American Journey; 103

Dr Myers is not a visitor. He's one of us. and it's good to be home. Back to the home church where I was licensed to preach the gospel, where the Lord took me... as a very young student at the University of Wisconsin... His career here was up and down some of his performance was truly remarkable. Very good he's a very bright person. And other times it was just abysmal. I told Ron on, on, on a number of occasions-uh- at least several occasions that really he ought to choose what he wanted to do in life whether it was medicine or whether it was of his role as a as a minister or as a musician They all kind of flow out of the same thing. A'right where'd you hurt

yourself at son. I see medicine as a means of ministry instead of uh, uh maybe speaking the word of God, or teaching the Word of God, and constantly, I'm actually touching people and helping to uh, heal their bodies through medicine. Tchula is a Mississippi Delta town. The Delta it is a unique area of the country because of the fact that it's a just about all flat. Fact'a one of the surprising things when I came to the Delta I could jus' for miles of flat land. But it's a very poor area and Tchula has about a population of 2,200. And in fact they lost their only industry they had which was a sawmill in fact.

Now they're about to have about 80 percent unemployment rate. So we have a poor agricultural based town in need of a lot of assistance. Let's face it most people when they finish their residency they want to come out and make some bucks. And they're not interested in poor medicine. Many of them not interested in seeing Medicaid patients 90 percent of my patients on Medicaid Medicare. Always felt close to Tchula. The former mayor of Tchula, Eddie [unclear] and I met him while I was in Madison as a medical student and the first thing I did when I pulled into Mississippi with all my bags back to my car I went by Tchula and met Eddie Carfan [?] and I said look I'm going to be in the area and I hope I can get in here to Tchula to see some patients. [Alfio Rausa] The problem has been that it's not an attractive area where you want

to send your kids to school raise your family and you know if you're a farmer or a hunter you may enjoy the Tchula area but you've got to go elsewhere for your recreation and for your education. I mean there's not a great deal of excitement that goes on in Tchula. They told me that Tchula was too poor for a doctor. And that I would be in financial ruin if I came here. In the history of Tchula we've had eight or ten physicians over a 10 or 15 year period that had gone and set up practice there through National Health Service Corps. But they were you know they did their obligation and then they marched on to other areas similar. [unclear] to me that if there was a doctor in a resident coming to a place like Tchula they would give me some grant assistance to get in here. But I found out that in many ways our government writes the poor off. And that even made more determined to get in here and provide the services that were needed.

I heard from the lady I'm seeing that you know she came here and she told me you know understanding about people with low incomes. I felt like in a city they have like a program to help people when they in a bind or help the mother and child when they leave you know husband. Here, you know there's nothing. There's no kind of resource anybody to turn to. I'm back. She had a bad infection I just needed some antibiotics. The follow up from a doctor. The problem was she didn't have any insurance and money and these doctors will not give you the time of day particularly for the person without you know the Medicaid card. OK you can go. Wait don't worry about the 300 dollars, okay? [unclear] Are you worried about maybe losing your child? Yeah

[unclear] You're real brave you know that? When I got my blood drawn I screamed and kicked and asked for my momma and everything. But I want you home resting in bed. No lifting. I want you relaxing. If you have a gush of blood or some severe cramps something like that you call me. I'm gonna give you my card. You call me and ah just [unclear] again is having some cramping and I'm really concerned that we might be looking at a situation that might require some emergency surgery. Listen I'm gonna have turn you up to Greenwood. See Dr. Evans okay. Cuz I think that I want him to take a look at you because I'm concerned about the pain you having and the bleeding. How ya doin? Yeh, looking for Dr. Evans. Hello there how you doing? I'm looking for a Doctor Evans. This is Dr. Myers. OK what is his home number. Let me

leave my number. If you see him tell him to call me over here in Tchula at... So I'm trying to find him now. I try calling the hospital. I called him at home. He wasn't around but I'm sure with the next 10 15 minutes he's going to call back. I know from the results of the test several of the situation was could be an ectopic pregnancy and that's always always a dangerous situation. A person can bleed to death very quickly. So I wanted to get her to an obstetrician gynecologist as quickly as possible. And of course the local one, the one that was the closest wouldn't respond and so i ended up having to a one that was almost three times distance away but she did thank the Lord that she's she's fine. I've been a musician all my life. In fact I played all through medical school. And I think there's an example of

famous musican. A nobel peace prize winner I believe [unclear name] and he was a musician. What are the problems you know that you would take off. He's a musician as you know. If you don't know he's accomplished pianist and he plays a good jazz piano. He had strange hours that he would make rounds at hospitals sometimes near midnight. By the time he got around to doing what he had to do. You could put yourself out so much that just so tired that you were not going to be at your best. That's a that's a concern. I have to do a better job of taking care of myself.

And um, Which means that um if I will be around for a long haul of these problems that people have is going to have to be. That its going to have to, I can't do it all. And that's sad. This is where I um originally came to Milwaukee. This neighborhood I would play in around here You know one of saddest things about coming home as many of my friends I grew up with you know they're dead. One of my close for the girl was just shot down on Akins.

What a sad sad to see the killing. And I think really. You know I think many ways as a black church we've failed. We're failing our community in terms of our lack of really having an impact on this whole problem you know cause a black males ending up an endangered species We need your touch. As a look at the community. The problems facing us Lord we need to touch. Your word says says have faith has the size of a mustard seed. You can say to a mountain it need move and it will move We take our faith.

In a mustard seed. Lord I look to You. Ask anybody how many white Anglo-Saxon Americans lives in a suburb. Knows was a migrant worker does. You know one of the reasons is that's why our the food is so cheap. I mean you go to any food store and the prices of vegetables you know we think oh my god its so cheap and you know that the reason

is because people are working and working and working and not getting paid for all of their hours The way America keeps the food cheap We decided we wanted a different life for our children we didn't want them to migrate. And I think that we did real good because winded up with an attorney in the family. My parents and. My relatives. The Cerveras. A lot of people supported me. So I was able to get pretty far. However a lot of the my friends are not as fortunate as I am. It's just it's. Really kind of difficult. For them because it is. So hard to break out of the migrant restraint. Basically this is a picture of when I was. Seven months

old I think I was first learning to walk or something. And you can see this is this is Kleinman. And I think it's Aunt Nellies's now this is the house where we used to live. This one I was I think a year old And this is the next year at Kleinman. So that's Kleiman again I guess that was my second truck. Through the camps and I've grown. I was always a little bit behind in school. All the Kindergartners had to -We're in a big circle in the middle and in order to get out of the circle you had to count to 13. And I was a very last child in the circle and I would start. Teacher would say OK Jean your turn. OK one two three. quatro,cinco, seis, siete, ocho you know and I'd get all the way to 13 and she'd say no that's wrong. You stay in that circle you can count and so you know you just you know you have this ingrained that you're somehow like inferior. But

you have to overcome that and eventually just compete. Basically I keep these pictures here because it's it's something from my past and it reminds me of where I came from and. And where I need to go and not to forget the people who are who are still at these camps and to remember always that the conditions and the exploitations are still there and are still alive. These are the camps this is where I used to live. Hopefully I'll be going to see is one of my relatives are still coming up they've been coming up for more than 25 Years. So I still have family at this camp. My grandmother came up until last year except now she's pushing 60 something years old so it's about time for her to get out of the migrant stream and just take care of herself. This is where i used to live this one right here

Hi my name is Jenny Cervera and I'm an attorney for legal action at Madison and i was coming to see how everything was going and if you had a new car. Or questions. I mean you're - Questions like what. Pertaining to the camp? Yeah my opinion is this camp is outdated. I used to come here when my parents were newly married and I was about three years old and I was just my first time back for like 20 years and more than 25 years now and it's the same, todo da igual, I still live in that house over there. and at that that time that was just one house. Now what they did was they divided it if you will to try to do as they pack them now We don't have a stink inside because we don't have drainage we don't have faucets . None of these buildings that are here do. So this is where I wash my dishes This is where I drain them and this is my my. Where I rinse them and where I drain them. And the floor. Well. We don't have any carpets so we don't have a linoleum

you know if we want to we can get it ourselves. You know. But I think these are the newest ones. That's a tractor that's a field thats a corn field or something right here. We're surrounded by fields and it's the company's and they work there and they. The tractor go's You know all day long. Oh this is my uncle my uncles house Hey I'm at the wrong door, how are you? [Tractor Noises] My debts are going up in 1950 and they were pretty much the same. With the exception that later on they build them there brown ones over there. Of course the outhouses they built later on, over the years Nothings changed. It's the very same, its a section of a few windows

a paint here and there. But you know the casitas are falling down. And I think I Well they've been like this for 40 years. Yeah, Yeah I mean the outhouses I think my goodness it's 1990 let's try to get some water inside the house and running water. I suppose there are other places that are worse. Migrant workers are very vulnerable they're out in the sticks somewhere in Wisconsin where there's really no legal advocates that are looking after their interests. You know I would never want to work in an L.A. Law type firm I'm not. Their focus is on a lot off my focus is to help the people. And that's what I was educated for is to help the people and to be the representative and consul not to grab the gold ring. Oh yes. Hello! hi!

[Spanish chatter] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish] Ok. We'll see If you help paul. If you help paul you have a right to receive wages for that OK so if they only paid one person that's not right, the laws are that everybody is supposed to get paid for hauling. OK so I'm going to give you a calendar okay. but you have to make sure you keep real good Records okay?? because you shouldn't rely on the employers records for hours. Alright? So you keep all of your records of the hours you spent plowing weighing, picking ,buying. Our rights to a vehicle of the employer says. No you shouldn't keep those hours we're not going to pay you for those hours. I don't care because you're entitled to get

paid. OK. Well nice meeting all you guys. [child laughter] [Music and child laughter] [Music] These are the showers and they're pretty scary. You can follow me, I'm going to the area where they do their laundry Breeze. And last year they were having problems because every time you tried to use the laundry The machine, you'd get electrical shocks. And I can't tell you if it has been repaired or not. It's still pretty bad. There's electrical wiring all around all on the floor And it's all wet So whenever somebody

wanted to do any laundry, they would get real severe electrical shock Basically before this building was used to house livestock and now it's housing one game I don't want to. And this is one of the. unpleasant conditions that I see in the Wautoma Area [Music] [Dog Bark]

I don't want to pick a fight with legal actionI just uh, and this this year so far is fine I just don't like the surprises they pull out here once in a while of things that's going on you don't even know about I got 36 Cents Thirty 36 to 40 cents a bucket Figure 50 percent of the crop. If they don't make it on 50 percent of the crop they are Guaranteed the minimum wage. I mean we have a we take a lot of money but we also spend a tremendous we're spending almost over 21 percent on workman's comp and unemployment. Social Security and I mean I know the people need the money that's for sure but it's still I have to look at it as. You know your pain six seven percent sometimes for unenployment on your whole total payroll.That's a whole lot of money. We think that if the people would come to us instead of running the legal action that we'll solve all the problems that need to be

solved. They don't need to go to legal action every time they got a little problem. The sad thing is I'm going to be moving into San Francisco. However I've just accepted a position with the Environmental Protection Agency and I'm going to be Carrying a big stick and trying to make sure that big corporations don't exploit the environment. I go back. Year after year. And it's the same thing. The same thing year after year and it's really sad. If the only way that they can succeed that these growers can succeed is by the explotation of workers. That's not. Thats not right. I mean you don't see that McDonald's why should you see that. The secretary that works here

Gave it to me. and I'm probably gonna put it up in my new office [Laughter]. I'm burnt. But I think that it's something that every attorney who does has to have a job has to deal with it. Just Burning out doesn't mean that there's not Going to be another client at your doorstep tomorrow. Okay you're working out in the fields with your mom? Okay you have the right to get paid some money for that ok? They shouldn't be los olvidados, the forgotten ones because they're there. and we have to remember that when you buy your food because when you pick a vegetable you pick up a fruit. You have to remember that it was you. Got it.