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Notebook 5

My zine serves as a counter narrative to what is very traditionally taught and thought of when the topic of farm worker movement is brought up. The master narrative, the one that is fed to us at a very early age if we were students who attended American educational institutions growing up, focused on one person - Cesar Chavez. The master narrative talks about Mexican men learning to unionize and resist against oppressive working conditions and a very low minimum wage. It is also included in the master narrative the iconic grape strike from the movement that arose from the leader Cesar Chavez. However, I believe my zine serves to inform what was missing in this explanation. I think my zine adds dimension not only by reminding one of the history of the farm worker movement and how it was not just originated by this one group of Mexican people but rather the Filipin@ community as well, but it also reminds one of powerful women like Dolores Huerta who in history seem to stand in the shadows of a strong male leader like Cesar Chavez. My zine is a counter narrative because it serves as the voice of the communities who were silenced or forgotten by the master narrative.

I also think that something noteworthy that my zine provided for the counter narrative was the connection between the two groups of radicalized folks. Writers of the master narrative would not necessarily want to include how coalitions of people of color formed against them. My zine is a reminder that this coalition existed and it continues to echo isn other relationships that are seen in communities today.

My zine has definitely helped me grow in terms of how I analyze something or an idea. I appreciated that we were able to write in our own voice. That rawness really allowed me to connect to what I was writing about in my zine. At the same time, however, because I was attached to what I wrote about I had many moments where I found it hard to step back and out of this connection to continue analyzing different dimensions of my object. The vagueness of Professor Wayne’s instructions frustrated me as I researched and I felt like I was always being very repetitive. Once I neared completion for my zine, however, I did mentally thank Professor Wayne for letting me make the work truly mine.

Overall, I have loved my experience in my first ever Ethnic Studies course in college. I struggled through both of the texts provided, but I can proudly admit that I am a better person after reading both pieces. I have always felt like I had very ground level knowledge on ideologies like anti-blackness technologies or surrogacy abroad, however, this class has given me the terminology and deeply rooted history that I needed in order to fully grasp the concept I had this ground level knowledge of. Professor Wayne’s lectures have shaped me in such a short time in a way that other classes have failed to. I struggled my first quarter here because I did not feel connected to any of the work I was learning. I was also struggling with finding a community within UC San Diego that I could connect to. What I was learning never felt as important as what I have learned from both Professor Wayne and my TA, Olivia. Realizing that experiences I am having as I adapt to the community of higher education have rooted explanations in the history of the country has allowed me to make decisions that are more knowledgable and that are mine rather than the system I was placed into. I do not doubt that I will remember and take with me the knowledge I have learned into my future career as someone who will hopefully be in public policy.

The Unity Clap - Final Zine

#issuu

Draft Unity Clap Zine

Isang Mahal, Kiara Gomez

Another rough draft page. Looking to add more images of the filipin@ movement and find any images available of the clap in practice.

Notebook 4: Peer Review

Written by Derek Buitron

“ A. The notebook entry was introducing the object which is the unity clap. The unity clap is a clap that starts slow, mimicking the sound of a heartbeat, and gradually gets faster. This clap was used between Latin@ and Filipin@ farm workers and was useful to unite these workers because it was something that was easy to learn regardless of the language they knew. These workers and their struggles relate to the course’s theme about labor circulation and the ways in which certain labor is meant for certain people. The entry highlights the unionization of the Latin@-Filipin@ farmworkers and exposes the capitalistic motives for the labor exploitation that many farm workers defenselessly faced in the mid-1900’s. Alongside all this, the article also explores the first usage of the unity clap in Hawaii. With the unity clap comes a history of oppressed peoples who continue to fight for equal rights today.I think your notebook was aimed towards an audience who does not identify asLatin@ or Filipin@ and/or who does not have any knowledge about this object or its histories. The notebook does a great job at providing essential details to understand the historical and social context that was the climate during the unity clap. It was very clear and very interesting!

B. The quote that I thought was very critical to the entire entry was the part where youwrite, “The clap begins slowly, mimicking the thumps of a heartbeat.” Although this seems very small and insignificant, as I was reading, this line particularly made me stop and think about not only the physical toll that was taken on by these people,but also the mental and emotional fatigue that follows it. This part just added a new dimension, or a new variable, that I had never considered.”

rough draft page for the history of the clap.

Notebook 3

Notebook 3: Relational Analysis

The focus of my object has been almost the same. However, I have begun to focus more on the history of my object and have gone away from the symbolism and surface meaning of the object. I have found it a little hard to trace the entire origins and history of my object because it is a “verbal” tradition. I am still really hoping that I am able to trace the unity clap and see what else it offered, if anything, other than the signal of the end of the day.

In terms of relational analysis, my first notebook took the first jab at that concept. The two groups that I was considering was the Filipin@s involved and the farm worker movement. As my first notebook mentions, “The first national occurrence of the unity clap dates back to Filipin@’s in Hawaii as early as the 1920’s. At this point in time, this community of people was organizing labor unions and strikes led by Pablo Manlapit. After a hard hit on labor strikes in 1924, many Filipin@s fled from Hawaii to head toward the mainland in America where they were confronted with oppressive labor conditions which forced them to unionize. In the 16th edition of “Philippines Today,” it was written that in “many ways, it was a crime to be Filipin@ in California because other growers and the American Federation of Labor were alarmed and threatened by the striking workers.”

In comparison, the Mexican folks involved in the farm movement at different points were here for different reasons. Early on, Mexican people were brought to the United States through something known as the Bracero Program (bracero is the spanish term meaning manual laborer). The program consisted of laws and agreements that allowed Mexican folks an entry to the United States if they agreed to work in agriculture and manual labor. As time went on came the rise of the National Farm Workers Association in 1962 led by Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.

The similarity between both groups is after their skills were utilized and overplayed, they were pretty much asked to leave the country. After they were not of much use later on, the country of America no longer wanted them. This kept the racial formation intact and kept ideologies of whiteness and the skill and value that comes alongside whiteness at the top of the racial formation.

Both groups have very similar experiences in America, that is why the Unity Clap is so powerful in itself. It brought two marginalized groups together at the end of a long work day. The two groups were used for their labor skills and then asked to leave. Today, the Unity Clap, which is also referred to as the solidarity clap showcases solidarity with people with that similar experience.

Original mural has been altered.

Original image was of the Delano Strike of 1965.

Page for my future Zine.

Pictured: Cesar Chavez, a leader of the Mexican farm worker movement, and Larry Dulay Itliong, a leader on behalf of the Filipin@ farm worker movement. (color from original picture and backgrounds/effects were distorted).

Various text fonts taken from dafont.com and backgrounds were removed.

Flower arch coloring and pattern was altered.

La lucha sigue.

- Kiara

Larry Itliong, the Filipin@ Labor Movement leader, can be held responsibility primarily for the unity between the Mexican farm workers and the Filipin@s. He was the one who met with Cesar Chavez regarding unity in their strike.

Notebook 2: Bind Through Property

The unity clap I had previously written about can be unveiled by looking into the United Farm Workers’ Movement as well as the labor conditions and movements, from both Filipin@ and Mexican groups, that led up to the coalition of the United Farm Workers movement.

Despite some of the differences between the way groups approached and handled situations, the main commonality between them is that both groups in both contexts are national bind through property. For many years, Filipino farm workers have been overlooked in history as the initiators of labor resistance.Filipino workers have organized together beginning in the 1930’s.

On the night of September 7, 1965, farm workers who were almost all Filipino voted to go on strike the next day. However, their initiation and struggles regarding labor movements in the past has been mostly ignored. It was where the unity clap was truly rooted. In a 2005 testimony from one of the two Filipino workers who went on strike in 1965 and was still alive, Andy Imutan explained how crucial the unity of the two nations were but how the land owners were so good at keeping them separated:

“The whole movement began in Coachella that same summer. That’s when a group of Filipino workers went on strike demanding that their wages be increased from $1.10 an hour as well as better living conditions… After a successful first strike we did it again, this time in Delano where wages were also starting out at $1.10 an hour. However, the struggle became a lot harder when Mexican workers started crossing our picket lines. There was no unity between the Mexicans and Filipinos. The growers were very successful in dividing us and creating conflict between two races.”

Following the Great Depression, more than 500,000 Mexican American were deported or pressured to leave during the Mexican Repatriation, meaning the number of Mexican farm workers available was decreased, meaning that competition between races for jobs had also diminished. However, following the World War II labor shortages, the United States government began the Bracero Program, something I am directly tied to because a majority of my family ancestry arrived to the United States through participation in the Bracero program that imported “temporary” laborers from Mexico to work in field and railroads. This was an example of tensions growers used to create racial conflict among the groups.

This conflict is what paved the way for these groups to be bind by property in the United States. Due to the fact that growers across California had quotas of products to meet, the tension of job between the workers and the taking of jobs grew immensely. As mentioned in my previous entry, while their labor was done almost for free, their labor movement was still unfree.

The context of my object, the unity clap, is most clearly viewed through the lens of race. However, it is impossible to only consider race and it is rather important to consider the other factors that pile together and affect how one experienced life in this era or views this time of history. When considering racial differences between Filipin@s and Mexican labor workers, one must also consider class and the tensions that arose from both groups attempting to leave their current social or economic class for one that was better, for that was why they worked so hard anyway. One must also consider ability and how that level of ability would “change” depending on whether the farm workers was gendered as a male or female.

Works Consulted:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/09/16/440861458/grapes-of-wrath-the-forgotten-filipinos-who-led-a-farmworker-revolution

http://www.scpr.org/blogs/multiamerican/2011/04/01/7203/the-asian-american-farm-worker-legacy/

http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?menu=research&inc=history/04.html

http://nfwm.org/education-center/farm-worker-issues/timeline-of-agricultural-labor/

A modern day example of the Unity Clap in practice.

#sisepuede #brownandproud

Notebook 1: The Unity Clap

The unity clap is a custom that was derived from the United Farm Workers’ Movement in the 1960’s. The movement was made up primarily of Filipin@ and Latin@ farm workers who were unable to communicate with one another due to the language barrier between the two groups, many of the workers were illiterate in English and spoke only their native tongue. Aside from the language barrier, the two groups also faced a physical barrier in their work of cornstalks. In order to communicate with one another to signify the end of the work day, the farm workers would begin a collective clap. The clap begins slowly, mimicking the thumps of a heartbeat. As the clap continued, it would increase in speed. The clap originated with the Filipin@-American farm movement and was transferred to unite the group with the Mexican-American farm workers. Since then, the unity clap has been adopted by many groups to symbolize solidarity with allies that face similar struggles and experience than those of the farm labor movement.

The unity clap shines light on Professor Wayne’s point regarding globalization and labor circulation: that although “capital moves ‘freely’, labor movement is unfree.” Both the Filipin@ and Mexican farm workers faced oppressive working conditions. The labor movement in the United States arose from the need for livable wages, reasonable work hours, safer working conditions, and aid to workers who would be injured on the job. While the goods that these workers were producing were sold on a free market, their struggle and their oppression remained unfree. They were forced to fight back to receive proper treatment. They fought not only for their job safety, but they also fought against notions against their people in general against those in America who continuously claimed the farmers’ race as inferior and treated them accordingly.

The first national occurrence of the unity clap dates back to Filipin@’s in Hawaii as early as the 1920’s. At this point in time, this community of people was organizing labor unions and strikes led by Pablo Manlapit. After a hard hit on labor trikes in 1924, many Filipin@s fled from Hawaii to head toward the mainland in America where they were confronted with oppressive labor conditions which forced them to unionize. In the 16th edition of “Phillipines Today,” it was written that in “many ways, it was a crime to be Filipin@ in California because other growers and the American Federation of Labor were alarmed and threatened by the striking workers. Moving forward, however, the Filipino Labor Union was created and successfully fought toward a 35 cents per hour minimum wage, an 8 hour work day, and an end to racial hierarchy in the assignment of farm jobs. Following this achievement came the 1938 Filipino Agricultural Laborers Association which opened membership to other ethnic groups, one of them being Mexicans.

The second occurrence and redefining of the unity clap came after 1938 where Mexican-American farm workers and Filipin@-American farm workers were working similar fields. In order to signify the end of the long work day together, the unity clap broke a language barrier in the workplace for the two groups. It was this slow breaking of barriers that helped the two groups mobilize together against their unfree labor. On September 16, 1965, at the Filipino Hall on the West Side of Delano, laborer and civil rights activist, Cesar Chavez ,held a meeting where the Mexican laborers decided to join the Filipin@ workers in the strike again the way they were being used to farm American land. The unity clap transformed from a way of communication on the field and into a symbolic closure for meetings and rallies held by the two groups.

As previously mentioned, what has served as a language between workers in the past continues to be present in the context of modern day. Many groups of people have adopted the unity clap as a way to end meetings, rallies, and other events. Groups at UC San Diego such as Kaibigang Philipin@ use it as a form of empowerment and reminder to remain in solidarity with the allies who are in need of it.

Works Consulted

Lopez, Angelo. "Filipino Americans and the Farm Labor Movement." Portside. Portside, 30 Apr. 2014. Web. 19 Jan. 2017. <http://portside.org/2014-05-12/filipino-americans-and-farm-labor-movement>.

UCSD CCC. "Societal Foil: The Dangers of “Coalition-building”." Blog post. UCSD Cross-Cultural Center. N.p., 05 Mar. 2013. Web. 20 Jan. 2017. <http://ucsdcrossculturalcenter.tumblr.com/post/44646685288/societal-foil-the-dangers-of-coalition-building>.

"UFW: The Official Web Page of the United Farm Workers of America." UFW: The Official Web Page of the United Farm Workers of America. United Farm Workers, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2017. <http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?menu=research&inc=history%2F03.html>.

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