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Activists Around the World: Rosalinda Guillen · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: I never told your protective I heard you. And before
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: we get into this episode, just a quick content warning.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: We're not going to go into details or specifics or anything,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: but we are going to mention sexual assault and murder,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: so keep that in mind.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: And welcome to an activist around the world. I still
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: am not one hundred percent with my voice. I feel
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: like this is the longest run in my voice being
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: this bad.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I haven't known you your whole life or anything,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: but for as long as I have known you, this
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: is definitely the longest.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Yes we were I think we're closing in on like
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: three weeks of me. Every time I think I'm getting better,
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: yeah I'm not. I don't know what it is, because
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: I feel like I'm even worse when I get on
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Mike and Christina is doing all the magical work and
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: making sure that you don't hear me clearing my throat
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: every three seconds. It's really gross. I'm so sorry, Happy
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Allergy season everyone, But with that, yes, the show must
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: go on sometimes, but today happens to be one of
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: those times. Because Annie's been running a tight ship even
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: without me and today, we wanted to talk about a
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: legendary woman who's been working a majority of her life
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: to work for immigrants and micant workers in the US,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Rusalinda Gian. She's known as a farm worker and rural
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: justice leader. Gian has dedicated her life to fight for
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: the rights of migrant farm workers in the Pacific Northwest
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: and honestly all over. She's the current executive director of
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Community to Community or C two S, which, according to
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: their site food Justice dot org, is an organization of
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: a woman of color and farm work led grassroots organization
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: dedicated to building movements towards a just transition.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: And just a bit more about their information. Their mission
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: statement and vision is stated as this, we believe that
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: another world is possible, and we are active participants with
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: other self determined people's movements. We strive to reclaim our
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: humanity by redefining power in order to end structural racism
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: and all of its manifestations, including settler colonialism, capitalism, and
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: patriarchy and their external and internalized forms.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: And continue saying this Towards this end, we confront racism
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: in existing power structures, empower underrepresented peoples to have an
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: equal voice in decision making. Processes, develop cross cultural awareness
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: with formacy on or information, restore justice to our food
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: land and cultural practices, promote community relationships towards self reliance,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: work in solidarity with those that strive towards human rights
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: for all race engenders, demand and demonstrate that the value
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: of feminine intellect and leadership is recognized. And again they
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: end their whole page with the missions and visions saying this,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: at the core of our programmatic work is the belief
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: in commitment to ecofeminism. Our program work is structured in
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: three major program areas, participatory democracy, food justice, and movement building.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: The program areas are taken to action via projects that
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: are hands on, community based and lead their link to
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: each other and ecofeminism in an intersecting circular process.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: And when she was asked about the organization, she said
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: this in an interview with Blue Heart Quote. Community to
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Community was formed to try to gather resources for women
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: leadership and to give women and people of color and
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: impacted communities of voice. That was the main reason. Can
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: we form an organization that's led by women? What will
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: that look like? The core you see is food sovereignty
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: and farm worker rights and everything that intersects with food
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: through the lens and leadership of farm workers. What we're
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: trying to do is build enough confidence and power within ourselves,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: collective power and collective confidence to address fundamental reforms and
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: changes to the systems that are not working for us.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: But back to Gian's origin story. She grew up in
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: a family of farm workers and even moved with her
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: family to Washington State, who were a part of the
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: migrant farm labor community from Texas, although before this she
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: had been raised in Mexico. Here's a bit written about
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: her by Alejandro Aguilar from the University of Washington. They
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: write Gean is the eldest of eight children and was
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: born in Texas, but spent her first decade in Quawi.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Like Mexico, her family immigrated to Washington State in the
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: nineteen sixties and she began working in the fields of
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Skatget County at the age of sixteen. She worked alongside
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: her family until a bit later, where she started her
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: job at the Scadget State Bank, which actually was noted
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: as her being the first person of color to be
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: hired there by the way, and after sixteen years of
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: working there, she decided to change her path so In
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: nineteen eighty eight, she started working for the presidential campaign
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: of Reverend Jesse Jackson rip Here's a bit from her
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: interview with that blue Heart article we talked about, which,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: by the way, was posted through medium. Yes, one of
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: the places that we have to go to for a
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: lot of these articles. I was first recruited by an
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: organizer into the Rainbow Coalition for the campaign to elect
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: Jesse Jackson way back in the day. I resisted it
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: a lot. I wasn't political. I wasn't even registered to vote.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: I was an operations officer in a local community bank.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: We started forming the Watkin County Rainbow Coalition. During that campaign,
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: we conducted several electoral campaigns and then we were approached
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: by farm workers to support the Chateau Saint Michelle boycott,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: and it was during this time she started her advocacy
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: work for migrant farm workers. She talked about how it
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: was in nineteen ninety three, after the death of Saesar Chavez,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: that she quit her job at the bank and started
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: her full time career in my Rant Justice. She'd been
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: working with Rainbow Coalition for a while, and she then
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: would work as the lead in the boycott at the
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Chateau Saint Michelle.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: From that same interview quote, Chateau Saint Michel is the
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: largest winery in the state of Washington. There was a
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: group of farm workers that had been enduring sexual assaults
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: and poisonings with pesticides. One of the workers had actually
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: shot and killed a supervisor after the supervisor raped his wife.
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: It was awful. I was a former farm worker, so
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I was assigned by the Rainbow as a lead on
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: the boycott. My next big life changing organizing experience was
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: learning about ses Aer Chavez and the Great Boycott and
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: developing the Chateau Saint Michelle boycott following Caesar Shaudaz's model.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: So she has talked a lot about the influences of
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Cesar Chavez and has worked for farm workers, and as
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: recent news broke of the sexual abuse in assault allegations
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: against him, she has had to change some of our
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: organization's stances, specifically the C two C. In a recent
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: article in the nineteenth News dot org, they write Gian
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: never met Chavez, but was inspired to devote herself to
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: organizing on behalf of farm workers after his death. The
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: news has been quote. This is her quote from her quote.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: A revision of everything that many of us know about
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: the farm worker movement. Her organization is removing images of
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Chevez from its office. Gian said, we revisited our values
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: and principles and how we work together, reiterating that there's
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: no room for that. She said referring to a sexual misconduct.
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: So it's it's been a pretty big shock, I will say,
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: in the advocacy world with that, I don't know. I
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: feel like most of us women who see men leaders
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: are used to this disappointment. So for me, it didn't
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: feel like a shock.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, unfortunately, Yeah.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: But it still does feel like a dampening of what
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: he left behind his legacy. And though we don't want
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: to discredit everything all the good he did, we still
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: have to acknowledge the fact that he has ruined people's lives,
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: like he went after very even young girls and harmed them.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: So he with the good came the bad. So we
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: have to acknowledge that. And they as an organization which
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: actually revolves around women and girls, they have to acknowledge
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: that as well. So she's obviously acknowledging it, although she
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: still credits him a lot in the organization. So is
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: this a balance because you can't undo something that's true.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: So all these things and that's an episode feel like
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: we'll don't have to come back on because we've talked
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: about what happens when your heroes turn out not to
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: be heroes. M how do you face those things? But
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: this is one of those examples blurk. But with that
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: moving on, she has been working with the principles of
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: advocating for the rights of farm workers and the migrants
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: in the US. So she's still hanging on to what
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: he did do when he did do so much of
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: the good works in advocating for the farm workers of
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: the US, and she talked about the recent policies and
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: atrocities in the US with local news La Connorcommunitynews dot
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: org is in the Washington area and how the workers
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: have been in the backbone for years and what this
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: means overall. So they write every piece of fresh vegetable
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: of fruit that you eat in Skeatget County was touched
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: by one of us and probably be on there, one
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: of the farm workers, one of the immigrants, and you're
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: eating whatever exploitation goes with that. She said to gig
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: In and c to see the role of farm workers
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: in our food system is deserving of recognition beyond the
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: title of essential worker, which she said has meant having
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: to work during a global pandemic, not just fair pay
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: or better working conditions, but a real pathways to residency
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: and citizenship.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: And the article continues as an organization, we can represent
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: and work with farm workers without dealing with immigration reform,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: she said. Gianne said it has been extremely difficult to
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: become a US citizen due to what she described as
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: a costly, slow and difficult process. Under the current administration,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: she said it is becoming even harder while the system
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: gets dismantled and the efforts to become legal residents go
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: up and smoke. For many immigrants also live in fear
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: of leaving their homes due to the fear of being
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: placed in unmarked vehicles by mass agents. In some cases,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: she said, US citizens may not be safe either.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Right, and this article was written in twenty twenty six,
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: so very recently they talked with her about the effects
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: of what was happening as she goes into also which
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: we don't mention, which I actually did a little research
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: on way back when in college about the I think
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: H two visas which allow for essential workers to remain
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: in the US two work, but they have no rights.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: They are taxed. They it only protects them and working there,
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: and all of the organizations or the farm landowners they
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: have more rights in hiring these people and making them
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: leave and not having to pay, so it's really absurd.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: It's pretty much end injured servitude. But they're still forced
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: to leave after the fact, and they may not be
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: given equal pay. There's no protections for them as workers
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: or very little other than they get to be there,
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: which we already know. The agents don't care even if
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: you do have those cards. So it's very shady. This
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: whole practice is very shady. And with that, she continues
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: to work with her organization and is working to fight
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: against the policies of the government has placed before them
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: and tries to advocate for the needs of the migrant
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: workers today.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Obviously, Yes, yes, very very important work. And I'm sure
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: we'll be checking back in. We are in the month
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: of Climate's birthday all of that stuff, So I feel
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: like this is a good kick off. Well, listeners, if
• 12:07
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• 12:09
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• 12:12
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• 12:13
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• 12:16
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• 12:20
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• 12:23
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• 12:26
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• 12:28
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