NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/9722

Text File | 1993-01-02 | 5.5 KB | 132 lines

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From: [e-mail] (Workers World Service)
Subject: "La Adelita" inspires drywall strikers
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Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit


              "La Adelita" inspires drywall strikers

           By Rosa Maria de la Torre and Veronica Golos

The Mexican drywall workers' strike in Southern California, now
six months old, has won significant victories. Fifty-one of the
region's 90 contractors have signed agreements with the strikers.

Only those in San Diego continue to hold out. Police repression
there is the strongest, and resistance is reaching heroic
proportions.

The strikers are optimistic about the prospects for a settlement.
Hugo Gutierrez, an Orange County striker, told Workers World,
"Many of the developers `don't want any more trouble' and are
themselves urging other companies to sign."

Encarnacion Sandoval is the sole woman drywall striker in San
Diego. She starts walking the picket line at 4 a.m. every day.
She has faced violence, shootings and police beatings. She is the
backbone of the San Diego strike.

Fellow strikers say her strength and courage have earned her the
name "La Adelita," after the legendary women of the 1910 Mexican
Revolution.

Sandoval, 34, was born in the state of Hidalgo, in Mexico. She
and her family came to San Diego eight years ago. She has two
sons, ages 15 and 17, in high school. Both are active in the
community.

"La Adelita" worked in agricultural fields, restaurants and
sewing shops before becoming the first woman drywall worker in
San Diego. Before the strike, Sandoval was active in Hermandad
Mexicana Nacional, a mutual aid society common in Mexican
communities. She served as president of this group, which serves
500 families in San Diego.

"Fighting discrimination is the main force motivating me to work
in the community," Sandoval told Workers World. "The resources
are there, but they are not within the reach of the community.
Therefore, Hermandad focuses on informing the community of their
rights and making the resources more accessible to them.

"Very often one person alone will not be listened to. But if you
organize and struggle as a group, you can accomplish more."

When the strike started, she says, she struggled to choose
between continuing her community work or strike activism. "But I
felt that the strike had to take precedence. For we want our work
to be valued, like anyone else's work.

"We don't come to take anyone else's jobs. But we are not
accepting the low wages and we will ... not be used. That is why
our strike helps the American workers too."

`I AM A PART OF THE STRUGGLE'

"La Adelita" does whatever is necessary--including getting
arrested. "I always tell the men to stay strong," she says. "If
we take one step back, the repression will be worse.

"And police aggression has been strong. On Nov. 12, in Carmen del
Mar where we were picketing, police attacked and arrested several
of us. I was one of those arrested, and I was beaten.

"The police took me into the police station and tied me up in a
special chair they have. They handcuffed me with my hands behind
my back, tied me on this chair with several straps across my
body. I stayed this way for more than an hour.

"Altogether there had been 100 picketers, 11 arrested and 15
beaten. One of the men vomited blood and had to be taken to the
hospital. I am still under daily therapy. The doctor tells me if
in six months I am not better, I might have to have an operation
on my back. I am in pain all the day, head, neck, and back.

"After this incident, we decided to build a special room in our
union hall as a shelter for battered women and children, victims
of violence. We know what that is like. The Carpenters are
providing volunteer work to construct this."

Sandoval is conscious of the importance of her role as the only
woman striker. She says: "Also, one of the reasons I went
full-time for the strike was it was necessary for women to show
support, to show that women could do whatever was necessary,
struggle side by side with men. I admire [strike leader] Tony
Hernandez; I felt we were of one idea, that we were seeking
respect as workers.

"In San Diego I am the only woman in the strike," says Sandoval.
"The other women, mostly wives, show support morally, but do not
participate on the picket. This is because families cannot risk
both parents to be arrested at the same time, the repression
being so brutal. It is a tactic we use to keep us strong.

Sandoval says: "I am honored that my companeros [comrades] call
me `La Adelita'. I see it as a form of recognition of my
participation in the strike. It shows that they, the men, really
do think that I am a part of the struggle.  This is con mucho
carino [with much love]."

                               -30-

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; email: [e-mail]; "workers"
on PeaceNet; on Internet: "[e-mail]".)


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