New house goes up with old house behind

Carrying cement block and mixing mortar by hand in 95 degree heat can be torture. Or, it can be a small offering of hope and solidarity to a family living in a one room wooden shack. Moving block after block, separating rock into piles of sand and gravel, I concentrated on the task at hand and not my aching back. I could take a break, but I hadn’t come all this way to rest and I felt better when I was working as hard as I could.  There was so much still to be done.
My husband Peter and I were in Getsemani, a community of more than 130 families in the department of Ahuachapan, El Salvador, to participate in Habitat for Humanity’s Lenten build in honor of Monseñor Oscar Romero. Thirty years ago, on March 24, 1980, as he celebrated mass, Monseñor Romero was assassinated the day after he spoke out against poverty, injustice and publicly manifested his support for victims of political violence.  Monseñor Romero became a beloved martyr and catalyst for the ensuing 12 year civil war. Yet today, the majority of the country’s 6 million people still lack basic necessities such as potable water, electricity, education and employment. It’s estimated that more than half of Salvadorans also lack adequate housing. Through local affiliates such as this one in El Salvador, Habitat for Humanity has provided more than 1 million people in 90 countries simple, decent housing and a better life.

Denise in the sand pit

Peter and I, with 3 friends, worked as part of a large group of about 70 volunteers– college students on spring break, a  high school class and a church group– to build 30 houses in 30 days to honor Monseñor’s legacy. Thankfully, we were assigned to a house where the foundation had already been dug.  Some groups had to dig foundations in the rocky  dirt– over 100 lineal feet and 2 feet deep,  with picks and shovels.  We helped two masons by mixing concrete and mortar to their specifications, delivering it, filling joints between the blocks, bending rebar, moving block, leveling dirt and a variety of miscellaneous tasks.
Habitat’s houses in El Salvador are made of cement block, heavily reinforced with rebar because of the seismic activity in the area.  The houses are generally three rooms– a living area and two bedrooms, with a bath (toilet and shower) entered from outside. Most women use firewood for cooking so the “kitchens” are outside the house so the smoke can escape. Houses average about $8,000 and the interest free loans are repaid over 20 + years. Families and/or friends contribute hundreds of hours of “sweat equity” (i.e. labor) to build the houses.

Mom and two of her kids at build site

Our family’s new house was being built next door to their old, wooden one. Mom took care of 5 children, sold chocolate- covered bananas out of her house, while her husband worked in the logging business in another part of the country.  Family incomes in Getsemeni average between US$100 and $250 monthly, and many adults work as housekeepers, security guards and market vendors.
Peter and I have been on several Habitat Global Village builds (i.e. outside the US) and upon returning, we are often asked, “Did you finish a house?”.  The answer is always “no”, we just completed a small portion.  On this trip, our basic accomplishment was helping lay about 8 tiers of cement block.  That didn’t seem like much at all.
The truth was, I wished I were in the capital, participating in the mass demonstrations and celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the death of the country’s beloved Monseñor Romero. Instead, we were in a remote area, and I moved some block.  Some sand.  Some gravel.  Some dirt.  I watched the kids that will live in the  new house and hoped that it would represent a change for the better in their lives.
We were given T-shirts that said “Somos albañiles, no maestros de obra.” That means, we are workers (or masons), not master builders.”
When I looked up that reference, I thought about the importance of being a small part of a larger whole.  Here is part of the prayer, composed by Bishop Ken Untener and often called the Oscar Romero prayer:

Some neighborhood kids look on

It helps now and then to step back and take a long view
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work…
We plant the seeds that one day will grow
We water the seeds already planted
knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development..
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of
liberation in realizing this.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning,
a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s
grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the
difference between the master builder and the worker
We are workers; not master bulders
We are prophets of a future not our own

Find out more about Habitat’s trips outside the U.S. at www.habitat.org/gv

Example of the type of barren land sheep herders experience

Professor Tom Acker teaches Spanish at Mesa State College and spoke about his experience interviewing and advocating for H2A Range Workers and their rights in Colorado. During his presentation, he spoke of the importance of having an inside connection with former H2A range worker, Mr. Ignacio Alvarado, who had experienced working conditions and knew where to find locations of sheep herders throughout the year. Professor Acker and Mr. Alvarado were able to keep a record of their interviews of various sheep herders with the help of Mr. Jacob Carpenter who filmed the events.

Through these interviews, they learned that if the herders get sick or injured on the job, some bosses tell them to go back to the ranch or are sent back to their home country instead of being taken to a hospital. One of the serious dangers these herders face are tick or other insect bites that become infected since herders can’t bathe often and are constantly around animals. Another problem is appropriate clothing and heating. Ranchers are obligated to provide food and shelter but often the clothing is not weather appropriate and the only source of heat is a wooden stove in the “campito.” These “campitos” can be dangerous since the stove is near the door and not all campitos have another exit, such as a window large enough to crawl out of. Campitos have to be approved by an inspector but they do not inspect every camper. Instead, they are usually shown one of the best campers a rancher owns and after it is approved, the inspector gives the rancher enough stickers for his other campers.

In addition to less than desirable working conditions, some herders have their documents taken from them so that they cannot leave, cannot see their contracts, are threatened by their bosses, do not have access to transportation and/or do not have cell phones for communication even for emergencies, and do not know how much they will be getting paid.

Though these conditions are bad, it is important to remember that not all ranchers operate this way. Some sheep herders are treated very nicely, with warm jackets and campers with solar panels. People and organizations that advocate for better working conditions do not want to harm the industry of local agriculture. They simply want to filter out abusive ranchers so that the H2A range workers are treated fairly and with decency.

The Action Step for this Salon was writing letters to the editor. There were two articles from the Denver Post that people could reply to. The first article is titled, “Peruvian sheepherders’ lawsuit alleges abuses by Craig ranch” and the second article is titled, “An Unfair Picture of Sheepherders,” and is written by Sharon O’Toole, a rancher. Gabriela Flora provided suggested responses as well as information about sending a letter to the editor of the Denver Post. Links to Word Documents containing this information and the full articles from the Denver Post can be found here: Action-LettertoEditor#1, Action-LettertoEditor#2.

One example of a trailer used by a sheep herder.

Information on the work Colorado Legal Services has done to expose rangeworkers: “Overworked and Underpaid: H-2A herders in Colorado”

E-mail Address for Professor Tom Acker: tacker@mesastate.edu

Youtube videos by Jacob Carpenter: Slavery in America: 90¢ an Hour & -20°F Below Zero , Back on the Range: A Return Trip to the Wage Slavery Sheep Camps , Back Country Blues: A Story of Worker Abuse in Colorado’s Wild Lands

When I was in Mexico recently, cab drivers and other service workers would volunteer that they had been in the U.S., often for several years before returning to Mexico.  They would say they had picked corn in Iowa, harvested tobacco in North Carolina, picked blueberries in Maryland, done landscaping in California, worked as a cook in Illinois, etc.  They had happy memories and were glad to share their experiences with an American.  What struck me was that virtually everyone told stories about either their journey to the U.S. to make a living for their family or that by a son or a daughter.

Their stories reminded me that just a year before in Guatemala, every Mayan person with whom I came in contact asked me PLEASE to work for immigration reform in the U.S. because families, even their country’s economy, depended on the remittances sent back to Guatemala from their relations in the U.S.

I cried when I heard that a young Mayan Quiché whose education Bob and Mary Buck and I have been supporting for many years crossed the Sonoran desert in scorching heat to work in the U.S. to pay his mother’s health bills.  Since there are no avenues for him to gain legal status in our broken immigration system, he is now undocumented and working in construction to pay off these family bills.

If you, like me, want to protest the inhumane detention and forced return of migrants to their countries by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), I invite you to join the first Monday inter-faith vigils at the Geo Immigration Detention Center.  The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) organizes these vigils with local area churches or community groups sponsoring each month.  The next vigil is May 3rd at 6:00 p.m. at the northwest corner of 30^th Avenue and Peoria St. in Aurora.  To commemorate one year of resistance to the GEO Detention Center, the Romero Troupe will enact immigration experiences at the center through music, poetry and prayer.

If you have questions or want further information, please contact Jennifer Piper, Interfaith Organizing Director for Immigrant Rights, at AFSC at 303-623-3464 or jpiper@afsc.org.

The 2010 DJPC Salon Discussion Series invites you to hear about the working conditions of Colorado range workers who are usually seasonal immigrants and efforts to change them. The speakers are Professor Tom Acker from Mesa State College, Mr. Ignacio Alvarado a former H2A range worker and Mr. Jacob Carpenter who is a video film maker.

Join us Thursday, April 15th from 7:00-9:00PM in the Community Room of the Denver Inner City Parish, 1212 Mariposa Street. Plenty of street parking as well as in the lots beside the building, enter through door off of 12th Avenue.

April Salon flier(pdf)

Jane Covode, Kathryn Rodriguez, Tommy Timm, Sarah Sloane and Denise Peine joined thousands gathered at the Columbus, GA Convention Center Saturday morning to hear introductory speakers, musicians and staffers of SOA Watch, the organization dedicated to closing the school. Three of us were there for the first time and we were all impressed with the numbers and enthusiasm of the participants, which ranged from college students to long time activists to members of various religious traditions. We joined in proclaiming our goal– to close the SOA/WHINSEC and to resist the oppressive policies that it represents; to stand in solidarity with our Latin American sisters and brothers and all those around the world whose lives are impacted by these policies; and to act in a tradition of nonviolence.

Anti-war protester at SOA photo by Sarah Sloane

Saturday afternoon we went to the gates of Ft. Benning where we heard various speakers reminding us of the immediacy and importance of our mission to close SOA.  Bertha Oliva from Honduras spoke about the repression, injustice, disappearances and deaths that have taken place in her country since the June SOA graduate-led military coup. In Colombia, U.S. military intervention intensifies as an agreement allowing U.S. access to seven new Colombian military bases was just signed by both countries, endangering the security and autonomy of neighboring countries.

Sunday morning was chilly and damp, reflecting the solemnity of the funeral procession. During this event, several people on stage chanted thousands of names of the victims of SOA/WHINSEC violence. The crowd responded with “presente”–meaning he/she (the victim) is here with us- and lifted crosses with names of the victims. The marchers slowly passed the razor wire fence surrounding the Fort’s gate, where people left crosses and other memorabilia.  Four demonstrators were arrested for “crossing the line” into the Fort.

Six giant “puppetistas” joined the march. This informal group of creative people crafted huge, realistic figures replicating the 6 Jesuit priests martyred in San Salvador. A mock “assassination” was held and then people with signs–love, hope, solidarity, equality, power, justice– arose to carry on the work of the Jesuits and other SOA victims.

SOA signs of hope photo by Sarah Sloane

The weekend was a powerful event for those involved with the continuing “lucha” for peace, human rights, and economic justice in Latin America. To learn more about SOA Watch, a grassroots organization that works year round to achieve these goals, see http://www.soaw.org.

Funes ran on a party platform that pledged his government would: lower the cost of living and increase purchasing power; create more and better jobs with special opportunity for youth and women; defeat crime and increase family security; direct concentrated support to poor rural and urban families; and defend and support families in El Salvador whose primary wage earner has migrated. The platform calls for increasing the availability of and access to employment, housing, health, education, and safety so that all Salvadorans can live dignified, productive and happy lives in El Salvador.

Funes, who will assume office on June 1st, has his work cut out for him. These are ambitious goals for a number of reasons. Funes does not bear the traditional FMLN credentials, i.e. he was not a guerrilla during the civil war. So, he has to develop trust and cooperation within his own party. He must do the same with parties of the right who together have the votes to block legislation. The FMLN holds the greatest number of seats in the Legislature but not a majority. As the party platform indicates, the problems facing El Salvador are monumental. Additionally, the country has never adequately dealt with the legacy of war. Until it comes to terms with the root causes of its social and economic ills, which went unresolved despite 12 years of combat, making meaningful progress will be a formidable task.

Despite outgoing President Saca’s assurances two weeks prior to the election that public finances were stable and that “there is nothing to worry about,” there is a lot to worry about. The global crisis has significantly affected El Salvador. Exports and tax revenues are down, job loss has risen over the last eight months, and remittances are projected to drop by 13% in 2009. Fitch, Inc., the financial risk rating agency, has stated that El Salvador and the new Funes government will confront a “disproportionate impact” from the global economic crisis.

In the face of all these challenges, hope lies in the fact that Mauricio Funes is an intelligent, capable leader in whom the Salvadoran people have put their trust. He did not win on FMLN votes alone and people are willing to give him a chance. He is known as a pragmatist so will lead from a position closer to center than other FMLN candidates might have. He was painted as a pawn of Cuba and Venezuela during the campaign, but his professional history and comportment during and after the election show that he is very much his own person. It will be an uphill struggle, but with Funes’ tenacity, El Salvador does have a future.

Written by Harriet Mullaney for the April 2009 issue of The Mustard Seed