Emiliano Echeverria and Marcelino Echeverria

00:03 My name is Marcelina echeverria. I'm 22 years old and today's date is June 23rd, 2011. We are in San Francisco, California and I am interviewing Emiliano Chavarria my father.

00:19 And I am really I'm going to chill with you. I am 60 years old. Today's date is June 23rd, 2011 location, San Francisco, California, and I'm being interviewed by my son Marcelino. Good luck.

00:37 So the first question I want to ask you that is how do you identify yourself? And how do you balance different elements of your identity?

00:48 Although you might say Genetically speaking. I am I'm half German and half Guatemalan because there was almost no German families for me to relate to to speak to dogs. It was only has less than a half a dozen people really. I've always identified myself with my Guatemalan family with which there's many many hundreds of people in that family and having been the Guatemala several times spent a part of my childhood there. That's how I identify myself. It was identified myself as a member of the Latino community and how do I balance that with the other half of me is just that I get the best out of all of it. You know, I'm aware of and assimilated into the White American culture. I'm aware of and assimilated into Latin American culture.

01:34 And by cop show so with your allowed in American identity. How do you see a lot of American relations with the United States as they are now and how should they be in an idealized context? Well to describe the relationship between Latin American United States would be probably best described as the relationship that existed between the former Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe of the United States is a dominating factor in the relationship and pretty much chooses to detect dictate the nature of the relationship with countries in Latin America. So the ideal relationship would be with the United States can recognize the sovereignty and integrity of these countries as they do their European partners, for example,

02:25 So I'm going to switch switch tracks a little bit and ask you a little bit about your youths about how the streets shaped you and how you saw the world.

02:40 Well, I grew up in the city and the city is San Francisco in the city of San Francisco here and it's a very urbanized. This is West Coast area code very organized. So you we find you find yourself in a polyglot here. So you you're in a mixture of a lot of different people when I was growing up here. The city was a more working-class City then it is today. There were parts of town for example that you can go to unless you wore the right clothes or knew the right people for example, so a lot of times kids would wear a certain color shoes a certain color pair of pants is a certain color shirt just to be neutral so I can travel from one part of the town that the other so you had to be tough you had to be able to take care of to take care of yourself on the street of somebody won the Mets. Do you have to be able to make it clear to them that it was not to their advantage to do so, so the streets taught you a lot about how to survive that the world was not was not

03:40 Ideal place and that you had to be sharpened on your wits and almost of those traits long after you're off of the streets so you can carry those with you because lyrics to very last for useful in the real world. How is it useful? It's useful in knowing that most of the people who are going to deal with are probably not going to be working or wanting to work in you're in that much coordination and cooperation with you. Then I'll likely that the people you're going to be dealing with in all likelihood of going to try and stab you in the back and you have to just be aware be careful be weary and it not be foolish a naive if you know, what does it mean to be vicious or a backstabber because of the streets if you're a backstabber you don't last long not really, you know, that's another thing about the streets to this and you could say a lot of ways is brutally honest. There's a lot of dishonesty that goes on but in the end is brutally honest, you know, you pay your dues in and you didn't even if you find out whether you can survive a torn

04:40 Those who survived it, you know, you can either end up in the military in prison, or you can actually end up with a job and do something constructive with your life's so hard call to hard call many people go to the streets. Don't make it. It's it's too rough since I can lead us not into temptation, but it tastes not there.

05:04 All of it, you know, I mean I was I was on the street but I was in lecture at the same time. You know, I I I knew what the what didn't it would have been a gangster was about but I also knew the inside of a library museum at the same time. You know, what I decided I wasn't in the gangster mode. I was a museum or Library mode. So I watched that was that was what the streets were about especially since libraries and museums in those days for free.

05:31 You just walk in and check out the knowledge and information so you could be a gangster but still in about being intelligent. So that was what I said.

05:40 I was having protected myself cuz everybody else this piece was walking. That's a walk in the few weren't careful about it. They just nail on you too. Far five people jump on you. So you got to be able to jump off of 45 of the people who survived that I thought you were going to do with it till I get back how to get money to the most the people back.

06:00 When you are as it grew up, you had to enter the workforce and enter the workplace and you've been in eight different labor unions and tell me what that was like working in in our great. I started working as a partner or we could get a car and we bought some cleaning supplies and cleaning stuff and our job and I was like 15 16 years old. We would go out of the middle of the night and we were contracted to clean out the bathrooms of the bars at night, which was it Adventure is itself because sometimes we were there's somebody in that bathroom conked out and it was never as nobody else in the other people have gone. We was only people in the building is our responsibility to gently reject them from the building so that we could do our work you see and

07:00 That was an interesting way to initiate oneself into the workforce. Okay. I've done a lot of construction work over the years. I've been a lot of bugs and plumber and electrician up in the hot carrier been the general labor been tracked layer network cable splicer for the phone company and I did work out for the municipal Railway at the tracleer and operations assistant. I pray that I have all things operate a traffic signal up at the Quinta California Powell Street, which control the movements of the cable cars.

07:34 What kind of work did you like to do versus what kind of worked for birthday got to do not like to be and I like the people or wanted to do that. I was a kid really really wanted to be was a person involved in radio programs. I wanted that to be my career at so when I was in my teens, I was just coming out of middle school. I was just my first year of high school. I wanted I found out about this radio station that it might provide a place for me to put my foot through the door what radio station will the MPX here in San Francisco? It was where the concept of FM rock or album Rock was formulated back in 1967 with gentleman by the name of John donoghue became famous in the SEC tivity. And because I had gone to the top 40 station said want to try to break in their right but I found out how old are the DJs there were all these older guys and that's what it was all locked down.

08:34 As I get to be an after I had to be lives going to do that for 15 year old that's buried his body doesn't give you a lot of the courage When You're 15 years old you want to break in and you realize the San Francisco Bay Area Market. You notice its top 5 Media Markt to know it's like used to give you got to do your time of the swamps first. Do do you think so but I didn't do my time my time in the bottom end of the F was the top of the FM Domino's die on days FM was toilet paper FM. Nobody gave a darn about toilet paper and I'll write them for that matter because FM was owned by individuals then and their money losers big money losers that they were tax write-offs and it's a guy named Leon Crosby on kmpx. He specialize in foreign language broadcast. So we brought something different to a station. I twice a week. I was just at least the little guy working on the bunch of giants, you know who are doing some great stuff and I was a little kid come along to learn and help and stuff like that in the bud.

09:34 But when they had problems with the ownership, I went out with the group of people at the same time and a few weeks later Martin Luther King was killed and the radio bug bit me one more time again, so I went over to kpfa in Berkeley because they were the ones were putting out the relevant political stuff because the other people were and we're not and then would Camp Marston to ksan with them and work with them, but I was kind of like an addiction to once so you left Camp EX4 kpfa primarily for music or political reasons to date.

10:11 1968 like I said, Martin Luther King was got killed at this time at this time to San Francisco newspapers were on strike two School teachers were on strike Bobby. Kennedy got killed you. See this is a very very Dynamic time does draft riots and demonstrations going out against the Vietnam war against the draft Joan Baez getting thrown in the back of a Paddy Wagon and all the stuff is going on. You see so everybody's getting caught up in it. Everybody's still got it in you look at television footage of the time and see how many people were just to know and I'm a saying that the sins of the changing part of the change was the cultural change in part of the cultural change was freeform radio you see it. So I got involved why did reform radio freeform radio was the idea of you seeing in commercial regular commercial corporate driven Ray Donovan today? That's the case you would you play off of a playlist of your DJ radio you play a playlist Universal clipboard?

11:11 Who played this so you play this commercial time weather Sports, then you would play this to you play this to you play this all down the line. You don't have any creative input nothing you just reading to do what you got to do that corporate commercial radio freeform radio have the time have the weather had the news we didn't have supports but we we have a certain times we had to do things, but we can choose to buy music we played and we could choose when we put the gun we would give it all to you this half-hour. You got to play these commercials put them on when you will get them on. Okay fine. So sometimes you just group of at the end of the half hour before up all the way through and then play music all the way through but I'm sometimes we didn't already talked sometimes with babbel the wait was just whatever we felt like doing, you know, we would play Billie Holiday, for example, you play, you know, the Beatles so that we play Sunrise by John Coltrane or Mothers of Invention or Ravi Shankar.

12:06 Or basil in the show all in the same half hour. That was it was it was kind of like College radio gone amok. Okay. So that's what we were doing except this time. We were making a commercial venture out of it and we were the first to make the commercial thing work College radio been doing it for a long time. But we were the first to make it viable and guess what ABC picked up on the all kinds of Metro media, which became Clear Channel all these people bought into the idea. And so it was a genre of radio programming that happen for a while, but when we were doing it, but but they all picked it up it became more and more and more and more and more rock rock rock rock rock. You know album run, but the way it started out

12:54 Was an Eclectic mix of different forms of Music Pleasant together. I don't even go on kpfa because I still have the Opera I could do my own shows and keep your faith and not have that kind of control. I didn't have to say it play Salem cigarette commercials. I didn't have to play the American FM news broadcast in 15 minutes 20 seconds past the hour and it was a very reactionary broadcast. We're try to be balanced and you know, I'm glad that they're blasting in this.

13:24 This feed from New York, but supposed to relate to anything we're doing it all but that's what we have to pay for is he so damn company corporatization corporate makes you do that you see.

13:36 Well, it wasn't hard because you see how it went when we went out of Cam PX. We were on the street in front of the radio station and so is the last time I said tell Daddy I said, well, you know, I want to go and I want to learn more production skills. I want to know more of the skills of the things as well. There was a lady who worked at knp, actually with Katie John since you no longer with us, but she rest in peace good lady nice people. Anyway, she was an engineer and she said you need to go to kpfa kpfa. They have a guy there named Bob bergstresser and he is he's good at teaching people healed to lay it all down for you. So what haven't met the guy and he just leave. We only lay one piece of law down to me. You said you got to be on time here. You do radio you down as a second if you're two minutes late don't show up.

14:23 Just don't bother what he said. Yeah, because if the news is going to be on the hour and 40 minutes late. I'm just 2 minutes a day are the waste anybody's time so that became the first lesson I learned in life about anything about was called reliability punctuality accountability.

14:45 You know and if your kid on the street a lot and you have that attitude. Nobody could tell me nothing and this guy is telling you about you show up about you this late. Otherwise, I'll be flaking out on you who you to tell me he was going to tell me this stuff is so but I wanted to learn it so swallowed my tongue and just a little kids do it. So I learned it took me a little bit of time and you better learn how to do all kinds of radio. I did. I did a transmitter engineering I did production engineering I worked in drama and literature. I worked in music. I worked in in public affairs at work to news that were to reception. I'd almost all kaiware many many have to keep your favorite of yours. So was it has been over this is not just 2011 so that I was sixty-eight that's of 43 years and counting. I hold I will start holding records endurance records if you will at the place very soon.

15:45 Which is kind of fun to what did you do at? Kpfa? Did you what kind of music did you play? What kind of issues did you talk about it when I first went to kpfa. My program was basically a mirror of what I had done at kmpx, which was The Eclectic radio, but over time and the show by first show lasted about two years and I started I was like FM rock my way. Then I started getting more eclectic. I started spotting or what not. We used to call it ethnic music then I would call it World music but I've tried music from all over the world. I threw a European classical music, I threw in the Gard electronic music. I throw in the Grateful Dead I throw and whatever, you know, I would just take this bushel of stuff and throw it on the earth. Am I show you see that show with those Daisy I'll have to come 11:30 at night until 7 in the morning six and a half hours blasting 59000 watts of power Oliver North

16:45 California and I'm 19 years old ain't that a thrill? You know, ain't that something couldn't do it. Then those days the door was open I so I squeezed in you say so by the time I finish doing that I had an interruption in my radio career for the y z. I got a letter from Uncle Sam and said greetings and when you got to let her know those days from Uncle Sam to say Greetings that meant that you had to go over to play some Oakland the to call the Oakland induction Center. So did you get your ass drafted into the army? Okay, and I didn't feel like it you see how I was ahead of Nancy Reagan. You see I learn how to just say no. Okay. And so what I told me the job in the US Army instead you see stand-up this a step forward to signify your consent to join a step forward. Step forward.

17:41 You have not consented you are not drafted. It is a ceremony you go through this signifies your acceptance of the consent of your slavery into the US Military.

17:53 Lots of Feet Don't Fail Me Now

17:56 Don't fail me now feat so I stood right there stood right there stupid. Okay, those of you we have an FBI agent is he? Okay fun FBI FBI agent if I could waive my right side going to waive anything away by the way of everything so I've been slowly was

18:18 I was so course. I've never I wasn't arrested I surrendered. Of course, it was arraigned and I was prosecuted and convicted of refusal to submit to induction and I did some time over it and came out and resumed but things had gone things have been happening even before I went in that he was beginning to affect me. I was invited down during the summer of 1972 Los Angeles, California to hang out with some friends was going to be in any War demonstration. Let's all go hang out there. Okay. Well

18:56 Those known as a Chicano moratorium several people got killed that day. I was a police Riot and it was horrible horrible horrible thing and it really traumatized me. I made a heavy effect on what traumatized what happened. Well, it was like I said, it was a police Riot and when you sing Feliz going after young people with their using their batons, like baseball bats on kids heads and you seen blood all over the place and just Jill been just girls being ganged up in Vietnam with billy clubs. It was not a pretty sight. And when you're a young kid like that and you just seen that was younger than you and I saw that I just said it was like it was during the effort. This is a copy of dirty Mexicans. Are you fix it on this kind of stuff is coming back to being thrown out and I was just seeing all this going on. I realized I said this and I have been seen the police riots going on in San Francisco State from 1968. I saw I was around for People's Park with a Chicano moratorium.

19:56 Something different because it got lethal and even the People's Park. Lethal to the Chicano moratorium because it was race driven was particularly vicious because they would go into the people's how they would choose people in the homes and beat people in and very hard.

20:16 You know, I well I was down there for the demonstration because the lot of us in San Francisco. We're going we're going down there because of the last of community up here. We want to express solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Los Angeles and then ended our brothers and brothers were offered fighting the war is because you know that there was a tremendous about it. I think those were being drafted and called off to war and and we will bring you back a tremendous amount of deaths and casualties. So that was a tremendous amount of a deformed my identity as well. So when I came out of doing time for being drafted I worked with a gentleman by the name of our daughters and we just started the collective call communicates going to spawn and we began the first bilingual Community radio program that serve the entire Northern California serve Latino Chicano community and our archive programs exist in the field of archives on Valencia Street here in San Francisco. So our work exists survive to the door.

21:17 But we laid the groundwork for Brooklyn Cyclones. I buy he done so many other programs then I'll fill the airwaves out here with the programs for the Latino community and you'll see you didn't work as soon as Lonnie also did freedom is a constant struggle. Would you talk a little bit about that program a program that actually had many names many days is different times different producers at various times that I was at the executive producer for its last eight years. We were a collective of individuals of cutting-edge radicalism. Some of one of our members was the next Black Panther and other vital records does expound parade is a couple of our members were involved in the prison movement. It's so we had we had a bridge across Creek resident came to to being radical service to the community bring out different messages and different stuff. You would hear in any of the radio show, of course, so

22:16 The program was produced on Saturdays to always on Saturdays originally was a midnight called the midnight Flash and overtime at got the title freedom is a constant struggle. It was also at various times Belton owners. Nothing is more precious than Independence and freedom. We had a real knack for picking long title to see if you see but the point was if you tuned in our shows you got yourself an edumacation you may like it you may not like it but it was a point of view that needed to be expressed just because it was something that it's at the point of view, you know, whether you like or don't like it's okay, but it's there and it's offered to you.

22:55 That was my whole point of it was it don't have to like what I have to say. I don't give a damn if anybody agrees with me really just listen to me and then you can judge for yourself.

23:07 So on radio you not only talked a lot about social and political and economic issues of the times you also we're doing music as well put you to talk to me about your adventures in music and how that will evolved like I mentioned to you earlier. I've started in the radio business in the rock and roll world. I also worked outside of radio doing in concert working in concert presentation. I had my own venue for a brief time. I had fun doing that but the got bought out. I had a lot of promotion work. I ran across the young guy named Joe Martinez was also in the same thing. We were talking the same passing years later became of my very best friends. And so but after I came out I was doing a lot of programming and so I wanted to focus my cultural emphasis in the direction of I Community as well as a kid as it turned out. I came across the movie.

24:07 The mission cuz I knew from before Roberto Vargas and Poets like that or Victor Hernandez Cruz or other buddies. I crave balber Andre Rivera or you know other guys in the street. So we used to know that I got got into the movement. You know, we were straight guys. We were all guys who hung the streets but when we got politicized not been it's pretty scary when you pull it is when you're on the winning from the streets and your politicized for some reason that really scares the bejesus out of people because they know, you know what to do when you know, what's going on and sew in the mission. We we we began to create a genre of progressivism that exists to this day the weather had a street-level Grassroots feel to it. One of the ways we did a culturally was there was a new form of music that wasn't really knew it all it was but it was new to our generation. There was a guy who grew up on 26th and Capp Street. His name was well wait to call Charlie gas, but it was Carlos Santana.

25:06 Okay, it's a Carlos cool. My mom knew his mom and Julie lived across the street from him. He be in some of his friends. They did this thing called Latin Rock the Latin Rock included use of Latin African percussion instruments. I can Bongos going guys are weirdos and stuff like that. And so some of us grew up I did grew up with the music that that informed Carlos Santana, I grew up with bettas, but I grew up with my Cheeto I grew up with Tito Puente group at all. Those famous New York Latin jazz musicians and some of his issues that came out of Cuba like bending with a or or I guess I'll go and we listen to music and stuff. So we knew what they were about assoc. Santana comes along and comes up with this to call you, by which turns out to be a student to pose by Tito Puente which turned out to be an adaptation of a cute cartoon couples back A Child Called chanchullo so weird

26:06 We would make these connections and that's what we do informing the public into it. Eventually. I became very involved with the presentation of the music of Cuba. And the reason I did that was because to me this officer that was coming out of New York in the 70s was getting a very industrial flavor. The music was sounding very very just two plastic to was in Spanish two rhythms with good musicians were fine. But the way the records were being made was demeaning the sound too much at the same time in Cuba. There was a music of Cuba had evolved password south of which was basically derived from the 40s and the Cuban music Cuban music was evolving with Coupe cyclist fun family board and tile orchestre veve and they were putting a whole other sound of it, which was more aggressive more Jazzy more harmonically done. But because there was no communication between the United States and Cuba musically just didn't kill by literally was an island growing up separately musically from us here. So I decided as

27:06 Can we play the Cuban music because no one plays it here cuz you don't get sit. So that's that's what what we started doing. And so the show has been very well received. We we have an international reach now because we go over the internet and I have people listen to show in Japan Indonesia at Tennessee, Texas Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, and Cuba goes online later this year. I won't believe I have listened is there as well but the idea of the show is to basically not let the establishment of this country Blacklist culture.

27:45 Are you going to give me or may not like Fidel Castro? That's fine. But Cuban music and its culture does not have to be punished because our country doesn't like an individual.

27:57 So we've been talkin about music and I wanted and radio and in politics want to do slightly shift gears to another very important part in your life. And that is your avidlove for a public transportation starting from when you're young I grew up in San Francisco.

28:24 Demi Lovato I go for the San Francisco. We were at transit town. So I rode the transit from the time. I was very young going everywhere. That was my car wouldn't I don't have a car so I was in my twenties so I don't think so. I just took the transit everywhere. I enjoy riding the cable cars, which of those days were the same price with everything else and those things we had old time street car. So they were fun to ride when they went away. I missed all that and I got interested in the history of the but I also like the workings. I've been getting into and realizing that the importance of Transit the importance of getting people around importance of the fact that our society without MAT Transit is Isabel choked to death. So I chose that as another career as the times when doing the one of the ways when construction was getting a little slow. I got into working for the San Francisco Municipal Railway and I'll say this to me and I spell Railway the concept of a of a publicly-owned transit system is is really the way to go but at 4

29:24 Municipal Railway needs some major major work to get it to self set. Right and I will not elaborate on that accept that say that needs a lot of work. It's a bad shape but having said that though, I would say the San Francisco is among the most well-served cities by public transit anywhere in the world. There's very few places in San Francisco. You walk 25 to get to public transit. So yeah, I spent Alive written several books on the history of San Francisco public transit. I head over there about the cable cars anything to Century or 20th century when mass transit the evolution of mass transit from small businesses and two large corporations is an interesting one happened in the late eighteen hundreds and and it's it's an interesting Evolution because

30:18 Didi Didi Mega corporations were put together to operate these Transit companies only to find out that they were incredible money loses. Transit is a money-losing business. It'll never make money. It needs to be subsidized fully not just some stupid way. They do it now, which is ridiculous. Only they say we have to get 1/3 for the fair box of pens with them. You can't do it like that. There are times. I need to let me how many how much does a police get paid every time they go and arrest a burglar, you know it okay $25 for the burglar fire department under fifty bucks for a fire needs to be protected her house on fire. You know our teachers in school. We are teachers in public schools should charge you to go to school at principal says, okay hundred fifty bucks a month. No same with public transit. I get out. We have fares aperture have fares, but it's it's it's labor-intensive capital-intensive. It's labor-intensive. It can't get it for nothing you have to do. It's got to be paid for and it got to be too. Don't do it right and do it efficiently.

31:16 But the dumps about to put it in a nutshell via public transit is a z a blood that is the best source of blood vessels of Honor Society. But I'm at the transit flagellate automobile has proven to not be the answer. It was nice that was fun. But let's get down to business. Let's get down to business to take care of of our society. It was fun and

31:42 What is your wisdom for for future Generations? Okay, here's one of us will make the lawn.

31:54 Was a respect to the establishment of religion or the free exercise thereof or inhibit the freedom of speech or of the ability to assemble peaceably you see that's about the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. That's the best piece of wisdom. I can give you really is the ability to worship freely the ability to speak freely to have your mind of your own is a very subjective very very subversive thing is to have a mind of your own always have a mind if you don't don't follow as Bobby Dylan used to say don't follow leaders, you know, how it look at allies and most important of all take care of your health.

32:34 Take care of your health because of body is the Temple of the mind and without the body in good shape to bind falters and to always always always even though I have one eye I can tell you I have X-ray vision always see through the nonsense in the bladder the people present as the what they say is real true. Go check it go find out to take anybody's word for a lot of liars schemers and sharks and steaks out there and the best thing you can do. That's what you learned from the streets, you know know who's real and who's going to rain and treat them accordingly.

33:14 Prince symbol

33:26 Well, I can tell you it starts out that it's just a bunch of families at this is a places. They used to call it Laguna park. Now they call it Ruben Salazar Park was that business that day it was basically you're seeing, you know kids playing, you know mothers fathers and the kids then the lawn you like in the Golden Gate Park and I like a little like it like when you go to the rock concerts in Golden Gate Park people spell like Stern Grove. This was the kind of like that except we were going to have to head speakers against the war and all that kind of thing. So it's a piece of A Gathering the police say that there was a liquor store being robbed.

34:13 Two blocks away from the park and use that as a pretext to go into the park. There are recordings that exists of this audio recordings that exists of this happening and it is pretty frightening to hear. Can I play the Mana? I did a show playing these aquariums in which the police just went while they just went crazy and the kids are lost looking for their parents, you know, it was just a complete scene of chaos people are running into houses to get away from the police. The police are running in the house of after people to beat them. And then later on in the afternoon Ruben Salazar who was a TV reporter kind of like any of the TV forward as you see today and channels in the record. He was he was a Chicano but he was the first one and he was sitting having a drink with his buddies at the Silver Dollar Cafe. Just sitting there just and the police on a rumor that there was a somebody with a gun in there.

35:11 Got a tear gas canister and fired it right through a 12-inch projectile right through Ben Salazar's at it blew his head off.

35:22 When you are trained to use those things are trained not to be used as anti-personnel weapons. And so one of the major voices of the Chicano Community was taken at a time and he was a voice of moderation. He was not a radical power to the people kind of speaker. A Brown Beret anything you'd like to use a TV reporter. TV reporters are there if you paid for it with his life.

35:49 No, I didn't know him because we ran in different worlds. I ran in the world of alternative Community radio. He was breaking into the commercial television world and everybody was very proud of the way. I knew we was but it would be like seeing somebody was a say your community radio in doing the somebody was a channel 5 or Channel 7. You just ran in different worlds. You might know each other but the chances are you didn't you know, but no I did not know the man know. Also.

36:20 I was in San Francisco Bay Area News Los Angeles. So we were aware of his work. Everybody was aware of his work.

36:30 But you seem to remember those people at Corky Gonzales in Denver. There was Jose Jose Angel Gutierrez in Crystal City, Texas Merit Cecil Travis here in California was but good or not in La there was a little sketchy out here was just so much going on so much energy happening to try and describe the energy that was happening in the 70s. When what people were Awakening and discovering that you didn't have to have brown skin and be ashamed of yourself.

37:01 You see you didn't have to look down and Shane when somebody said are you Mexican?

37:08 Are you one of those? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. What about it man? You care? What about it? I'm like to know where I am. I'm proud of it.

37:21 The beat

37:23 Well, we don't we didn't know what was going to happen. We just we've been I've been the demonstrations in San Francisco Benny X reader. What I was worried about was seeing how the cops were surrounding the thing and they had it set for every bite surrounded. I was very lucky because I was very I I knew how to handle demonstrations with cops cuz we had enough of them up here. I need sort of their tactic. I knew when they would do the Flying Wedge. I do other little stuff that they would get it too. So I know how to I know how to play dodgeball with those people and I was very successful. I never got an octave one demonstration. All those years got close but never got knocked but so when the things started going off,

38:06 Oh chicken me just said, you know what an emoji on out of here. So I just compared to get all right side. I saw my friends and I said we got it. I got it. I got it out of here cuz you don't listen so we got out of the park and we got into a friend's apartment a few blocks away. And then we just watched.

38:27 And that was all you could do just watched because you couldn't get you couldn't fight those people those people had that they were they had to go and they wanted to go and they want to have to have it every time with it.

38:39 So that if that's an Inogen extension of Missouri or question about relations with Latin America, what's the ideal relationship but I do relationship is when a brown person or a black person or a white person from Latin America or angel can walk the streets of this country as an equal and full dignity and I don't have to hear a senator blaming our people.

39:07 For the fact that climate change is destroying these forests.

39:12 And I don't I find that patently offensive that are politicians does very date use us and our people as whipping boys and it's got to stop and then we could have stopped is when people declare it unacceptable and I'm talking about on just about our people there. We are able to educate the other communities the white Community the Asian Community the black community that like them we're not going to take it and we have our right to stand with our heads held high dignified proud people know people of the sun people of this Earth and of this land,

39:52 Would you talk a little bit also about your it work with the migrant Farm Workers?

39:59 As a kid

40:01 I was involved in doing some work during one of the Summers. This is 1965 / 2 part of the summer 1965 doing some Harvest work in Delano, California quite unbeknownst to me at the time. There was a lot of turmoil going on regarding the unionization of the fields were two unions happen the agricultural workers organizing committee or a walk. That was run by a Filipino gentleman by the name of Larry at The Young and the other National Farm Workers Association run by children by the name is Cesar Chavez who was who was trained by Fred Ross who is trained by Saul Alinsky in community organizer. So Chaves was not just doing it off the flight. He knew what he was doing and Larry did 2 and as I became very aware that there was organizing going on. So as everybody else around me join the union. I also joined to what the heck right and so on and for me was not a big thing he was because I was I had to go back in

41:01 Scorpion the summer anyway, but for that time, I would allow myself to other two turned out a week after I went back to school to those two unions merged with United Farm Workers. So I still have my little buddy welga strike nice for Farm Workers Association. I still have my little Union button, but it was only a very like I know to be real about it was very brief that involve then High School. I got involved with other students at organizing picket lines for boycotts of Safeway at Lucky stores and other supermarkets that would carry non-union products. So we would throw up these farmworker pick up lines at the station of the supermarkets and let this for the public know and Shane. We were out there to shame the markets.

41:48 Into buying the union product has any product they were a union agreements happening there where Union grapes on the market. Let's switch over to the union grapes and they finally did but it took it took years of boycotting years of fighting in years of this and years of that, but I got the foothold but it's because the Farm Workers were smart enough.

42:15 Assessor Travis was smart enough to reach out into the outside Community into the urban communities of the Latinos to provide that Solitary Man back of the smart to do that and we came through we all came through together. We want that small foothold and still small foothold much more needs to be done. They'll be the first to admit it.

42:38 Your butt.

42:40 You know, there's a bit like the name of the program says.

42:44 Freedom is a constant struggle. It requires vigilance. It's like to see the Bill of Rights. Don't lose it. Don't let your leaders convince you with Patriot Act and other things to Fritter away your rights the most important wisdom. I'll ever give anybody protect your rights and you don't have to be in the military to protect you right? You just have to be vigilant. You have to make sure your politicians aren't sneaking stuff around you have to demand and I think people need to demand of their news organizations and of their electronic media professional real Integrity journalism instead of the crap we get today with celebrity worship and sensationalism. That is just ruining the fabric of our democracy.

43:37 Alright, so we have just about one more minute to you have I suppose any last words or less know my last thoughts on any of this is

43:54 I always say remember not to forget and remember not to forget means just that remembering that there is a history that we do have a story and that there is a story of solidarity as story of resistance of story of struggle. It's very intricate to our people and not only are people but everybody in this country that's got to steer a story of struggle whether you're a poor white with labor, but your personal color is working in the factory or in the field is the story of struggle that your freedom be vigilant is protected. Don't let other people steal it from you. Don't let him sleep it away.

44:27 Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity.