how
the ILGWU recruited and organized Puertorriqueñas,
garment female workers, at the beginning of the decade (see also Nacla
1988). Some
authors consider that the garment labor union model of rigid internal
selective hierarchy and negotiation with the bosses was entangled with
the anticommunist hysteria of the U.S. politics, and the labor movement
partnership with such politics in the 50s and up to recently (Laurentz
1980). They also stress the worries of the union with the lack of competitivity
of the garment manufacture, specially in New York, and its concern with
jobs protection in detriment to work relations, conditions and price.
Those two process are also important discourse figures in the contemporary
debate on labor unions in Brazil, i.e.: 1) the relation of the labor movement
with political tendencies and the persecution of activists related to
considered Left militant currents. The accusation of the United Workers
Central-CUT (Central Única dos Trabalhadores)-of
dominated by the Left by another Brazilian worker's central, the Força
Sindical, is an example; 2) the so called “modernization of the labor
union model” by social pacts with the government and employers to guarantee
jobs, with a social democratic tendency, considering the shortage of jobs
in certain dynamic sectors of the economy related to automatization and
other transformation of the world of the work. The limits of the social
pacts and compromises and its effects to specific constituencies of workers,
such as women is an open debate in the Brazilian labor movement scenario. In
this paper just a piece of the rich experience of Puerto Rican women in
the U.S. will be focused. I intend more a documentary, based on testimonies,
visions, than a history of Puerto Rican in U.S. labor unions. On the other
hand, I insist that the Puerto Rican case in the global political economy
as a Latin American inheritance to be fought against/what deserve more
attention by other Latin American scholars and activists in the countries
of the South. Interrogating
the past on sites of practices in engendering and coloring labor unions
-- pioneras’ testimonies From
the rich material collected by the Centro's research (see note *), as
mentioned, I organized vignettes according to few specific issues, following
Benmayor's suggestion on use of oral history material, as well as other
scholars related to the Puerto Rican intellectual practice (see note 3).
In the selection of pieces to the vignettes, I picked material I read
as illustrations of engendering and coloring labor unions. (See general
data on interviewees and credit for the interviewers in the Appendix 1.) It is out of the scope of my study, to ground those women biographies in the historical context of the Puerto Rican community in new York in the 40s and 50s, as well as the dynamics of the garment industry—the interviewed Pioneras were members of the ex IGLWU--, the labor union and the political cultural milieu. Anyhow a basic scenario of living conditions and vision of world construction on the US and the organized labor is the crisis of the garment industry, how it was hit by a long time international and regional competition, being an early symptom of the globalization of capital era, and its survival based on cheap migrant women’s labor. Some of the Pioneras, as Gloria Maldonato present a vivid analysis on the effects of the global economy to workers already in the 50s, mentioning imports, run away shops, exploitation of undocumented migrants, and the use of cheap labor abroad, suggesting that the decline of a national garment industry role as employment source for migrants and natural alike is not so new. Gloria Maldonato's reflection on the global economy challenges interpreting that sexual differences means that that women are not good macro analysts and that they are better story than history tellers. She is quite good at both levels. “...Unfortunately
we were sleeping when it started [she refers to the comment of Rina Benamayor
on the facts that many operators wold say that ‘nowadays there’Re not
so many jobs because they’Re sending the work, you know, to Taiwan’]... These are countries, underdeveloped countries that need a boost and they
don't have the qualification that a lot of us have,
you know, they could only do certain things. So... making garments is
one of them, you know, you don't need so much experience to do garment.
And it started little by little tripping out, then the big... multinationals,
the big corporations... I don't wanna say another word because then they'll
think I'm too much to the left. [laugh] But capital people, they saw the advantage of making good money at the
expense of other people's misery and at the expense of our people working
here. And then the government doesn't help us because they have let these
quotas be, you know, get bigger and bigger. And a lot of the Republicans,
and a lot of Democrats too... the import doesn't affect them. They believe
in free trade, that's what they tell us... And we're not the only industry,
we have the auto, the steel workers, the electronics. A lot of the things
you buy now, radios, television, whatever, you know, they come from outside,
especially from Japan. So even though the garment work is considered a
low paying industry it's still something... So if all the work, or most
of the work is sent out there then we are suffering. .....When
we call it run-away shop is when it's a union shop and it closes, like
in a city like New York, which is a union town. The shops are not the
ones that are running away, it's the manufacturers... The run-away shops,
if they go to another part of the country at least somebody's working,
whether they're union or non-union. But if it comes from outside, if it
goes outside of the United States it's
not our people making the profit, or having jobs, it's somebody else....
The fact is that, why take the food from our table to give to somebody
else? We know there's poverty, you know, you always try to help but should
we help with our people, you know, being the ones that are losing out?”
(I highlighted.Interviewee: Gloria Maldonado - a Puerto Rican Pionera.
Intervieweer: Rina Benmayor. From Puerto Rican Pioneras Oral History Archives--Centro
de Estudios Puertorriquenos, Hunter College/City University of New York.
See Appendix 1.) Pioneras draw a vivid picture of poverty and the daily life struggle to survive in the Island and in the U.S., in the depression years. They give illustrations of forms of labor exploitation in the garment in the beginning of the 40s. Forms that according with the interviews I conducted with Puerto Rican labor unionists from the ILGWU in 1993 still goes on, such as run away shops without paying the wage of the employers, lack of benefits, low wage and also control of workers, using their fear to loose the job because the lack of opportunities in the job market, and their lack of English proficiency. Some Pioneras tell stories on how the employers used to put limit to the time they spend in the bathroom, as the following one, that are quite similar to cases reported by Brazilian labor unionists today: “The bosses every time I went to the bathroom they were sending someone after me to see if I was trying to organize the people there. (See Appendix 1.) Stories on forms of labor exploitation in the 30s and 40s in the garment industry in New York, told by the Pioneras are mixed with others that indeed illustrate the dynamics of the “political ethics of everyday life” (Heller 1994) among workers, but, I insist, an ethics mixed with a collective organizational accent, as suggested by the below quoted story told by the Pionera Eva Monje on facts she participated in the 40s in New York in a garment shop, and how the challenged the boss of calling the union if he did not pay the wage he owned to some Dominican workers who did not speak English: “Yo recuerdo
que el boss un dia se puso muy bravo conmigo. Porque levee una senora
que no veia, necesitaba lentes y no tenia com que comprarse los espejuelos...
La pobre senora estaba al lado mio, yo le enebraba la aguja y se la pasaba
porque ella no veia. Y yo algunas veces dejaba mi trabajo porque era mas
facil, porque yo sabia un poquito mas de ingles, pues, venia alguna de
Puerto Rico que no sabia hablar pues yo le dejaba mi trabajo y me iba
a buscar otro y tenia la suerte que siempre conseguia aunque fuera un
poco mas pero.. tu sabes. ...porque muchas veces el boss trataba de enganarla,
sabes,porque no hablaban ingles. Las dominicanas que no hablaban ingles
las hacia trabajar una semana y despues venia por ahi y decia, 'dile que
yo no tengo dinero esta semana', y yo le decia, pero Tony. 'Dile que yo
no puedo pagar esta semana...porque...'No,
no, no, tu tienes dinero tienes que pagarle si no voy a tener que llamar
a la union. (Eva
Monje –see Appendix 1. I higlighted.) The
Pioneras also present testimonies on racism in the shop floor in the 30s.
This is an open end history/story. Rosa Garcia, a Puerto Rican lawyer
and labor unionist, of the ILGWU, I interviewed, in 1993 discuss race-and-class,
even when not mentioning this system of social relations with such concept,
that suggests the peculiar reading of class to the U.S. case. She mentions
that ethnic discrimination is an on going strategy of employers in the
garment shops, who feed rivalries among workers of different nationalities.
The Pioneras recall conflicts between Italians and Puerto Ricans at the
neighborhoods and at the shop floor, and the use of language to control
the workers. The 70's Generation of Latinas give also testimonies on conflicts
among the oppressed and the perversity and the pervasiveness of the racial/ethnic
system of power in the U.S. today. The
following extracts from interviews developed by Centro’s researchers with
the Pioneras (see appendix 1) on racism in the garment work place and
in labor unions in New York, in the 50s and the 70s indicate how the victims
themselves are trapped in categories that excludes the other, another
migrant or another ‘colored’ people and how labor unions contribute to
reproduce anthagonisms among migrants: (Q- Ana Juarbe: I wanted to ask you, cuando usted estuvo entonces en la directiva, habia una otra Puertorriquena en la directiva?) Eva Monge: O yes, si, habian morenas, habian varias puertorriquenas y, esto, all nationalities. Habian sirianas, judias, italianas ...yo la
conocia porque yo conozco todos los business agents, yo como pertenecia
a la directiva los conocia a todos. Entonces voy y le digo, ella
era una judia but very nice. “...(Q-Ana Juarbe: )Y cuál fue el primer trabajo que tuvistes donde había unión?) Lucilla
Padron: Bueno, ahí había unión pero era
así. No me unioné na' porque, fíjate, )cómo
me iba a unionar si no...? )Sabes lo que pasa? Que eran todas italianas, )tú
ves? Y cuando allí todas son italianas, no te quieren, no te quieren.
Antes era así. Todo el mundo era italiano y tú caes mal. Latino, )no? ...Entonces
después la unión esa la cambiaron pa'el 23.... Nos
separamos. Separaron los italianos del resto de la gente. Dejaron la 22
sólo para los italianos, para las mujeres italianas. Entonces en la 23
habíamos latinas de Puerto Rico, West Indians, jamaiquinas, de todas las
otras razas. Esa era la 23 - para todas las otras razas. Pero la 22 era
separada, nada más que para los italianos. (
see Appendix 1) Turning to life history, what suggests a singular national community's building, an hypothesis that needs more research, is the finding that some of the Pioneras, as well as the majority of the Puerto Rican female labor unionists I interviewed at the end of 1993 and beginning of 1994 came from a family of political activists. Sonia Larracuente (then in charge of the Educational Programs in the ILGWU), one of the Puerto Rican women I interviewed is the daughter of the Pionera Gloria Maldonato, and she enthusiastically talks about the importance of her mother as a role model to her biography as labor union activist: “My
mother was the only Latin woman who in 1940 worked in a “taller” where
all other workers were men, Italians, Jews, and older. She was 16 years
old, they were 40 or 50 years old. She worked for 25 years in this type
of job ('en esto'). Then she became an activist, and after a while she
began to participate in programs of the Department of Education here in
New York, in technical education and formation. I always had a fascination
for her work. Her name is Gloria Maldonato. After
she left the factory, for 23 years she was active, working to the union.
She retired when she was 62 years old. She did everything in the “taller”:
contracts, organization, etc... But she did not reach the high leadership. She was never a manager or a vice president. Anyhow she was
in all branches of the daily work. (Sonia Larracuente, from interview
in New York 1993.) Louise
Delgado, one of the Pioneras, who was a chairlady in the garment shop
floor in the 40s, recalls that her father as well as her husband were
union organizers: To
Blanca Vasquez' (researcher at the Centro) question: “I was wondering,
how come you were such a fighter already?” Louise Delgado--interviewed
in 1984--replied: “Oh!
My first husband, my cousin, when I married him he was working for an
upholsterer and there was a big strike. There was a big strike and he
had to go all the way upstate and that's how come I learned about picketing,
because I used to go and help him.... When
I was working up in East Harlem, since I knew both languages whenever
there was any kind of organization work to be done Saby used to call my
boss and say “Dutchy, I need Louise for the month of April, May, June,
until July”, that's when, you know, they're very busy. So I used to go
out leaving a job $150, $175 a week to get paid $75 a week, get up at
five o'clock in the morning 'til tem o'clock at night every single day
for three, four months. [Q-
Blanca Vazquez: And what did you do?] Picket,
we used to go and picket, go inside and pull everybody out... you can't
do that now. Go and visit the homes, make the girls sign cards, convince
them... we organized half of Harlem and half of South Bronx, yeah...(Louise
Delgado's interview – See Appendix 1.) From
a search on singular subjectivy production, one peculiar discourse that
might be reconstructed from the Pioneras' interview is how in their memories
on their lives as chairladies, as members of the community, in el Barrio or in Puerto Rican clubs and associations, through metonimic
uses of expressions such as “like a family”, “my Puerto Rican people”,
“take care of mine”—”cuidar los
mios”, “ayudar los mios”). Nationality is engendered as a political
identity against the colonial situation, putting together working class
togetherness, and ethnicity/nationality. This is still an hypothetical
reading since little is presented on the Pioneras political imagery in
the interviews organized by Centro’s staff, besides their activism as
chairladies. On the other hand, it would also be reductive to label such
discourses into an exclusive social imagery, even if the direct reference
suggests among other cultural ethos, some as such: 1) An ethic of “every
day life” (to use Heller's –1994-expression); 2) a female tradition for
caring and nurturing meaningful others, since they are family holders
'par excellence'; 3) an humanitarian liberal trend; 4) a socialist ethics
of togetherness among equals; 5) a latinos' practice of building community
on account of a common culture. Such
ethos are possible non competitive meanings, anyhow in my reading I stress
that a working class notion of nationality was a privileged site of a
singular subjectivity, underlining their narration on resistance. Such
reading is not just grounded by their place in the social scenario, the
U.S.--I mean, the colonial citizenship imposed to Puerto Ricans. I gather
evidences to such reading from their own narratives on their practices
as labor unionists at the level of the rank and file, indicating more
loyalty to a practice of social labor unionism engendered by themselves
in the daily life--a union to the Latin workers they lived with, -- than
to the formal structure of the International union--this one, sometimes
a partner of the boss, as criticized by some of the Pioneras. In
some discourses the cross switching between nationality, class solidarity,
family, dignity, proud to be Puerto Rican (orgullo de ser Puertorriqueno)
is direct, or part of the same piece, what is not always the case. In
other cases, more than the place of speech, it is the intonation, denoting
that this is a subject where they put their heart--the defense of “my
people”. Indeed to talk about what is to be Puerto Rican—or as stated
by Aida Garcia, vice president of the Local 1199, in 1993, ‘la Portoriqueinedad”
is the subject they were more eloquent about. The other topics I imposed
in the interviews, such as feminism, relation between Latinos and Afro
American, the life of the union, or even types of discriminations, did
not get them so involved as the debate on “ser
Latino” and “ser Puertoriqueño”.
A
Vignette on ‘Puertorriqueinedad’-
Meanings among Puerto Rican Labor Unionist Women. Of course, if ‘the past’ is focused, colored discourse on an anticolonial working class nationality might be disputed as another imposed reading, since not an explicit political project of reference is part of their “repertoire of motifs”, such as that found in the writings of Jesus Colon (1982), the socialist Puerto Rican fighter and writer who lived in the same period of the Pioneras. Indeed, while the internationalist socialist accent, as well as the independentist option is quite explicit in Jesus Colon's sketches, and also in the discussion I sustained with some women I interviewed recently--but not necessarily in all of them--topics such as the Puerto Rico colonial status were un-asked questions and not proposed themes by the Pioneras. I do not contest this possible contra argument about my reading, my point is to question simple liberal labeling of expressions such as “cuidar de los mios” (take care of my people) and alike as illustrations of an essential women's voice. They take special meaning if part of a working class activist women's voice in a colonial location, I contend. Emilia Giboyeaux was telling the interviewers (Ana Juarbe and Rina Benmayor—Centro’s researchers) on a conflict with a Latina worker who was working on Sundays, who, according to her was “a very selfish person who wanted everything to her” ('era una persona egoista que lo queria coger todo par ella'). The interviewer (Ana Juarbe) asked how she felt about the result of the case, and she replied: Me sentia bien, porque yo sabia que el beneficio no era para mi solo, que era para benefio de la mayoria que estabamos siendo explotadas y yo queria que ganaramos mas. In
Eva Monge's following text, the metonymic meaning switch between expressions
as “union” “la raza” and “los Latinos”, sound to me more explicit. Eva Monge arrived in 1918,
and she was 80 years old when she was interviewed (1984): [Q-Ana Juarbe: - Pa' esa epoca usted tambien veia mucha gente de Puerto Rico que venian, muchas mujeres puertorriquenas que estaban buscando la industria...?] Eva Monje- Si, habian. Yo me recuerdo que decian los barcos, que venian the Marine Tigers y todo eso. Y venian a trabajar y, esto... Como se acomodaban yo no le puedo decir, eso no le puedo decir porque en realidad las que venian a cualquier sitio que yo trabajaba, como si eran Latinas si yo les podia ayudar en algo, yo les ayudaba en algo. Si las tenia que llevar a la union porque, esto no sabian caminar o algo ai, yo me gustaba siempre ayudar... In
another part of the interview, Eva Monje's discourse suggests the underlining
process of a “political ethics of every day life” (Heller 1994) in her
militancy: I
understand that the chairlady is active and has a heart. For the workers
because you have to have a heart for the workers. I don’t want things
for myself. I want things for everybody. That’s the main thing. You work
and you work together. When you work apart and sometimes you go as an
individual to the union, maybe they give you the run-around. But, you
go in a group and you will understand. Like for instance, you have a problem,
the other one has a problem, lets go together. Gloria Maldonato was a chairlady for almost 20 years, then, she went to teach at Rutgers University at the Labor Center, (New Brunswick). According to her, because “they needed a woman and a Hispanic to develop programs for workers, Hispanic workers and women”. Their testimony, and others from different Pioneras, indicate that the rank and file, was the site where they put their heart: That
was the only time I liked the university (the Conferences she organized
bringing activists and program directors). It was a lot of paper work
and the other programs you had the people may be for a week, for a few
hours a week and then they left and you never saw them again. There was
not that one to one contact that you have as a union representative.
You weren't helping them except educating them but there wasn't that closeness
and this is what I like, I like to work with people. The majority of the Pioneras were asked to join the ILGWU, by an union business agent because they had already shown commitment and creativity in the defense of the worker's rights at the shop floor. They were elected by the rank and file to be chairladies, and that was the level that the majority stayed at. The Pioneras not only engendered labor unions by a direct practice at the level of rank and file, protecting the workers in the shop floor, some times even from abuses or omissions of a superior union organizer, they also engendering labor unions by coloring them, I mean, by defending Latinos' workers. The multiple forms of engendering and coloring the class are illustrated in their own voices in the Vignette 4- Visions on/from a ‘Colored’’Gendered’class. Interrogating
the present on sites of practices in engendering and coloring labor unions
–latinas generation of the 70’s visions I
refer to some testimonies of some Puerto Ricans interviewees who were
members of the ILGWU and the Local 1199 in 1993, that support my thesis
on the diversity of ways of engendering and coloring labor unions, and
Latinas contribution to such process. The
concern with the ambiguity of the term Latino/Latina, as stressed by different
authors should be more explored in the case of women in leadership positions
in labor unions. But in this article I just recognized sites of speech,
underlining interviewee’s references to their national cases. The Puerto
Rican women I interviewed were more concerned in expontaneously highlighting
the status of “Estado asociado’,
the third space they fit or not fit in. The ILGWU and the Local 1199
also have different histories and practices, and the majority of the interviewees
stressed the 1993/1994 scenario of the differences between those labor
unions. They considered that there were more room to Latinos, Latinas
and Afro-American men and women at the Local 1199, also supposed to be
more democratic and progressive. Representing ‘the social labor unionism’
(see Aida Garcia’s testimonies in Vignettes 3 and 4, especially on conflicts
between Latinos and Afro-Americans in Local 1199). Indeed these are other
constructs I lay aside for future research. Despite
demarcations by nationality, types of political and cultural ties between
country of birth or country of parents and the US (country they are living),
Latinas leaders in labor union share the perspective that the site of
struggle is the US, from their condition of otherness, a condition that
is framed by multiple references, such as gender, class, race, ethnicity
and nationality, but above all colored by the imbalanced social relations
between “Anglos” and Latinos. This reference might even minimize other
borders, such as gender among Latinos. More than a natural or atavic condition,
such otherness is constantly being imposed by the “Anglos”, what I read
in the following piece: No
es ni intencional, ellos [los norte americanos blancos) estan siempre
a me recordar que soy una Puertoriquena y muchas veces por la forma de
ignorarme o al ignorar mi pays. Estoy hablando de lideres sindicalistas
norte americanos.
(Puerto Rican woman of the Local 1199 staff, who asked not to be identified—New
York, 1993) In
this section I will refer briefly to some
interviewees’ testimonies to support my thesis on the diversity
of ways of engendering and coloring labor unions, and to indicate how
Latinas contribute to such process in a specific period, when labor unions
backlash was rapamt. I also argue that it is not by chance that organized
labor re-discovered Latinos and specially Latinas as a force to collaborate
to a turning over such scenario—but this argument is not fully explored
in this article. The
scenario of labor unions backlash in the US, for the period I developed
the research in New York 1993-1994, is well summarized by Rachleff (1994)
an expert in the US labor history, in an article called “Seeds of a Labor
Resurgence” refers to the most recent organized labor backlash in the
US. He mentions that: From
19.4 percent of the work force ten years earlier, unionized labor plummeted
to 10.2 percent. The strike had virtually disappeared as a weapon of labor.
Where 4 million workers had hit the bricks a decade before, now only 300,000
dared to do so. As the labor movement withered, wages stagnated and the
work week lengthened despite a doubling of manufacturing output. Inequality
grew, as the top one-tenth of 1 percent of the social pyramid took in
as much income as the bottom 42 percent (Rachleff 1994: 226). He
also considers that there are seeds of a labor resurgence, specially through
some labor unions' concern to organize the unorganized, “to give greater
voice to workers”, “to face the resistance of its old bureaucratic leadership”,
to reach out the community and organized workers in other countries. In
sum, organized labor in the US, according to Rachleff's words (1993: 227)
needs not a “revival” of the CIO model that fit the 1920s, but above all
“to shift from a culture of business unionism to what activists are calling
an 'organizing model' and 'social unionism'“. Latina
labor unionists I interviewed in the US agree with such perspective, but
I claim they go further, according to their discourses, what does not
mean they have the means to transform their discourses in a praxis from
their location, in the case, at the labor union. To
my question, “What do you think about the thesis that 'labor unionism
is dead', specially in the US case?” Rosa Garcia and Sonia Larracuente
offer creative concepts of labor unions’ revival, two Puerto Rican union
leaders at the ILGWU: Indeed
the situation is making it hard to labor unions. But I believe
that the idea of labor unionism, that the need of labor unions are not
dead. Today even more than in the past workers need labor unions. I
argue that labor unions, especially in this country have to find a new
way to arrive to this sector [the workers]. They need more creativity.
Some practices of the past perhaps are not working anymore....but labor
unions are as much as important as they were 30, 40 or even 50 years ago.
We are facing a situation when there is less and less jobs, and
people are fighting to secure jobs. In the same way that capital gets
to be international, that all industries come to an agreement, the
union has to follow this path. We,
the workers, have to be organized in Brazil, in Mexico, in Dominican
Republic, in Haiti and in the US. If we do not do it, we
are going to get in trouble, because we are competing against each
other for the same jobs (Rosa Garcia. Interviewed in the ILGWU, New York,
1993. I highlighted.) In other part of the interview, Rosa Garcia also stress the need not only of a closer contact between labor unions and community based organizations, but also labor unions support to autonomous social movements, at the community. But her interviews also suggest she has been more effective being active in a separate way in different locations, in the labor union and in social community oriented movements. Rosa Garcia is quite active in community activities, such as organizing a bi-lingual education school at Brooklyn, and at other Puerto Rico oriented movements. The
following answer to my question “why few women participate in labor unions
activities?” Rosa Garcia replied: I
think that educational opportunities at the labor unions are quite restrictive.
Unions should offer more educational activities at the level of the shop
floor. People has to learn more about community
sense. Power has to be given to people in a way that workers can participate
of those activities. There is a combination of causes, and many women
are afraid to face the idea they have to fight, and many of us accept
the role imposed on us by society. Spontaneously
Rosa Garcia gave more attention to the issue of labor unions in Puerto
Rico. Indeed commonly Puerto Rico is an issue that used to come to the
interviews with different women, without any invitation, as part of a
meta text. Rosa
Garcia came from Puerto Rico when she was 25 years old to get her Master
degree in Caribbean and Latin American Studies. She is now 39 years old.
She also comes from a family of labor union activists (her father) and
have close contacts with the organized labor in Puerto Rico. Talking on
women in labor unions in Puerto Rico, Rosa Garcia suggests ways that labor
unions should also be engendered. She mentioned that female activists
in Puerto Rico brought to unions the debate on the double day, on women's
role in labor unions, on sexual harassment and domestic violence. This
last issue, according to her, is not dealt with by women groups in the
US that focus on labor unions, nevertheless she mentioned that the ILGWU
has a broad anti discrimination politics in relation to race, sex and
sexual preference. To
reach out the community is a common subject in several Latinas's speeches
I collected at the ILGWU and at the Local 1199. It is an issue that affect
particularly the people of color in New York. According to Rosa Garcia: In
this country the struggle has to be given at different levels. We have
to fight for the housing question; we have to fight for better schools
for our children, demanding the right for a better education. At last,
all these struggles we are related to in other levels are those that really
will allow us to move ahead.... To the
Latina community, school is a very important issue. In almost 45%
of the schools where the children are, they are not learning anything....Teachers
are underpaid... We have to create mechanisms in
our own communities in order to help each other, so we can get involved
in so many things (Rosa Garcia. I highlighted.) I
explicitly asked Rosa Garcia about the linkages between labor unions and
community activities. She replied as follows: I
think that still in the majority of the labor unions, they [labor unions
and community] are separated worlds, with some few exceptions. I think
that this is a mistake, it is very important to unions that they make
linkages with the communities. We have been working in organizational
campaigns like those in Brooklyn in order to have contacts with the Church,
and other communal groups, to build up a supportive
net.... Sonia Larracuente, who was in charge of educational programs in the ILGWU in 1994, also used to have the community as a key concept in her discourse. A community that in some texts of diverse interviewed Latinas in labor unions in the US is understood as “barrios”, Latinos neighborhoods, and some times, by the same person, as the Puerto Rican nationality and struggle to preserve their pride, dignity and culture. In certain way community is understood as citizenship, but not just as a right. Above all, it was mentioned as a political form of resistance that goes beyond the local or the immediately lived. The following comment from a Puerto Rican female labor organizer from the IGLWU, who asked not to be identified, is emblematic of different testimonies (see vignettes at the end) I collected while in New York, 1993: Acuerdate que entre Puerto Rico y Estados Unidos hay una relacion colonial que lo pinta a todo. Todo hay que mirar vea esto. Indeed,
despite the used and abused jargon that class, gender, race and ethnicity
are to be put together, at the level of discourse, commonly one site of
oppression tends to assume the role of the privileged one, but not necessarily
mulyfying others, as suggested by my readings of the Latinas' discourses.
The broader power structure tends to orient the selection of sites of
rebellion. (See Vignette 3 on 'Puertorriqueinidad' and Vignette 4 on Gender
Perspective.) In
1993/94 Sonia Larracuente used to be quite active in LACRA--Comites for
the Advancement of Latin People--organization that has many labor unions
as institutional members. Sonia Larracuente presented extensive testimony
about her efforts in the Hispanic women's caucus—see Vignettes 2, 3 and
4--. She just not engenders the labor union through her educational programs
to delegates, business agents and organizers, but also as having Latinas
cultural and formal empowerment, privileged arenas. According to her,
from a survey with Puerto Rican female labor unionists, LACRA set a program
that included courses to women on how to leader a meeting and to compete
for formal positions in the union. LACRA also develops cultural activities
related to Puerto Rican cultural expressions, such as a course of “bomba
y plena”. Brazilian
female union leader's visions The
Brazilian women I briefly refer to here (see Castro 1995, and 1998), are
up today members of the directory board of the Bank Employees Labor Union
of Bahia. It is a relatively powerful union at the organized labor scenario
of the State of Bahia, and of the country. Before 1995 it used to command
massive strikes. Up today they are active on street mobilizations, but
those are not so frequent today, since attention goes to the growing dismissal
of bank employees related to contemporary transformation in the work process
of the financing system, more based in automatization, and to the Neoliberal
politics of the actual Government, by which historical conquests of the
workers are undermined. The Brazilian union leaders I interviewed in Salvador(Castro
1995, 1998) are quite young--in the average they are 27 years old, and
commonly are the first generation of militants in their families. Those
characteristics differ them from the Latinas leaders—who are in their
40s or 50s—and, as mentioned, and are commonly children or relatives of
other activists. In
1993 there were 25 000 bank employees in the state of Bahia, in the beginning
of 1995 about 17 000. Up to the end of the first semester of 1998 the
bank employees category in the state of Bahia might be reduced to less
than 9 000 members. Contrary to the
case of the US, despite the recent backlash with Neoliberal politics'
effects, such as unemployment, disrespect to the right of strikes and
the shrinkage of job opportunities in the public sector, the Brazilian
labor unions of the principal economic sectors are quite influent in the
political arena and they are fed by a nationally vocal and young leadership.
In 1998, about 20% of the workers in Brazil are members of a labor union
but the recent years were particularly painful for the working class organization.
In Salvador, the Banking employees labor unions lost between 1993 to 1998,
about 40% of its base. Women have been more visible in a period that labor
unionism is beginning to face a crisis, specially in the bank sector.
In 1995, about 49% of the Bank Employees Labor Union in Bahia were women,
and half of the dismissed employees commonly are women too. From
the 70 members of the directory board, about 70% would be characterized
as Blacks, according to the appearance (hair and skin color), and 85%
by US standards (a drop of blood). Blacks have been in the directory board
of the union since its foundation in 1933, what does not mean that racism
in the work place is fought against by the Union as much as sexism is,
in this case, by female union leaders. Blacks are at the union's decision
making level, but racism up to 1995 used not to be targeted as a class
issue in labor unions[7]. But
even the quite recent debate on race/ethnicity at the work place has been
limited to the equation between discrimination and lack of Blacks in the
formal sector of the economy, and glass ceiling or inequalities in the
distribution of Black and Whites between the employed workers. There is
a debate going on a Government proposal for the adoption of programs based
on quotas for Blacks at schools and work places, taking as reference the
US case. Less attention is given to the political and cultural reproduction
of racism, specially when combined with sex/gender discrimination. Just
few Black women's organizations and worker's social movements are addressing
questions related to the complex combination between politics, culture
and economy, such as: women's self esteem; men-and-women relations among
Blacks; the use of conventional beauty parameters to discriminate Black
women from service jobs; the relation between class and race, or the fact
that poverty and the marginalization of Blacks are entangled; the cultural
political ethos of Brazilian society against domestic work, occupation
that survived slavery; the Western consumerist model of development and
its beauty codes, or how such model marginalizes the non White 'other. The
bibliography on the myth of racial democracy in Brazil is extensive, and
there are several outstanding Black movement organizations in Brazil,
but the discussion on the interplay between race, gender and work in labor
unions is just beginning in Brazil, and commonly do not goes beyond principle
statements against discrimination (Castro 1996). On
the other hand, labor unions still work with a traditional narrow concept
of class, with no concern to workers not employed in the informal economy,
or to the unemployed and retired ones despite the worldwide labor turmoil.
Also, since race/ethnicity is narrowly addressed as a “cultural issue”
in itself, social movements are considered to be the appropriate agencies
to deal with such identity. Labor unions commonly do not deal with citizenship
rights. Contrary to the concern with community, stressed by Puerto Rican
leaders I mentioned before, the classic factory or office model as basic
site of class contradictions still prevails. From the interviews with
male unionists in Salvador, I figured that labor is highlighted in itself
and considered to be the fundamental block of the concept of society. Interviewed
male union directors put their heart in the discussion on issues such
as “the socialism we want”, “the struggle against the bankers, the conservative
authoritarian State government”, “our union's strength against the employers”
or “our perspective on politics and that of the workers from other political
parties”. Interviewed female union directors are also vocal in the discussion
of the same issues, but they also put their heart in the discussion on
the need of an internal gendered democracy in the union, by which different
types of languages be heard and respected. They are in the theatre, and
bring to the stage different issues such as employer-and-employee relations
and men-and-women relations. They run a hot line called “SOS woman” to
receive complaints of female bank employees. At the end of 1993, they
issued a famous case of sexual harassment in the work place. They stand
up in the picket lines, and in different occasions they have been victimized
by police repression. During the strikes they run the so called ludic
part. According to a female labor unionist, the rationality is “let's
be critical, but let's have fun”. The subversion of joy is part of female
activist's practice to address work conditions, domestic life and Government
social pitfalls. But in the labor union's activities they commonly do not get the mike, as much as men do (see Castro 1995), and commonly they do not seat with employers in the bargaining table. They are part of the directory board but a subtle sexual division of power takes place at union's life. Such division is perceived by them as practices that can be overcame through what one of the female union leaders named “democratization of the union, by bringing discussion on gender issues, such as men and women relation, domestic violence, and others”. I
claim that it is not by chance, not even by individual choice that Brazilian
female labor unionists I interviewed in the city of Salvador, in 1990/1993
period, privilege the figures of gender and class as sites of subjectivity
production. Their
narration is not only located in a rigid authoritarian society that is
still caring the wounds of 14 years of repression, the military coup of
State. The Union is considered theirs, and male directors are above all
companheiros
of a common struggle against employers, against a type of society. They
engender changes not only in the labor union life, by insisting in less
rigid meeting schedule and day care services at all union massive activities.
The
class-based unionism from which these women speak is far from the “bread-and-butter”
unionism, the philosophy of Samuel Gomper, expressing that “labor should
stick to bread-and-butter demands and steer clear of politics” (in NACLA
1988 on the AFL-CIO). It is a labor movement that upraised against the
military dictatorship in the 70s, pushed the impeachment of the ex-president
Collor (1992) together with different other social movements, and from
which came a well voted candidate to president of Brazil in 1993, Luiz
Inacio Lula--a founder of the 1978 “new labor unionism” and the PT. It
is a labor movement (specially if the class based current in the CUT is
considered) that, on the other hand, is facing severe backlash with neo
liberalism, not only in term of unemployment rates, but also in terms
of severe ideological divisions—with a growing center-right tendency--and
internal power disputes. (See Antunes 1991, on new labor unionism in Brazil) Women
in the union in 1993 were investing in bringing feminist social movement
practices inside the labor union, such as reflexive groups and workshops
on issues such as sexuality, homophobe and domestic violence because they
still invest not only in creating a space inside labor unions for a more
democratic practice in a whole--practice that is suggested in my readings
of the Pioneras' material, and from interviews of Latinas in the ILGWU and
in the Local 1199 in the US. In
1998, the Brazilian women in the Bank Employees Labor Union still invest
in the strategy of imploding the labor union from inside, insisting in
the legacy of the 1978 new labor unionism of close contact between leadership
and the rank and file, but unemployment and low level of living took priority
and women’s departments disappeared or were relegated to secondary plan. Anyhow
if I contend that a creative engendering of a new labor union is in the
making by women who are active in a class based labor unionism in Brazil,
I am not so optimistic about coloring labor unions. Despite
the new look on race/ethnicity in the Brazilian society and by progressive
labor unions, more emphasis is given to a quota perspective than to cultural
awareness combined with re-evaluation of the development model. If
labor unions are considered, the fact is that race/ethnicity as a place
to be conquered is not an issue. Many African descendants hold leadership
positions in labor unions. But race as a system of privilege, racism in
the work place and in the Brazilian society is not yet a visible banner
of male and female Brazilian labor unionists in general. The damage of
the slavery period in the collective imagery of Blacks and Whites on work--a
racial-and-sexual division of labor--is more addressed through the discourse
on/against discrimination. Less space is left to race/ethnicity as a language
of rebellion not restricted to a space, a position, a social movement
(Gilroy 1991). Female
leaders in the Bank Employee's labor union still just refer to gender
and class as sources of an imposed identity, and as sites of a singular
rebellion. To my question “how do you see yourself?” Patricia, a Black
female leader in that union, declared: “I am a woman, and I am a worker,
and that is how I have been discriminated, and that is how I fight back,
through my Union.” Latinas and latin american female labor union fighters – a transcultural reading between ney york and Salvador From
a bird flight over texts produced by the Pioneras
and their heirs, Puerto Rican women in intermediate leadership positions
in some labor unions in New York City, and from my experience on Brazilian
labor union's practices, as a quasi-insider, I insist that engendering
and coloring labor unions is a project of Latinas, in the US (cases I
came acquainted). A project mixed with the rejection of the colonial status,
in the Puerto Rican women's case, and with the efforts to build up the
community, beyond the labor union space. When power and gender are entangled
commonalties among female labor fighters are found, and a common Latin
American accent in men and women relations is found—see testimonies in
the vignettes and the interviewee’s affirmative reactions when I tried
to suggest analogies of their experience and those of the Brazilian women
in labor unions. Labor union is a space women are not quite there, as
colored people, despite exceptions and changes over time, if the high
decision making positions is sorted. Through
the perspective of serving the workers, or the Latina community, with
education programs that target the unorganized migrants as well, or in
other spaces, such as being active in the school board at the barrios
they live, the Latinas I interviewed envisage a working class that is
produced and represented politically much more through social movements
other than labor unions in the US, specially if the 1993 ILGWU—New York
case is on focus. But
the Latinas I interviewed are indirectly engendering labor unions, through
their own way of making politics. By reaching out the community, they
bring reproductive, citizenship and family rights to the political agenda
of traditional labor agencies. They go against the sexual division of
labor and power, being outstanding leaders in a male oriented world, the
world of the work, and caring for their family, their community, their
nation. They are in favor of the institutional legal path in the defense
of women's rights, but they are suspicious of an essentialist women's
movement, and they put together concerns with different identities. Anyhow
at the level of the labor unions their feminist agenda might suggest a
conservative or a realistic perspective, considering the US scope. They
are more restricted to affirmative action programs support, equality in
the work place, against sexual harassment campaigns and alike. They
are also making bridges between labor unions and the community, an avenue
that might collaborate to recuperate labor unions from the crisis that
many labor unions, as those of the garment industry, entangled by contemporary
transformation of the world of work and the globalization of the economy. The
flexibility of the class concept should also be highlighted. Contrary
to the case of Brazilian male and female labor unionists, Puerto Rican
women I interviewed commonly came from family of political activists,
putting together the private and the public and a certain historical class
formation identity, despite the fact that class was not a common concept
in their discourse. Brazilian labor unionist seldom refer to themselves
without stressing class, and a socialist utopia as a collective social
project or, class as a social relation that designate anthagonic positions
in the economic structure. But on the other hand, they are more likely
to be the first generation of political activists in their families. On
the other hand, race/ethnicity/nationality in the case of Puerto Rican
women in labor unions--cases I dealt with--are ambiguous components of
a “non asked” class project, understood as a project of social justice
without discrimination. The
following inferences are hereby stated as hypotheses on singularities
of Latinas’ labor unionists, taking into account their sisters in Brazil.
They need to be more investigated in the future, taking into account my
relative otherness or poor socialization with the Latinas. They came from
a transcultural reading of testimonies of Latinas’ and Brazilian women
in labor unions: 1),
I contend that contrasting the Puerto Rican and the Brazilian cases, different
forms of complementarity between visions are organized. Community is the
reference in the Puerto Rican's narratives, society is more named by Brazilians.
Community assumes a cultural political connotation with different meanings.
When culture is used by itself not necessarily power systems are explicitly
name. I read resistance to survive but not necessarily a fighting back
strategy takes the stage; 2)
Brazilian female labor union leaders I referred to, criticize men and
women relations at unions, but men are referred as the companheiros,
and they invest in what they call “a long term project to change their
macho mentality”. They keep distance from a gender perspective they associate
with middle class feminism, and a class vision reduced to equality, or
a homogenous mass. They also stress the combination between equality and
differences, not only among men, but also, their words, “among women”. On
the other hand, Puerto Rican women I interviewed, from the ILGWU, commonly
refer to the importance of the community and to the colonial status of
Puerto Rico--that is 'le moton',
where they put their heart at, in our conversation. Not all men at that
labor union, are referred as compañeros
and for some of them, that union (ILGWU), is “a job”, not “our union”,
a common term in the interviews of female directors at the Local 1199
and Brazilian women's testimonies. According to a narratives of one Latina
labor unionist at the ILGWU: “the union is a job, the struggle is out
there, at the community”. Some of them, as Rosa Garcia, stress that they
do believe that unions are important to the fight in favor of the workers,
while the Brazilian activists indicate that the union, like the political
party are basic avenues for social change. Indeed a wide variety of narratives
on the meaning of the union in Latinas' lives was found, even in the same
union, and according to one interviewed Latina of the ILGWU: there are
“many things to be done for Latinos from the union”. Among the Pioneras,
is common to find strong defense of the garment union’s role to Latinos
(see Gloria Maldonato’s testimony at the end). Some
times ethnicity was used in interactive way, altogether with gender in
their visions of different issues I presented to them. They also declared
themselves feminists, but, as their Brazilian companheiras/compañeras,
all of them added a “but”, after declaring they were feminists. All Puerto
Ricans I interviewed are critical of White North American feminist currents
that do not incorporate the case of the colonial status and, according
to some, that work through rigid separations between men and women. From
their location, as colonized, colored working class women in the U.S.
gender is a site of rebellion, but at the level of organized labor, in
the Latinas case, gender is referred to a specific constituency--Latinas
case. Considering that gender is also in itself embedded in other systems
of power, up to what point is possible to build up alliances between Puerto
Rican working class women and women from the same class and other nationalities
and race at the level of labor unions? 3)
Race is am ambiguous reference in Latinas discourses—Pioneras and the
70s generation. In some Pioneras’ testimonies discriminatory remarks against
other groups, such as Jews and Italians are found, but also mixed with
a fighting back tone (see vignettes 4 and 5). References to race commonly
came mixed with ethnicity and national roots, being used as emblematic
signs of resistance identity, to differ them from the Anglos. On
the contrary, race in the testimonies of Brazilian activists is commonly
referred as territory of others. Male and female union leaders declare
to be anti racists, but race is not as a privileged explicit site of rebellion.
Puerto Ricans commonly referred to cases of racial discrimination in the
work place and in other spaces too of the U.S. society as a strong division
even among workers. Anyhow racism is ambiguously referred as discrimination
against Latinas, and even Black Puerto Rican women I interviewed were
more vocal in fingering out cases of discrimination against them, as Latinas.
But some singular cases were found. For
instance, Gloria Maldonato, a Pionera, presents a unique alchemy speech
on the circulation between multiple systems of privileges, as a sub-altern/sub-versive
other. In the context of telling story of a conflict with colleagues in
the union she declared: I'm
the only woman here, the only woman office and the only Hispanic business
agent. The boss is Hispanic but... you know, the manager, he's Puerto
Rican. But I'm the only woman. And I have three points: I'm dark, so some
people say, ‘she's Black.’ [laugh] 'Cause, you know, some people consider
us in between, you know, but some people if you got a little black blood,
you're black. So I don't care, I'm proud of my Black heritage too anyway.
So I'm Puerto Rican, I'm a woman and I'm black. I got three Affirmative
Act points. [laugh] (I higlighted.) I
highlighted a quite similar alchemy in the combination of categories in
another article I wrote based on the case of domestic workers union leaders
in the city of Salvador. When I asked to the president of the Union of
Domestic Workers of Bahia “what is your color?”, Creuza Maria Oliveira
replied: “I am a Black woman domestic worker” (in Castro 1994). The
ambiguous use of race and class, collapsing, or separating them, as I
read in Latinas’, specially Pioneras’ recall Gilroy’s (1987) thesis on
the complex identity of each system. The
problems are particularly acute when writers have resisted the idea that
'race' and class [I add, gender in its homo and hetero forms] belong to
separate spheres of experience with different epistemological and ontological
valences. But the problem is also particularly acute when different equals have to face the limits of their equality, altogether the fragility of fragmented identities, their differences, not in a written text, but in their daily experiences of life. It is the complexity and pain of these experiences that make narratives such as those of Gloria Maldonato and Creuza Maria Oliveira, pioneer's voices of projects of singular collective subjectivities that should be more explored in terms of collective meanings. It is not by chance that different authors address a question, I somewhat put in these terms: What is the place of race in the construction of the ‘Puertorriqueinidad’? In sum, the women I interviewed, in US labor unions from their borders, as Latinas, as women from the working class, deal with the borderlands (an Anzaldua's figure-1987) imposed on them, switching codes, figures of language in their narratives where the workers, the community, our people, our Puerto Rico, we the Latinas, are core de-coded references. These are the sites from which they envisage the engendering and coloring not of labor unions, but of the building of Latino’s block of resistance, supposed to be elsewhere. They also recognize that in the US, the emphasis on institutional measures is necessary to fight against discrimination. All interviewees consider that laws against racism and sexism are important, and that affirmative action programs in the work place and labor unions allowed many of them to experience some social mobility. An
almost expontaneous different strategy is followed by women in the Northeastern
Brazilian labor union I am dealing with. A subtle investment in a de-re-coding
cultural politics takes place in the union by women's agency. Indeed,
through references to a gendered class perspective, the Brazilian working
class feminists in labor unions use other codes. They still invest, I
insist, in reaching in the companheiros
(the comrades) and transform not one space but the whole structure,
the labor union and the Brazilian society, all together. They also search,
as suggested by Anzaldua (1987), “a new language”, but, in their case,
they do not invest in the “language of the Borderlands” (Anzaldua 1987).
In their singular production of subjectivity, as political subjects, they
endeavor a trans-border language, in an alchemy combination (see Castro
1993) between the private, the public, the general, the specific, equality
and difference, gender and class, and some few go even beyond, 'race-ing'
it all. They are not limited in the recognition of limits, or borders,
they are still engaged in the “great narrative” perspective of transformation
of the whole--sometimes referred as the labor union, and other times,
“this society”. APPENDIX
1 -- GENERAL DATA ON THE INFORMANTS 1.
PIONERAS 1.1.
Gloria Maldonado - She
was chairlady in garment factories and Educational Program Officer of
the ILGWU. She was an union activist for almost 30 years-up to 1950. Gloria
Maldonado is a Black Puerto Rican, born in the U.S.A in 1928. Rina Benmayor,
Blanca Vasquez and Celia Alvarez interviewed her, in 3/17/85; 7/26/85;
2/17/85 and 28/9/84. Alicia Dias Concepcion made transcription}; 1.2.
Eva Monge - She was chairlady in garment
factories for the ILGWU in the 1940s. In 1956 she was elected chairlady.
She was born in Puerto Rican and came when she was a child around 1920s.
Rina Benmayor and Ana Juarbe interviewed her, in 7/22/85 and 8/7/1984.
Alicia Diaz Concepcion made Transcription}; 1.3.
Louise Delgado - She was chairlady
and business agent in garment factories for the ILGWU, and a board member
of the union. She was an activist in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. She was born
in Puerto Rico and arrived in the U.S. when she was a child, in 1923.
Rina Benmayor, Celia Alvarez and Blanca Vasquez, in 2/22/85, 2/17/85 and
8/15/84, interviewed her. Alicia Diaz Concepcion made Transcription}; 1.4.
Emilia Giboyeaux - She was chairlady
in garment factories for the ILGWU in the 30s, and retired in 1962. She
was born in Puerto Rico in 1926, and arrived in the U.S. when she was
a child. She was interviewed by Rina Benmayor and Ana Juarbe in 8/1/84
(Transcription was made by Alicia Diaz Concepcion); 1.5.
Lucilla Padron - She was chairlady
in garment factories for the ILGWU. She worked in the garment industry
from the 40s up to 1973. She was born in Puerto Rico and arrived in the
U.S. when she was 17 years old. She was 70 years old when Ana Juarbe and
Rina Benmayor interviewed her in 4/5/84 and 7/6/84. Lisa Davis made (Transcription.) 2.
GENERATION OF THE 70s
(source: interviews by the author in 1993. All tapes are part of
the Oral History Archives--Centro de Estudios Puertorriquenos, Hunter
College/City University of New York.) 1.
Rosa Garcia - She was 39 years old.
Rosa Garcia was born in Puerto Rico and she came to the U.S. to follow
a MA degree in Central American and Caribbean studies, and graduated in
Laws. Since the 70s she is working at the ILGWU. In 1993, she was an assistant
general council in the ILGWU headquarter in New York. In Puerto Rico she
was active in the student's movement. 2.
Sonia Larracuente. She is daughter
of Gloria Maldonado. In 1993 she was vice president of the Women's Caucus
of LACRA-Latin American Comite for Advancement--, filiated to the AFL-CIO.
She began to work in the ILGWU at the end of the 70s. In the ILGWU headquarter
in New York, she works at the Educational Department She was born in the
U.S.A.. Sonia Larracuente studied sociology and political sciences and
since she was 14 years old, she has been involved in union's activities.
She was 48 years old. 3.
Aida Garcia. In 1993 she was vice president of the Local 1199—Union
for Health Service Workers. She was 37 years old, quite active in all
union’s spheres. Born in Puerto Rico, her parents went back about 15 years
ago, and she declared to have contacts not only with her family but also
with the union’s world in Puerto Rico. His father was also a labor unionist
in Puerto Rico. APPENDIX
2 -- VIGNETES - PUERTO RICAN FEMALE LABOR UNIONISTS' VISIONS Vignete
2 --latinas’ visions on race and ethnicity in New York city VOICES
FROM THE PRESENT Interviewee: Rosa Garcia (1) To my question on the
cases racial and ethnic discriminations dealt by the ex-ILGWU legal department.
Rosa Garcia, a Puerto Rican lawyear, working in the ex-ELGWU in 1993,
replied: “La
gente tiene mucho temor de radicar estos tipos de caso, pero tenemos oido
casos en que se ha escogido ciertos
grupos para despedirlo. Por ejemplo, en una campagna organizativa
en una fabrica en que havia un numero de empleados latinoamericans y otros
empleados que venian de otras regionaes judios, hassilicos, polacos, que
se escogio los latinoamericanos
para despedirlos, en este caso
era una doble intencion: por un lado los latinos americanos eran los mas
activos en tratando de organizar la fabrica. Tenemos este tipo de
caso en que es bien dificil diferenciar cual es el objetivo real. Casos
en que no se dan promociones, van para otros sectores, especialmente blancos,
principalmente del Este de Europa. Los personales supervisores de las
fabricas pocos son latinos. ...Lo
que los patronos lo han explotados muy bien es el criar diferencias entre
los Latinos, entro los negros, entre los asiaticos y mantener a los sectores
peleando entre ellos para evitar que la pelea se enfoque quien es dueno
de los medios de produccion y hay mucho ressentimento, por ejemplo mucho
comentario del tipo “ah los negros le tratan mejor, o “a los asiaticos
le tratan mejor' o “los asiaticos no quieren los latinos”, incluso se
da entre los haitianos y los latinoamericanos, especialmente los dominicanos,
hay una gran pelea que se hace bien dificil y a mi me parece que es una
cosa que concientemente los patrones lo hay estimulado. (Q-Mary
Castro: y que hace el sindicato
para contrarestar esto?) Rosa Garcia: Bueno en las campagnas organizativas en que yo ha participado me parece que es una cosa que mucha gente tiene bien conciente. Lo que se ha tratado de hacer es formar comites organizativos dentro de los centros de trabajo que sean representativos o por lo menos que traten de ser representativos. En algunos casos no tenemos exito porque un grupo etnico decide que no va apoyar la union, entonces son un bloque, pero por ejemplo en otros casos, si ha tenido mucho exito en tener en el comite organizativo representates del sector latinoamericano y caribeno, del setor oriental, juntos, en un solo comite. Es bien dificil, hay que tener mucho cuidado y, por ejemplo, que las personas que estan 'bregando' con este comite, por su parte, no hagan comentarios que entonces vayan hacer estas diferencias aun mas graves, porque se da... ...Y hay
diferencias entre los latinos: los dominicanos estan comumente en conflito
con los haitianos; los puertorriquenos culpan a los dominicanos por lo
que estan pasando, y los dominicanos dicen que los portorriquenos no hacen
nada, y que los colombianos todos traen droga de Colombia...Tu sabes,
el estigma de cada grupo: todos los puertorriquenos estan en el 'wellfare';
todos los dominicanos ahora venden droga en Washington Height. Es todo
un estereotipo independentemente que la mayoria de estos grupos sea trabajadores. (Q-Mary Castro: la lengua tambien contribuye para esto, no?) Rosa Garcia: Si, es bien interesante.... En Estados Unidos en los ultimos anos, especialmente en los anos de Reagan y Bush se creo todo un movimento por el “English only”, que fue una campana bien racista, de gente tratando de empujar leyes locales, para que se declarara el ingles el idioma oficial, que no se permitiera la gente hablar, que no se permitiera anuncios en algunas tiendas, anuncios en otros idiomas que no fueron ingles. Dependiendo de las areas en que se estava dando la campana, en ciudades como New York, los de habla espanola, los asiaticos; en Los Angeles y San Francisco onde hay grandes concentraciones de latinoamericanos.... Aca en el sindicato se ha dado una batalla contra eso. El sindicato en una de las convenciones se paso una resolucion condenando el del “English only” y hubo un grande debate entre los delegados a la convencion sobre lo que era el “English only”. Alguna gente se paró a defender el movimento, mientras otros delegados se pararon a presentar la posicion racista que era el decir a alguien “en este pays se habla ingles”, que este pays es de imigrantes, que sé yo, y el presidente de este sindicato ha sido una de las personas que mas a empurrado la posicion contra el “English only” dentro de la AFLCIO. Hay que le reconocer esto. Y basicamente porque nosotros representamos toda esta gente, que habla todas estas lenguas Interviewee: Sonia Larracuente (1) (Q-Mary Castro: Hay controversia si la cuestion etnica cuenta o no en el ILGWU. Que te parece? Sonia Larracuente: Hay una grande diferencia de este ultimo presidente del sindicato y el anterior. Este es mas conciente de esto. Yo inclusive me iba porque pensaba que no estaba creciendo . Me puso muy activa en LACRA-Latin American Comite for Advancemnt-y tenia muchos problemas en desarrolar sus programas, porque el gerente de este Local no me apoyava, pero sin embargo por constituicion y por resolucion en la convencion tenia obrigacionm de apoyarnos y nunca. Habia programas que yo no podia asistir, despues que yo habia hecho la mayor parte del trabajo. Atraves de otras personas de LACRA conseguia que escribsen a el, dizendo 'que fulana de tal esta envuelta en esto programa, por favor asegure que ella asista' y ahi fue la presion sobre esto gerente, hasta del presidente y se ha tratado de mejorar esta situacion racista, porque esto no hay otro nombre. [Ihiglighted topics]. (1) See note 1 in the Vignette 1 and Appendix 1. Vignette
3--'puertorriqueneidad'- meanings among puerto rican labor unionist women
of the garment industry - New York VOICES
FROM THE PAST
Interviewee: Eva Monge (1) (Q- Ana Juarbe-...Usted
habla ingles tan bien y lo habla pero perfecto casi yo penso,
usted se siente puertorriquena?) Eva
Monge: Oh si, oh yes, oh yes,
oh yes. Me siento muy puertorriquena. ..... Oh, muy puertorriquena
y encantada de haber nacido en Puerto Rico, entiendes? (Q-Rina Benamayor: When you say that you're Puerto
Rican, is it because of language,
or is it because of...? What is it what means to you?) Eva
Monge: Bueno, yo no se, yo me siento que mis padres fueron puertorriquenos y
I feel honored to be a Puerto Rican, you know, I'm very honored.
Y dondequiera que algunas veces, sabe que uno esta... Yo ahora mismo estoy
en el Center, en el Senior citizen Center, y un señor dijo: 'But
why don't you speak English?’ Yo le dije,
‘Look, I'm very proud of the language that I speak. You people
go to school to learn how to speak English, I don't have to’. ...(Q-Rina Benmayor - Usted piensa que para sentirse puertorriqueno
uno debe hablar el idioma o uno se puede sentir puertorriqueno sin conocer
el espanol, sin hablarlo?) Eva Monge: Bueno, uno se puede sentir puertorriqueno sin hablar, es lo que uno sienta por su pais, entiendes? lo que uno siente por su pais. Aunque yo le voy a decir, no le puedo decir que yo sé mucho de mi pais, de geografia. Por eso yo algunas veces oigo los comentarios de los que quieren ser libres, los que quieren esto, que sé yo... Yo le digo, “You know, I can't... I sympathize...” Porque no, no lo he estudiado so I can't get my own VOICES
FROM THE PRESENT Interviewee: Rosa Garcia (1) (Q-Mary
Castro: Tu tienes relaciones con la el sindicalismo en Puerto Rico? Rosa Garcia:
Si, vengo de una familia de sindicalistas... Mi padre era presidente de
la local de su union en su centro de trabajo. Mi papa trabajava en los
mueles. Y ellos organizaron en su centro de trabajo, en una fabrica de
hacer abono. Organizaron un sindicato. El apoya sindicalismo, el cree
en esto. Mi papa tiene 82 anos.... De hecho toda mi familia vive en Puerto
Rico y tengo relacion con la gran mayoria de los lideres sindicales en
Puerto Rico. Muchos de ellos que los conozco de hace 20 anos, de cuando
era nina, de gente que visitava la casa, y que ha mantenido siempre la
relacion con ellos, y cuando voy a Puerto Rico, siempre trato de verlos.
Mantenemos muy buenas relaciones... Puerto Rico es un caso bien interesante,
a mi me parece que el sidicalismo
en Puerto Rico es un poco mas agresivo, en terminos de, dejame ver,
cuando digo agresivo, porque, los sindicatos representan una industria
bien especifica, la vida de los sindicatos es mucho mas atareada, mas
dinamica, hay mas participacion en algunos de los sindicatos, de los miembros,
por ejemplo, los trabajadores de la energia electrica llaman a una asemblea
y asisten 5 000 trabajadores a votar se van a la huelga o no, en situaciones
muy dificiles.... Los sindicatos son mas activos en participar de la vida
politica, y en tomar decisiones que no son historicamente vistas como
sindicales, por ejemplo, algunos sindicatos decidieron boicoitear el plesbicito
que estaba habiendo en Puerto Rico. Que es una decision bien politica (Q-Mary
Castro: Y tu te defines como puertorriquena?) Rosa Garcia: Si, para mi, la definicion es mas facil, me vino a este pays ya con 25 anos, ya estaba definida. para mi es facil. Yo observo mucho y pregunto a la gente “y tu que eres?” y me dicen “puertorriqueno”, y porque, me encanta perguntar a la gente. Porque, para ver como definen la puertorriquenidad, y la definen de muchas maneras, y es una de las cosas, que yo creo, que los puertorriquenos se han agarrado, y que en este sentido les ha ayudado a sobrevivir. Es que si son algo, y se queren ser algo, esto es ser puertorriqueno. Y tu ves tercera, quarta generacion que se definen como puertorriquenos. Siempre que doy una conferencia sobre Puerto Rico, nosostros ensenamos un taller con estudiantes de la secundaria, y la primera pregunta que hicimos fue, “me definan lo que es ser puertorriqueno” (Q-Mary Castro:
que salio?) Rosa Garcia: Bueno
uno dice arroz y abichuela, la
bandera, salsa, hasta decir, que somos diferente, que somos una gente
con una cultura distinta, que viminos de un pays definido que es distinto.
El objetivo es que la gente pueda definir esto politicamente, mas alla
que de la cuestion cultural del arroz con abichuela. Es una de las cosas
mas fascinantes dentro de la comunidad puertorriquena (Q-Mary Castro:
Si, la construccion de la identidad colectiva de nacion, no?) Rosa Garcia: Si, como la sente se identifica y porque, y sobretodo dentro de ciertas generaciones, el hecho de que todo los dias se dice que se va para Puerto Rico aunque nunca se vaya. Y tengo la experiencia, de una tia que ha llegado a este pays en 1950 y todavia habla de vez en cuando en irse a Puerto Rico, y ella sabe en algun rincon del corazon que ela nunca se va.... Porque los puertorriquenos no se fueron de Puerto Rico porque querian irse, pero porque tenian que irse, es una diferencia muy grande.... A
mi me parece que los puertorriquenos en EEUU son ciudadanos de segunda
clase, independente de la ciudadania que se impuso a Puerto Rico en 1916,
1917, los puertorriquenos siguen
migrantes y a mi me parece que mucha gente lo sabe esto de la la discriminacion
, la gente sabe que no importa
como ellos se definen, porque hay puertorriquenos que se definen como
norte americanos. Ante los blancos, son otra cosa. Interviewee: Sonia Larracuente (1) .....(Q-Mary Castro:
La identidad puertorriquena tu la tienes fuerte, no?) Sonia Larracuente- O si, muy fuerte. Los abuelos mios peleavan por la politica, pero la persona mas clave que fue un rol para mi, un modelo es mi madre, siempre quizo seguir sus pasos.... Nosotros somos personas calidas, pero hay personas que son criadas aqui y no. Yo odio esto dicho, que dicen Newyorican, personas que estan en ambas culturas, pero yo no soy asi, no me pongan nombre, a mi me basta, yo me rebelo, a mi me dicen “ah pero tu eres nascida y creada aqui”, si pero hay ciertas cosas que no es asi, hay mucha gente que son marginales en Puerto Rico y aca, porque no son norteamericanas. Es tambien parte del colonialismo que tiene Puerto Rico, pero yo a todo esto no presto mucha atencion, porque tengo mucha cosa que a ser pero no quero que otras personas me definam. Pero hay problemas, veo hasta personas sindicalistas aca que rechazan su cultura, y mami [Gloria Maldonado] me conta de gente que ella tiene conocimento, y as veces yo no quiero ni escuchar, porque para mi es muy penoso, no tener orgullo cultural, pero entiendo. (Q-Mary Castro: Bueno no es algo de persona, es una logica colonial tambien de sacar de uno sus referencias, su alto estima. No te parece?) Sonia Larracuente.
Si, si.... Yo veo que , una vez, hubo una recepcion [in the ILGWU] en
que yo no fue invitada. La segunda fue con el presidente, fue una tremenda
falla de su parte, lo que el usualmente no lo hace, mas ai que se ve que
algunas cosas salen, son inconscientes, siempre que decia los trabajadores
de EEUU y Canada, cuando se referia a la Internacional. Bueno tenemos
6 000 miembros en Puerto Rico, y la delegacion de Puerto Rico estava furiosa,
y le llamaron la atencion al vice presidente. Queremos reconocimento.
Un vice presidetne del Sur lo tomo mal, y comenzo una discussion... La
tercera hubo un taller para organizadores, uno en ingles, otro en chino,
la persona que dirijio, lo facilito, es latino, y el que dirigia el taller
hablaba espanol pero era anglo, y ellos tenian personas que podian dirigir
esto taller, diretores de organizacion. Son tres casos especificos, yo
dice para mi directora, esto tiene que parar, yo estava histerica. Yo
le dice: 'La cuestion de Puerto Rico es importante., Usted sabe que las
convenciones son microcosmos de la sociedad' ella me dice que de hecho
no sabia como mencionar a Puerto Rico, si era parte de EEUU. Yo le dice: 'Mira esta cuestion de Puerto Rico, cuando un pueblo elije tener el
espanol como lenguaje oficial esto quiere decir que tiene identificacion
propria, y tu vienes a decir a mi que si lo menciona o no, esto para mi
es un problema'. Y la mujer se callo. Cada vez que hay una cosa aca,
Maria, yo tengo que hablar,
es una pelea constante, mientras tanto, [la
Internacional] tiene una estructura tan rigida que no permite... (1) See note in Vignette 1 and Appendix 1.
Vignete
4 --visions on gender, race and class
A
VOICE FROM THE PAST Interviewee: Eva Monge (1) (Q- Ana Juarbe: ... Did you find a lot of women who were afraid to speak up? Eva Monge:I find a lot of women that were, how do you call...? Look, there was a lot of women that didn't have to put up with nothing but they were just greedy. They don't care about your problems, they just care that the boss treats you good and keeps you piled up with work because you're a good worker, a fast worker, you know. .... So, I remember once we had, we had a little, a sort of, you know, like sometimes for Medicare we go in groups to protest, I don't know why we were protesting that time... Oh, I think it was on imports, you know. I mean, on imports that's for your own benefits, why should you buy everything that comes from other places? The people in here are getting out of work, they're not working... Why should I buy all these imports from other places?” You know, this education I got it from Mr. Colón. Why should you buy things that...? Protest on it. How do you call...? You know, he used to tell us, you know, even picket the stores VOICES
FROM THE PRESENT Interviewee: Rosa Garcia (1) (Q-Mary
Castro: Como
es la cuestion de discriminación
sexual en el 'garment'?) Rosa Garcia: Los casos son mas comunes [que de discriminacion racial],
aunque no se habla de ellos y las mujeres tienen un terror. Yo estuvo
trabajando casi dos anos en una campana en el area de Brooklyn, hablando
con mujeres que no estan dispuestas a radicar cargos pero que le contan.
Problemas de supervisores ponendo como condicion de empleo, que las mujeres
se acosten con ellos o casos mas sutiles, de supervisores dicendo “hay
que bonita tu eres, cuando vas a cenar comigo” y entonces cuando las mujeres
se negan les ponen presion. Yo fregue con un caso en Brroklyn en que las
mujeres me dice “cuando yo salia a la hora dl almuerzo siempre me lo encontrava
aunque esta no era la ruta de el, y siempre me hacia una invitacion de
cuando ia comer, de cuando ia a la casa”, hasta que finalmente le dice,
“no , yo no estoy interesada en eso y que se yo, y a las dos semanas me
dieron cesantia del trabajo. (Q-Mary Castro: Las mujeres no hacen queja porque tienen medo de despido?) Rosa
Garcia: Si, y acuerdate que en la comunidad caribena
y latinoamericana muchas mujeres son las que traen el dinero a la casa,
son las que pagan el alquiller, son las que compran la comida. Para esta
gente este trabajo es muy importante, fundamental, y el terror de que
se las despida que se las senale por otros companeros de trabajo como
personas que crian problemas en la fabrica, todo o los comentarios de
gente de que tu te lo buscaste porque esta todo el estigma sobre hostigamento
sexual , de que una mujer, se lo hostiga sexualmente fue porque ella se
lo busco. .....(Q-Mary
Castro: Y a nivel de lo sindicatos, tu crees que hay un 'fair' representacion
de los grupos etnicos y....) Rosa
Garcia: [Interrumpe] No, creo
que todavia los sindicatos en EEUU estan predominantemente dominados por
los blancos (Q-Mary
Castro: Y por hombres, no? Rosa
Garcia: Si, y por hombres.
Estan predominatenmente dominados por hombres blancos.... todavia en los
sindicatos, en que la industria es predominantemente de mujeres, por ejemplo
la industria de servicios, la industria de la ropa, los hospitales. (Q-Mary
Castro: En su opinion porque
es asi, porque hay varias teses, unos acreditan que de hecho los hombres
no largan el poder para nada son muy exclusivos, otros, defenden que el
problema es que las mujeres que no tienen treinamento. Hay unos terceros
que dicen, no, es que las mujeres tienen mas interes en las cosas de su
casa, de su familia. Otros contra-argumentan, que no es que no tienen
interes, es que hay el problema de la doble jornada.Esto se dá en Brasil.
Que te parece?) Rosa
Garcia: A mi me parece que
es una combinacion de todo, a mi me parece que es bien dificil dejar el
poder, una vez que lo tienes en tu mano. A mi me parece que el sindicalismo
en EEUU por muchos anos estuvo dominado por los europeos, en terminos
de cuadros de direccion, y que esto ha continuado porque todavia hay gente
que vienen de estos sectores, y por las mismas razones que tu hablas.
Por otro lado a mi me parece que el funcionamento del sindicato no esta
desenado para fregar con el problema de la doble jornada. Las reuniones,
toda esta cosa que se da, que hay reuniones a cada rato, que hay reuniones
bien largas, que no se ofrece cuidados de nino durante reuniones todo
esto, evitan que las mujeres participan. Por un lado tu tienes el problema
que dice bueno, 'las mujeres no participan porque no queren participar'
pero objectivamente muchas de las mujeres no pueden participar, porque
tu estas exigiendo a una mujer sobretodo en ciertas industrias en que
no se hace mucho dinero, que participes de la vida sindical sin ofrecer
el apoyo que necesitan. Para una mujer que trabaje en la industria de
la ropa, por ejemplo, poder participar de una serie de reuniones, tienen
que despues del trabajo conseguir quien les cuide los ninos, lo que quiere
decir que tienen que pagar por el cuidado de nino, en exceso a lo que
pagan generalmente. Si estan casadas en muchos casos, el marido espera
que cuando el llegue a la casa, estea la comida hecha, que la casa este
limpia, tu sabes, sobretodo en nuestra gente. Asi que la mujer juega diversos
papeles, en la mayoria de los casos tiene el peso de la educacion de los
ninos. (Q-Mary
Castro: Y tu Rosa, cuantos papeles juega?) Rosa
Garcia: Muchos. Yo tengo un
nino de 2 anos, trabajo en el sindicato, hago trabajo en la comunidad.
Aparte de esto, claro que en mi casa tengo un companero que comparte las
tareas de cocinar, las tareas de la casa, las tareas de cuidado de nino,
y esto facilita mucho. (Q-Mary
Castro: Eres miembro de alguna
organizacion de mujeres, por ejemplo del Coalition of Women in
Labor Unions-CLUW?, de la AFLCIO) Rosa
Garcia: No, yo pertenezco,
pero no lo puedo decir mucho de CLUW, excepto de pagar la cota y recibir
el boletin (Q-Mary
Castro: Parece que en terminos
de las mujeres en sindicatos aca los modelos institucionales no tienen
funcionado, por ejemplo los caucus, las coaliciones de mujeres. Sera por
la burocratizacion?) Rosa
Garcia: Si, y creo que tambien
hay mucho anonimato. Tu entra en una organizacion como NOW, con tantas
milles de mujeres a mi me parece que la cosa se dilue un poco, todas estas
miles de mujeres no se ven. Yo creo mucho en grupos pequenos de apoyo,
que las mujeres puedan discutir, estar en desacuerdo, gritarse, llorar.
Toda esta dinamica que hay cuando tu te sientas con tus amigas en un sitio,
a hablar, este tipo de grupos de las mujeres es bien importante. Claro
que las organizaciones grandes cumples sus funciones. Cuando hablo que
necesitamos hacer este tipo de cosa, estoy hablando de grupos pequenos
en la comunidad, con tus amigas mas cercanas, para que las mujeres puedan
intercambiar ideas y que puedan hablar, reunir una vez al mes sobre lo
que etan haciendo, lo que quieren hacer, lo que han dejado de hacer, y
pensar en el futuro como van a resolver cosas, a un nivel bien practico. (Q-Mary
Castro: Y la cuestion de clase, como en este pays se frega con la
cuestion de clase? Rosa
Garcia: Aca no se habla, tienes
razón, acá no se habla del concepto de clase, por ejemplo, tu oyes sindicalistas
en Puerto rico hablando de la clase trabajadora, de la clase patronal,
se habla mas una lenguage classista
Interviewee: Sonia Larracuente
(1) (Q-Mary
Castro: Hay dos caminos que se cruzan. Uno de la historia de uno,
de la pelea de afirmacion de un proyecto, y el otro de canal de pelea
colectiva por vias institucionales, de organizaciones. Considerando que
de hecho los latinos tienen cuestiones especificas, y las mujeres tambien,
tu cres que hay canales institucionales, para dar poder
a las mujeres, o lo que llaman aca 'empowerment'?) Sonia
Larracuente: Buena pregunta,
creo que en este departamento no, todavia no se ha desarrollado lo que
para mi se supone que hay que desarrollarse para todo esto, y una de las
razones es que muchas personas no quieren cambio. Se desarrolla personas
del 'rank and file' para ser activos en la union, para venir del nivel
de base y llegar a delegados, maximo a agente de negocio, cuando la persona
sabe pelear por el contracto a diario en los talleres, pero
empowerment todavia nos falta mucho. .....En
LACRA tenemos formado el comite de mujeres, 85% de las personas que son
miembros son 370, son mujeres, y yo soy unas de las pocas mujeress que
tienen oficio, un capitulo, soy vice presidente. Pero una vez me dice
una muchacha, 'cual es el rol de las mujeres aca? porque sempre veo que
los hombres se unen y yo y tu muy silenciosamente escuchamos lo que se
va dicendo en las reuniones, entoncds no se cuales nuestro rol en la organizzcion'.
Yo comenze me hacer esta misma pregunta, hubo otra muichaca que vino a
la organizacion despues que uno de los nuestros vice presidntes falecio,
y fue la persona escojida como la persona del local 371 que tambien hizo
la misma pregunta, al nevo presidente. El dice: 'no hay problemas tu vas
a ser el chair del comite de mujeres', pero ella tuvo problemas, y en
febrero del ano pasado tuvimos la primera reunion, asistieron 15 personas,
y dai comenzaron a venir mas, tuvimos un almuerzo para el dia de las madres,
demos homenage a nuestras madres y tambien a personas del sindicato qu
nunca son reconocidas por su trabajo-Los hombres estaban furiosos, decian
que no, nos dieron mal tiempo, queriamoa hablar de temas que nos concerne
como mujeres latinas pero a nivel de lideres, dijeron 'vamos formar un
comite de hombres', y como fomos les pedir 500 pesos para el almuerzo,
dijeron, 'no, ustedes van a cocinar', 'ustedes se suponen que iban acocinar,
hacer todo'. El comite despues de ir al comite general, que no queria,
dijemos, vamos pagar alguien. Pero ellos no querian que sacase de los
fundos, dijeron que teniamos que vender taquila, y nos quedamos en esto
y hizimos una ganancia de casi 1200 pesos, y esto fue una lucha por principios. Despues
hizimos un taller de como conducir una reunion compuesta de mujeres, estamos
les dando seguimento, vamos tener en febrero unas charlas de como hablar
en publico, tambien a nivel cultural de nuestra cultura, vamos ofrecer
clases de bomba y plena. Y esto programa fue hecho hablando con las mujeres
a nivel de base. Esto es, preguntamos lo que querian, que programas, que
pasadillas querian. Y fueron sus sugerencias, todas mujeres de sindicato,
todas latinas, cubanas puertorriquenas, mayormente puertorriquenas que
trabajan en oficina, o en la escuela, serviendo almuerzo. Hay de la Republica
Dominicana, del Ecuador. Es muy bonito, en el comite son 50 personas.
El almuerzo fue fantastico, no tiene ni un ano. La gente que participa
tiene de 25 hasta 55 anos. (Q-Mary
Castro: Cuales fueron las prioridades
que indicaron las sindicalistas?) Sonia
Larracuente: Querian saber
como conducir una reunion, como hablar en publico, querian pasaddilas,
cosas culturales. La muchacha que hoy dia es presidente, Mariana, hizo
una charla al dia del almuerzo y dijo: 'nosotros no queremos que nuestros
hermanos no anden ni a frente ni atraz pero junto, junto, brazo, a brazo.
Yo sinto como un escalofrio [risas], una muchacha muy bonita, desarrrolada,
tiene muchas ideas, Mariana Miranda. Ella es consejera 'for sexucal abuse
prevention' en una escuela que trabaja, formada en psicologia. Es puertorriquena.
Estamos tambien tratando de dessarrolar el comite de los jovenes y tenemos
una otra muchacha milagros rodrigues, queremos mas personas como Milagros
que es clave. Queremos traer los jovenes mas para el movimento obrero. ......(Q-Mary Castro: Y entoces en
ser mujer latina, le da algo especial?) Sonia
Larracuente: Si, tenemos algo
muy especial, cultural, no somos logicas, hacemos cosas mas con passion,
esto hace una grande diferencia, la comunicacion se hace mas facil, no
tenemos 'hang up', en la cara esta lo que sentimos, somos mas honestas (Q-Mary
Castro: Pero tu no cres que
esta cultura latina, femenina, de contacto mas con la comunidad, puede
se converter en algo negativo, por una estructura muy rigida de los sindicatos,
y nos poner a margen?) Sonia Larracuente: Esto es verdade, mi mama me decia que yo era muy emocional
para ser agente de negocio ('business agent'), como se la logica y la pasion no se pudieran coordenar...
y pueden subestimar una persona. Por una persona ser emocioanl no quiere
decir que no sea logica, que no tiene inteligencia. Esto tambien me ofende,
como hablamos dos linguajes, pensan que somos menos inteligente, que nos
tenemos un entendimento de lo que ellos estan dicendo, de comunciar, y
lo que mas insulta a mi es cuando tratan de simplificar las cosas como
si estan fregando con una nina. Esto para mi es un insulto muy grande,
yo rompo logo com eso... Hace poco, estaba querendo dar un entrenamiento
y me questionaron mi destreza, entonces hizo un 'report' de 14 paginas,
porque uno siempre tiene que provar que tiene auto estima---hay racismo
en todo esto----pero como estoy aca para educar. No se puede romper los
estereotipos que tienen de nosotros, pero tenemos que romper al diario.
[I highlighted topics.]
Interviewee: Aida Garcia (1) (Q-Mary
Castro. Como se dá la relacion
entre raza y nacionalidad entre sindicalistas del Local 1199. En el pasado
hubo problemas entre Latinos y Afro-Americanos, no? Aida
Garcia. El
problema fue entre sindicalistas, problema de corrupcion de la presidente
del sindicato que era Afro-Americana, y nosotros de la oposicion, Latinos—el
actual presidente es Puerto Riqueno, yo soy vice presidente, y me considero
Latina, Puertoriquena y más, Afro-Puerto-riquena. Mucha gente tiene un poco de
problemas por ahí conmigo porque la otra persona que en la disputa para
el sindicato estaba como candidato era una mujer afro-americana, pero
era importante tener una participación latina en ese nivel [el candidato
que fue apoyado por Aida Garcia es el Puertoriqueno Denis Rivera) Si
me importa de que todos nosotros tengamos algo aqui y si la composición
de los miembros és afro-americana, o latina y blanca, asi debe ser la
composición del liderato. Ahora la mayoria de los miembros de los servicios
de salud son mujeres, si deberia ser una mujer que fuera presidente del
sindicato. Lo único és que el hombre era el que tenia la capacidad de
dirijir en ese tiempo por que creo que en el futuro, el mismo lo a dicho
público, que deberia ser una mujer. Yo
creo que és un problema que nosotros tenemos en la educación y el entendimiento, en este pays de lo que és raza y clase. Todo acá
es cuestion racial.Por ejemplo, algunas personas de la raza afro-americana
creen que ellos son los más discriminados. Pero este sistema es negativo
para los trabajadores, para los Latinos, quiere decir, no solamanete para
los afro-americanos. Mientras yo lo veo como de hecho el trabajador que
es afro-americano es uno de los mas discriminado.Pero tambien los Latinos,
sean o no negros. Y si somos trabajadores, Latinos y mujeres, no importa
lo que pensamos que somos. En esta sociedad no somos ciudadanos norte
americanos, sí, los mas ignorados . Si no se reconoce eso como una suma
total—clase, raza y ser mujer-- nunca vamos a poder combatir y ganar ese
debate. NO
se deberia poner unos, trabajadroes contra los otros, principalmente los
que son minoria, no és? (Q-Mary
Castro- ¿Tu
te consideras feminista ?) Aida
Garcia — Soy feminista en el
que creo que la mujer debe tener los mismos
derechos que un hombre, que
debemos ganar del mismo sueldo
por el mismo trabajo que un hombre, pero
también me gusta de salir con un hombre y yo pagar o el paga lo de el y yo pago lo mio, pero también me
gusta que me abran la puerta, que me compren flores, soy como un poco
de los dos, no voy de un extremo al otro. (Q-Mary
Castro- ¿Que lo que tiene de
comun el feminismo y el sindicalismo? Hay alguna forma de atrito,
o forma de colaboración, o las dos cosas que van en paralelo?) Aida
Garcia Yo creo que si, que
una vez u outra es dificil ser sindicalista y feminista. Pero creo que
cualquer cosa que uno haga, hay que tener moderación, sin irse de un extremo
a outro. És bueno que las mujeres particularmente en los sindicatos, se
organizen. Pero este comité de mujeres [the reference is CLUW-Coalition
of Labor Union Women, organized by women related to the directory board
of the AFLCIO] aqui, en Local 1199, no
és realidad. Un comité como ese deberia ser amplio, estudiar problemas,
y escuchar todas las interesadas, o sea, deberia ayudar una con las otras.
Pero hasta entre personas que conozco, grandes luchadoras por los trabajadores,
yo veo que la mayor parte del tiempo no és esa la actitud. Tenemos y nosotras
aca estamos comenzando a hacer, ser unidas las mujeres para hacer un colectivo.
Las mujeres para poder lograr el puesto que nos pertenece adentro deste
sindicato, gtnemos que estar juntas, y hasta que no concientemente decidimos
ir en esa dirección nunca vamos a ejercer el derecho de nosotras adentro
deste sindicato. Pero és que también el nivel de trabajo en este sindicato
es muy intenso. Siempre estamos haciendo algo. Si hay una huelga, ahí
nos mandan. Si otros sindicatos tienen un problema com el govierno o com
los patronos, nosotros [Local 1199) entramos en la pelea. Fue lo que hizimos
en recente huelga, a la Estela le golpiaron y yo estava también. Como
que nos falta el tiempo, para sentarmos y poner a discutir cosas asi,
que sea de interes comun para todas las mujeres. Tambien como? Si todo
el mundo está ocupado en sus pedazitos—los Afro-Ameicanos de un lado,
los Latinos de outro, y no tienen tiempo de unir-se las mujeres. (Q-Mary Castro- La dinamica es la misma en sindicatos
de Brasil, mucha pelea contra los patronos o el govierno y por los mismos
temas que me comentabas, sueldos, condictiones de empleo y contra el desempleo.
No se tiene mucho tiempo de discutir sobre la mujer, entre mujeres, en
los sindcatos. Por otro lado, parece interesante de que Local 1199 és un sindicato que participa de las cuestiones de los
otros trabajadores, no solamente de la cuestión de la área de salúd.) Aida
Garcia: Y estamos en otros
paises, pués cuando huvo huelga general, en Santo Domingos, vários años
atrás, nosotros hicimos un comité que no era solamente de participación
de la raza dominicana, si no que yo era parte de su comité, organizamos
una marcha aqui en la embajada. Quando nos han imbitado a otros paises
yo he ido a Santo Domingos y he participado en cosas políticas y otros
han ido en cosas de sindicalismo y yo fuí porque me interesava saber de
la zona franca. Fuí donde se hacia el azucar, fuí en abril a Las Filipinas
para ver las posiciones de los trabajadores de salud allá en ese país.
Estamos envueltos, no solamente en buscar lo mejor para los miembros de
la base que nosotros representamos, pero también dandoles ayuda, solidariedad
a otro sindicato y a otros paises. (
(Q-Mary Castro: ¿Por
el hecho de ser mujer, o ser Puerto riqueña eso no le ha criado ningún
problema en su carrera ?) Aida
Garcia: No, yo creci en esta
comunidad, que un projecto donde vivian
morenos y blancos, diferentes razas... Vivo en la 63, los projectos
de Amster, por ahí yo crecí. yo empesé a ver diferentes descriminaciones
y racismos cuando me he interesado en la política de los sindicatos....
Eso fue en el período de 84. Eso fué como algo bién grande para mi, yo
estava pronta a convivir con diferentes razas y no veia tanta descriminación
como otros dicen que la han visto aqui en este sindicato. Pero hay, como
en toda la sociedad en EEUU., y tambien mucho contra las mujeres, aúnque
de boca los hombres del sindicato disen que no hay descriminación contra
la mujer . . Nos tiran 2 o 3 besitos pero es como que te ignoran. (Q-Mary
Castro:¿y cuales serian las formas que tu crees de cambiar esas cosas
de dar más poder a las mujeres ?) Aida
Garcia: Yo creo que si los
hombres escuchassen un poquito más, se dieran cuenta que nosotros podemos
ser tan inteligentes como ellos, y yo no tengo nada contra los hombres
y si hay algún hombre por ahí que saiba más que yo, yo no tengo ningún
problema acudiendo a ellos y preguntandoles y ganando de su sabedoria
pero también yo creo que si escucharasen un poquito más. (Q-Mary
Castro: ¿y hay formas de hacer con que ellos escuchen?) Aida
Garcia: Bueno,no quedandose
la mujer callada (Q-Mary
Castro: En Brasil, las peleas
internas dentro de los sindicatos tradicionalmente, és por cuenta de las
representaciones políticas, por ejemplo, el Partido de los Trabajadores,
versus el Partido Comunista do Brasil versus los aliados del govierno.
Mismo para el cumprimento de 30% de las cotas para las mujeres, esa representacion
de enfrenta al debate sobre tendencais. Acá, en EE.UU/ me parece que hay
menos peleas entre orientaciones políticas y más de representaciones etnicas.
Vale esta mi interpretacion?) Aida
Garcia: Si, vale. Anteriormente,
a la caída del govierno de Rusia, si habian personas en posición de lideratos
que miembros del partido también se le veian a esas personas como una
amenaza a los que no tienen una mente política. hay quienes son sindicalistas
y politicos, hay los que son solo sindicalistas y hay personas que se
hacen pasar por politicos o por sindicalistas y no son ni uno ni otro. (Q-Mary Castro: ¿Tu te definirias más como sindicalista o sindicalista-política?) Aida
Garcia: Sindicalista, la política la aprendí adentro
del sindicato y que aqui no és como en los paises latino-americanos que
la política és como un modo de ser.
Aqui tenemos los democratas que no hacen nada y los republicanos que son
peor y los otros partidos pequeños, no representan a nadie, no hay como
ese interes. El interes político mio és que tenemos que elegir políticos
que nos sirvan a nosotros, que nos ayuden a hacer el trabajo que nosotros
representamos. (1)
See Appendix 1.
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[1] Associate Professor at the Universidade Federal da Bahia/Centro de Recursos Humanos (UFBA/CRH) and Universidade de Campinas/Centro de Estudos Migrações Internacionais (UNICAMP/CEMI0. Research fellow of the CNPq-Brazilian Government.This article was made possible by the PRONEX-Brazilian Government/UNICAMP-CEMI Project. The Brazilian case referred in this article was first addressed through a research at the union of bank employees in the State of Bahia - Sindicato dos Bancários da Bahia (1989-1993) and is more detailed in Castro 1995 and Castro 1998. The US cases were first investigated while I lived in New York as a Rockfeller fellow in humanities, in 1993/1994, at the Centro de Estudios Puertoriqueños - El Centro-Hunter College. At the Centro I explored interviews filed at the Pioneras--Oral History Archive and was able to discuss first draft of the research with Centro’s staff, specially Drs Rina Benmayor and Antonio di Laura (also the Rockfeller Program directors), Dr William Flores (also a Rockfeller fellow), and Ana Juarbe and Alicia Diaz Colon. A third source of reference of my reflections on gender and the organized labor are 20 structured interviews I conducted in New York with: 13 Puerto Rican women; 1 Dominican woman; 1 Salvadorean woman; 2 Afro American women; 1 Chinese American woman and 2 Anglo American women. The majority of the interviewees occupy intermediate leadership or are responsible for programs in the New York office of the ILGWU (International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union) and Local 1199 (Nationl Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees). In this article, when presenting women's visions, I will just refer to some interviews specially those conducted with ILGWU Puerto Rican members, such as Sonia Larracuente, of the educational department, Rosa Garcia, of the Legal Department, and the interview conducted with Ainda Garcia, vice president of the Local 1199. See Appendix 1. [2] The concept of Latino(a) has to be used with care. According to Flores and Yúdice (1993: 199): “To begin with, Latinos don't comprise even a relatively homogeneous 'ethnicity'. Latinos include native-born US citizenships (predominantly Chicanos--Mexican-Americans--and Nuyoricans--'mainland' Puerto Ricans and Latin American immigrants of all racial and national combinations: white--including a range of different European nationalities--Native-Americans, Black, Arabic and Asian. It is thus a mistake to lump them all under the category 'racial minority', although historically the US experiences of large numbers of Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans are adequately described by the concept. Moreover, both of these groups--unlike any of the European immigrant groups--constitute, with Native-Americans, 'conquered minorities'.” [3] On José Martí and its defense of the Nuestra America, and its character of mestiza, see among other Martí (1983). [4] The use of vignetes to insert testimonies in own people’s voice has been a common figure by Puertorican authors in the U.S.. See Colon (1982) and Benmayor (1993). [5] “The Borderlands are physically present wherever two or more cultures edge each other, where people of different races occupy the same territory where under, lower, middle and upper classes tough, where the space between two individuals shrinks with intimacy” (Anzaldua 1987: 1). Anzaldua in the Preface of her book also adverts that “The actual physical borderland that I'm dealing with in this book is the Texas-US Southwest/Mexican border” (op.cit.). So she is not just talking on the encounter of two different cultures, but she is also referring to power imbalances relations. See also Esteves, 1980; Morales, Rosario and Aurora (1991), Benmayor (1996) and Romany (1993). [6] Anyhow, there are limits to the use of Lauretis' utopia on the outcome of a subject of feminism, since she refers to a movement and I am dealing with possibilities, taking into account individual life histories of Puerto Rican activists. According to Lauretis (1987: 26): “Now, the movement in and out of gender as ideological representation, which I propose characterizes the subject of feminism , is a movement back and forth between the representation of gender (in its male-centred frame of reference) and what that representation leaves out or, more pointedly, makes unrepresentable....” [7] In September 1995 a first international conference on racism in the work place was held in Brazil, at the city of Salvador with finantial support of the North American Central, the AFLCIO. The workers confederation CUT--Central Unica dos Trabalhadores--denounced the Brazilian Government at the international court in Geneva for lack of accomplishment with the Convention 111 of the International Labour Office (ILO) against racism in work relations. Seminars and programs on racism in the work place have been taking place in different labour unions and workers confederation in the country, but the race/ethnicity awareness in the labour world is still a banner of Centrals and quite a few labor unions. |