Airbrushing The News, Vol. 2
Two Seattle Times stories yesterday and today about the Everett High School speech of United Farm Workers co-founder and Cesar Chavez ally Dolores Huerta highlight Martin Luther King Day, and illegal immigrant "rights." No mention of her comments in a 2006 speech to 800 at a Tucson high school that "Republicans hate Latinos." The Times does note she led Everett students in a cheer now used by activists to endorse legal status for illegal immigrants, and at least one student wasn't happy.
The Times highlights Huerta's labor negotiations and leadership of the consumer grape boycott to win better working conditions for farmworkers. That was an important victory for a good cause. But as Steve Sailer writes in The American Conservative, her UFW co-founder Chavez once marched to the Mexican border to protest illegal immigration. And the worker benefits won by UFW have badly dissipated.
Today, (the) United Farm Workers functions less as a union--it represents only 2 percent of the California agricultural workforce--than as a lucrative Latino-pride fundraising machine providing sinecures for a dozen Chavez relatives. (LA Times writer Miriam) Pawel writes, "Chavez's heirs run a web of tax-exempt organizations that exploit his legacy and invoke the harsh lives of farm workers to raise millions of dollars in public and private money. The money does little to improve the lives of California farm workers, who still struggle with the most basic health and housing needs and try to get by on seasonal, minimum-wage jobs."From 1965 to 1981, the UFW succeeded in raising wages significantly for stoop laborers in California. Since then, their pay has fallen, and they've lost most of the fringe benefits they had won. Today, most make less than $10,000 per year. Hundreds were discovered near Salinas living in caves, a mass indignity that even that town's most famous son, John Steinbeck, barely anticipated in The Grapes of Wrath.
The L.A. Times series included the articles, "Farmworkers Reap Little As Union Strays From Its Roots," and "Linked Charities Bank On The Chavez Name." Another was titled "Real Estate Deals Pay Off For Insiders." It involves Huerta's son, Emilio.
The financing was set and the plans were drawn, dotted yellow lines showing just where the morning and afternoon sun would shine on the 53 homes for lower-income families. Almost a decade after the National Farm Workers Service Center had bought vacant land at a Fresno crossroads, the charity was ready to break ground on the affordable housing project called La Estancia. Then the plans were abruptly scrapped.Paul Chavez, president of the Service Center, decided the plot had appreciated so much it made more sense to sell. He did not have to look far for a willing buyer: Emilio Huerta, the Service Center's lawyer, worked in the office next door. In May 2004, Huerta formed a private corporation called Landmark Residential. Three months later, Landmark bought the Fresno parcel from the Service Center for $1.8 million.
The day they closed the sale, Huerta and his partners had already agreed to sell the land for $2.9 million to a local developer, according to county records -- reaping a profit of $1.1 million. The insider deal is one example of how leaders of the UFW and the groups they call the Farm Worker Movement have steered money to friends and relatives at the expense of the charities they serve.
UFW's First Vice-President Emeritus, Emilio's mom Dolores, an Honorary Chair of The Democratic Socialists of America, must have been proud of how her son used the union's land to make a million. As Discover The Networks notes, she believes, "Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth..."
Especially for one's family.
Posted by Matt Rosenberg at January 11, 2007 06:45 PM | Email ThisWhy isn't she in Mexico or So. Amer. working for better conditions for workers there to prevent them from coming here in the first place?
And--just what exactly is a "fair distribution of wealth" anyway? Can i dig into HER bank accounts? "Fair" means you work, & she shares YOUR reward having never lifted a finger nor risked anything. As my local politician once justified for illegal alien benefits, "...because it's the right thing to do..." yea. my burro.
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on January 11, 2007 08:42 PMAs long as the home countries of migrants are not forced to change their systems and provide a decent standard of living for their people, there will be huge numbers of migrants to the US.
And this from the principal. Wait till you hear from the parents and kids.
Graduation rates are nonexistent and I just heard of one family that left the school because of the gangs and rotten teachers.
Posted by: swatter on January 12, 2007 07:30 AMeffective, positive problem solvers usually do not trumpet their successes--they move on to the next problem & quitely fix the world.
when solutions prove successful, the Huertas of the world become unemployed. a frightening thought for her ilk who live off of others' toil,sweat, earnings, risks & contributions. my gosh! they would have to support themselves with their own talents & skills--perish the thought!
Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on January 12, 2007 07:56 AMSure we need to get a better handle on who is coming in to this country, and make sure they are paying taxes, etc. but immigration has been a very successful weapon for the left against the right, because the left has convinced the right that it is about the illegals and jobs, which has distracted most conservatives from focusing on their socialist masters, like Huerta.
Given the sorry Marxist state of many people in the Puget Sound, it's no surprise that Huerta gets honored as a hero and is given a forum to indoctrinate our high schoolers.
"Ana Leopold" Add to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
Yahoo! DomainKeys has confirmed that this message was sent by yahoo.com. Learn more
Subject: About your comment in the Sound Politics
To: cambridge9009@yahoo.com
You have to understand a little bit more about
migration patterns in the world across generations and
why US government is more responsible than the other
countries
1. I am Black, not that that makes a difference on this discussion.
2. A failed country is a failed country. The basic duty of any country is to take care of the basic needs of its citizens. The fact that millions of people are voluntarily leaving a country, not as a result of war means that you have a failed country.
3. Why are people not demonstrating in Mexico City or other capitals for government reform so that people can survive in their home countries? Why is the US more responsible than the Mexican government for the care of Mexican citizens?
4. If the US government is responsible for other countries' citizens, shouldn't the US have rights in the way that country is run or are you going to make a sovereinty argument?
The problem is the other countries are failed governments and societies and this country will have to cope with over the next few years from 15 to 40 million migrants.
And isn't this district in the same area as that city (Everett) that decided to spend $250,000 on an image redo?
Left hand-meet right hand.
Posted by: swatter on January 12, 2007 12:36 PMCheck out this Bio info about Ms Huerta, it pretty much says it all about this distributor of hate: http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2074
http://www.heraldnet.com/stories/07/01/15/100let_20070115007.cfm