Oral History Commons^™

Interview With Bernardine Dohrn, Bernardine Dohrn

Winthrop University Oral History Program

In her interview with Ron Chepesiuk, Bernardine Dohrn detailed her part in the 60s anti-war movement. She covered such topics as the Gulf War, the feminist movement and gender rights, the Weather Underground, former SDS members, Kent State, and other movement events. Dohrn also discussed her involvement in dealing with poverty and children’s rights as a lawyer. Dohrn’s focuses before and after the Vietnam War was the failure of family court and the United States’ inability to deal with impoverished families and children. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the Louise Pettus Archives and Special Collections Oral History Program.

Quote Transcript, We Exist Series 5: Stories Of Education And Employment In Maine, University Of Southern Maine Digital Projects

Quotes

Accompanying materials for We Exist Series 5: Stories of Education and Employment in Maine.

During The Pandemic: A Perspective From A First-Year Teacher, Caleb T. Johnson

Journal of Graduate Education Research

This feature article aims to blend oral impressions with concrete "best" practices in secondary education. Through the most basic methods used throughout history--listening, interpreting, and translating stories shared among groups of people--this singular perspective questions whether the conversations among teachers positively impact the narrative of educating students as COVID-19 continues to have effects that are more difficult to perceive. Without bringing the two parties into conversation, the article offers its readers the observation and reflection of one who is invested in students' learning in the context of the classroom as much as the context of a world still dealing with …

Review- Archives And Human Rights, Alexandra Pucciarelli

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Archives and Human Rights edited by Jens Boel, Perrine Canavaggio, and Antonio González Quintana utilizes seventeen case studies to examine the role archives and archivists can play in international justice after human rights violations. The cases include but are not limited to; Rwanda, Spain, and Cambodia.

Interview No. 1780, Arieta

Combined Interviews

Arieta started off her interview by mentioning that she had always wanted to study to be a nurse. Her husband didn’t believe in her because she was 30 when she began trying to get into nursing. She even mentioned that she felt old to be studying, but she really wanted to be somebody and have a life other than just being a housewife.

Arieta was tired of being at home and not knowing anything about the world. She ended up not being a nurse because at that time they started to ask for people to have a high school degree …

Examining Past, Present, And Future Of Agricultural Labor: From The Bracero Program To The Coalition Of Immokalee Workers, Francesca Paradiso

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis is a comparative study that examines the Bracero Program and the work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). The Bracero Program brought Mexican workers into the United States on temporary work visas from 1942-1964. The CIW is an organization of Mexican workers that was founded in 1992 as a response to the horrible working conditions that Mexican tomato pickers faced in Immokalee, Florida. In this thesis, I show that by putting these programs side by side, we can see the exploitation of Mexican farmworkers has relied on changing government tools—different forms of visas, different immigration regimes, different …

Interview No. 1773, Del Hirerro, Leyva, Gonzalez

Combined Interviews

They are talking about their job at Farah, and how bad the conditions were. They have been let off work for months now, they said that some of them have been 5 months but they say that the company will take over a year to tell you that you are not required anymore. They said that the company will never raise your pay, even if you have been for years working in there. When they were done with their job they were obligated to full fill other positions were they had no experience so that they don’t have any type …

Interview No. 1749, Jesse Muñoz Rev.

Combined Interviews

Jesse Munoz was an El Paso priest from Our Lady of the Light Church. He was born in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, in 1940 during the depression years. When he turned eleven him and his family moved to El Paso, Texas in hopes of a better life and education. At the age of fourteen he took a bus to New York and worked there for over a year. He then had enough money to go to Spain and pay for an education and many years later he came back to El Paso, Texas.

At the time Rev. Munoz came back to …

Interview No. 1750, Tarango

Combined Interviews

The audio is unintelligible

Interview No. 1751, Hernandez

Combined Interviews

Hernandez began working at Farah on April of 1972. Everyone at Farah left 2 moths after and she mentioned that those two months were enough for her to know what was right and what was wrong. Hernandez saw and experience many unjust things in those two months. She didn’t know how bad the situation inside the company was until she started to work there and realized that what the people were saying was right and even worse than what they described it as.

The worse part of the Farah company were the managers and their lack of experience in retail …

Interview No. 1752, Valenzuela

Combined Interviews

Her last name is Valenzuela and she was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. After she graduated from high school, she got her first fulltime job at Farah. She was working in setting pockets, that involved a lot of hard work and many hours of work. The training that she was, was how to use the machine but like her many other people wants trained well. She says that many supervisors where over them all day long. She says that thru out the day they get 2 breaks from their job and they can rest on site and can …

Interview No. 1753, Sanchez

Combined Interviews

Sanchez began working at Farah on April of 1969. Everyone at Farah hated their job and at first, she didn’t know why but 2 months after entering she realize what was right and what was wrong. As many others Farah workers on Paisano were tired of the unjust treatment and bad wage, Sanchez felt the exact same way in just a week of getting hired.

At first, she thought that it was so easy the hiring process and that Farah hired anyone who was willing to work. Soon after Sanchez realized that Farah hired many people, because of the amount …

Interview No. 1754, Ortega

Combined Interviews

Her last name is Ortega, she was part of the Farah Strike at El Paso, Texas. She says that the Union was getting stronger because more people were getting involved. When she was working, she will notice cases of harassment and she says that many of the supervisors were trying to get advantage of other workers. She was part of the strike that many other people participated because they were fighting for their rights and for a better wage. When she was working at the company, she says that many workers will get fired for no reason or reasons that …

Interview No. 1755, Gandara

Combined Interviews

He says that he stared working with his father after returning from the ARMY. He says that when he was working, they had a union that sometimes will fire people for nothing and they will have to legally open a case against that and he says that in order to get a response you needed to wait a long time. He says that one of his duties in the job was cutting ropes into different sizes. There is another woman interview that is his wife and she says that women were a minority in their job and they had to …

Interview No. 1756, Eva Valdez

Combined Interviews

Eva was offered to join the strike during her time working at Farah Manufacturing Company, she first felt kind of scared because she didn’t want to be part of a strike. Eva didn’t understand what the union strike was about but she would later find out.

Eva’s first days at the Farah Manufacturing Company were filled with patches and jeans. She mentioned that she had to put patches in clothing items all day for long periods of time. For her work she would get pay less than $1.60 an hour. Some of her women coworkers had been working there for …

Interview No. 1757, Carrillo

Combined Interviews

Her last name is Carrillo and she was born in Mexico, and she arrived at Cuidad Juarez when she was 5 years old when she turned 12, she moved to, El Paso Texas. She was a home stay person and she helped with all the duties in the house, she is the middle child she has 3 older brothers and 3 younger brothers. Before she was married, she was working at a factory where they packed eggs and she worked in the fields picking pecans. She got married at the age of 22, with her husband that she met in …

Interview No. 1758, Saucido

Combined Interviews

Her last name is Saucido and she was working at Farah and she was part of the strike. Some of her duties at Farah was cutting and cleaning which was a very demanding job. She says that before the union there was no one that could help them and they thought that the union was going to make things better for them, but it wasn’t that way. When they were working, they will have supervisors that were making sure you did your job correctly, but sometimes they were extremely demanding and they will fire many people for either taking long …

Interview No. 1761, Rios

Combined Interviews

Everyone at Farah hated their job, that’s how Rios described it when she first started working there. She didn’t understand the problems happening at Farah at Paisano that made every worker hate going to work every day. A couple of days pass, she received her first check and realized that she got payed very little, when the manager told her that she would be getting payed more. She realized that she started her work there as a lie and that the contract that she sign was also a total lie that the managers didn’t respect.

At first, she thought that …

Interview No. 1763, Marin-Graham-Cortez

Combined Interviews

Their last names are is Marin -Graham -Cortez, and she was working at Farah in El Paso, Texas. She says that engineers were trained but they didn’t do their job the way they were supposed to do it. She mentions that everyone was complaining about the supervisors and how they do nothing about anything that affects the employees. He mentions that many people will work many hours and not get a rise or even some extra cents for the extra work. She says that most of the ditties were to sue pants and pockets and it was a demanding job. …

Interview No. 1764, Lezema

Combined Interviews

Lezama started her journey with Farah in the year 1959 and worked there for nineteenth years. She used to make jeans and sew other clothing items. Her first time in the company was when she was 17 years old, and she worked there for three months before taking a break and going back to the company for the next nineteenth years. Lezama mentioned that in her nineteenth years in Farah she never earned the 3 dollars that they promised her she would earn if she stayed with the company for a couple of consecutive years.

While working at Farah her …

Interview No. 1765, Garcia

Combined Interviews

Garcia has lived and worked in El Paso, Texas. She mentioned that poverty in Mexico is worse than the poverty in the United States. Garcia left Mexico 5 years ago to get a better life in the USA. She left her children with her mother and got on the train to get to El Paso, Texas. She first arrived to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and stayed with a family during a couple of weeks, while she gathered her papers to get a passport. After she got her passport she went to El Paso and started working and sending money back to …

Interview No. 1766, Hernandez

Combined Interviews

The audio is unintelligible

Interview No. 1768, Arieta

Combined Interviews

When Arieta initially started working there, she said that everyone at Farah detested their jobs. She didn't get the issues at Farah in Paisano that made every employee dread reporting to work each day. After a few days had passed, she received her first check and found she had been paid very little before the manager informed her that her pay would be increasing. She came to the realization that the contract she signed when she first started working there was also a complete fabrication that the bosses didn't regard.

She initially believed that Farah employed anyone who was willing …

Interview No. 1769, Gonzalez

Combined Interviews

She says that everything is back in busisnes at Farah and that the new president of Farah is not fighting with the union any more. She says that many people are getting left off and many people just like her she was let off and came back 3 times in a row and she says that she is thinking that is better for her to start studying. She says that Willy Farah, the owner, was very hated and loved at the same tiem and she says that many people will give them gifts such as bringing him mariachi and workers …

Interview No. 1770, Del Hierro

Combined Interviews

Nearly all of Farah's employees were exhausted and tired of work. That was when Del Hierro started working there. She didn’t understand the problem in Farah of Paisano that was causing all workers to be reluctant to go to work every day. A few days went by and she received her first check and when the manager told her she would be paid more, she realized she had barely been paid, and realized that the contract she signed was also a complete lie and not respected by her manager.

At first, she thought the hiring process would be so easy …

Interview No. 1771, Estrada

Combined Interviews

His last name is Estrada, he started working in 1966 and he worked in there for 5 years and in 1970 is where problems begging to occur. He says that he had to leave his job because it wants convenient for them to keep working in those conditions. He says that he did enjoyed doing his job and he will do the best that he could to improve the way he worked. He has never arrived late to any job and he was always compromised with whatever he did. He says that the most common injury to get in his …

Interview No. 1772, Perez

Combined Interviews

She was working at Farah and she says that they will treat them really bad and that they were told that this was the best job that they could ever had. The least they can do was to continue to work but they eventually got tired of how they were abused. Her responsibilities at Farah included cleaning and cutting, which was a labor-intensive task. She claims that prior to the union, they had no one to turn to for assistance. They believed that the union would improve their situation, but it didn't work out that way. When they were employed, …

Interview No. 1774, Jaramillo

Combined Interviews

Jaramillo was born in San Antonio after her parents cross the border thru Laredo when immigration wasn’t very strict. After a year they moved to El Paso, Texas where all of her other siblings were born.. One of the things that she admires about growing up in El Paso is that almost everyone knew each other or knows someone who knows them. Her mother owned a restaurant and her father a tailoring shop in which Jaramillo and her siblings grew up. After a couple of years her father passed away. Her mother then decided to sell the tailoring shop and …

Interview No. 1775, Jaramillo De Palacio

Combined Interviews

She mentions that the companies were demanding the same quality of work and they were not realizing the amount of work they were giving to the workers, and it was an excessive amount of it. She says that the strikes separated people because it was a movement that had different opinions, but in the end they were fighting for the same thing. The union was created to support employees but the workers realized that that wasn’t true at all. When the strike first started she couldn’t ever imagine that the strike was going to be as big as it was, …

Interview No. 1776, Paraa

Combined Interviews

She says that everything is back in busisnes at Farah and that the new president of Farah is not fighting with the union any more. She says that many people are getting left off and many people just like her she was let off and came back 3 times in a row and she says that she is thinking that is better for her to start studying. She says that Willy Farah, the owner, was very hated and loved at the same tiem and she says that many people will give them gifts such as bringing him mariachi and workers …