Royal Chicano Air Force #34

Tell me stuff that way. They want me any questions and I'll be stringing together a few days of state. Statements one after another. So you got to tell the story. Actually there are four. Sentences that go because he wanted to. I can't use that. But if you say. I. Was Crazy. From this. You've seen 60 minutes before right. Yes. So I'm coming at you or never. That's why I like it. I'm. He wasn't waiting for that one. Yeah OK. Do we need to let anybody close by that we're starting there. Yes. It's not really if it

wasn't really there with their motto is that you know this. Yeah you know yeah yeah. After I said it I went OK do we want that note thing in the fourth. Okay Juanita Let's start off on it you tell me about your rank and distinction about your rank. My rank with the RCAF you mean. Well as far as I know the RCAF guy said that the general himself has told me that I'm the only one the only female that has made it to a general status without loosing any stripes. I never got demoted So

I'm still high ranking up there according to the guys. All right. But let's talk a little bit about your background. Here now to five. One two three four five. Your instrument. OK. Tell me the story about working in the fields and smart ass sons of the growers and what they would do for fun back in those days. Tell me that. Tale. You're talking about the time in Texas right. OK that's during the time that I lived in the valley down southern Texas. And this was before I came

and migrated to California. But during those times. The racism in Texas is practically unlike any other state. And and it's high in other states especially in the south. But unlike the racism in Texas and. I lived in West Texas very close to the border we would visit the town right on the Rio Grande the border. And sometimes when the water was low. In their field around there I would stand on top of the border looking down at the river and I would see little bodies. Big bodies all

sizes below that and. And we all knew their. Meaning the people in the local area that it was the P.T. boat that ranges that we call the Texas Rangers. That would. Go on the river at night time scoping with their big lights up and down the river. People that were passing across either in boats or swimming across the border across the river and. That a nightmare that I still half. To this day I still dream about those bodies. OK. All right take a deep breath for me. I want to get a lot of oxygen in there because I have a bunch or. I stood. Up. Tell me about him.

Tell me about working in the fields and along with the planes. You should get it because you know about the size of the farmer and. All the state of US me to remember some of my childhood. That story in Texas when I was living over there and another one that comes to mind is this. I still dream about and another one was the growers for. Kids For example when they were of age that they could drive or fly a crop duster on the norm. It was the local growers son and that flew the crop dusters and all the people all the farm

workers. We would be picking cotton down in the fields and we would have our sacks of cotton and they would. Dust from one and one would fly. And from the other the other one would go and they would play with the people's heads. Who would come closest to the people's heads. It was like a daring game to them. So what they would do is that they dared each other on who would fly down the lowest until they ended up getting people to throw themselves in the cotton sacks. And then of course you would feel all of it was like dew falling on your on your skin. You would feel all the pesticide at that time it was

DDT that they were using on cotton and. And that is a very imprinted memory. Some other ones. OK that's good. I want us. To start for one second please. OK. Tell me the story about. Meeting that Filipino and him pulling out his guitar in the mornings and things like that. Tell me about those days. That particular meeting. Well we try to recruit to C.S. us. He was teaching in the. I want to take we want to bypass all that and I want to go directly to Filipino and tell me about that morning when you met him and.

Is that where you met him the No. Oh I met him before but thats when you know he first made a big impression to everybody at Filipino. OK let's go to that. Take me there then. Tell me why you were Filipino and then Jose was there and then him. The way you mention how you used his music as a guitar to motivate them. You need a glass water bottle. Now I'm fine. All right. Well host there was a teacher at Lynn in the Met Marysville Yuba area and we kind of we meaning the students that C.S. us kind of imported him to

Sacramento State University. At that time it was Sec State College and I wanted him there. Kind of recruited him over and he from the Marysville area was already coming into town with. It. Donations of clothes food drives whatever to take to the strikers in their land. This is in the 1960s. We would meet in Sacramento from Sacramento we would have caravans of people from all points going to the Leno he usually left the caravan. Him and Joe Serna who is now the mayor of Sacramento.

But what horsehair would do. We would meet at Filipino hall in the Leno. And early in the mornings everybody would stay at Filipino house everybody took their blankets sleeping bags and whatever. But very early in the morning we would take out his guitar and that and pretty soon you would see everybody. Little ones the elderly didn't matter what age they were all. Scratching their heads. Their eyes or trying to wake up. But he would wake them up with a guitar. He would start playing very early in the morning. And that's how everybody started waking up. And it was it was such a sound it was. Such a treat for all of us that there were there that we it was like the

the bugle I cry to wake up and start working right and and let people know why we were there. After a breakfast and so forth everybody. All the people there were coming from out of town and all the farm workers there would meet and usually says our address then and the rest of the. US w committee at that time it was an organizing committee would address the crowd and it was all part of I considered horse s plane in the morning waking up everybody as part of the organizing start of the day. Just a brief answer. What do you think the music did with his playing did. What was its purpose.

It motivated everybody. It got everybody going. It was the kind of music that gets everybody everybody's insides really roust to okay were here let's get to work. Whatever capacity there was. I usually work for everybody to do whether it was making flags whether it was a painting. Picket signs mailing the picket signs. Taking people to the fields to give moral boosters to the workers that were striking out in the fields making lunch is taking food to the workers whatever it called for. But most of the time instigated

and started everybody off. OK let's move ahead a few years and I want you to tell me the story about the invasion of Marysville the wild turkey incident. That's in the files in the secret files of the RCAF that in incident happened because it was one of the first attempts of unionizing farm workers up north. The workers from this nursery Sierra gold nursery in Mary Seville were asking requesting the UFW to come and help them unionize. And so there was a strike.

That was about to go on. And we went to support and the RCAF was always asked to help either in making flags or picket signs helping in whatever way. So this time we went and it was virgin country as far as. They hadn't seen Union Station effort or strike effort there. I guess for many many years. So all of a sudden there was a cops of all kinds. There was sheriffs there were high patrol there were city cops. And they were. And the growers were saying that we were trespassing.

And so when they came to arrest us they were asking whether what our names were and taking notes we had my roommate at the time her name was Rosalee Sosa but she refused to say her name. And so she wanted to make a point. And they were they were asking her name with her last name included. And she kept saying what touchy. And they kept telling her well no there's no that that's not that's not her name. What Touchett is not a name you have to have a last name. And she kept saying no I don't want touch it is my name and there and there you see it. It says you don't have. You know. 2 1/2 you don't have to

have a last name. And so she wouldn't give them her her last name. So they opted to get her pushchair in one of the cop cars and they managed to do that. They wanted to push me in but that day anticipating that there might be trouble. I had put a big stick and it was quite heavy on my flag. I had my welcome flag stapled on to this big thick. Stick in what I did is that I set sights settled on the door and I rammed the stick on the door and the cops tried to kick me and pushing me in and

they couldn't do it because they couldn't break that. I just ran that across the door. And so the door of the car wouldn't shut so they gave up on me and they got me and pushed me out of the way from my back they pushed me from behind and got me out of the way and shut the door and Rosalee what that. And they took her in and booked her. That's good no I want to chime in. The part of the story. That. What incited the police to show up the fact that you need to tell that part of Europe to the edge of the fields with the megaphone and it's captured on me and that's also there is two posters one with you guys in the cops and the other one with Jose in the megaphone. Oh that's right. That's OK I mean about what. Got to that point. OK. Before the incident. We

needed to get all of the workers informed of what was going on in that other. Other workers in in other camps of the same kind of grower and same employer were asking to be unionized and so some of that information needed to go to the other workers in other fields. So there was this field that was surrounded all by private roads and private land and it was really hard for us to get word to those workers and on purpose. Lawyer Sarah gold had gone in there and kind of bunched up all of their workers in what it seemed like a little valley of their land.

And they put him in there and and tried to get him away from our reach. So. I noticed that there was this little canal leading up to one of the fields and we researched that. Not the canal the canal was private land but the border on each side of the canal were not there and that was the only public access that we had to go and there were very narrow and there were very bushy. So it required what I call Vietnam War tactics. So in order to reach all the workers we needed to have bullhorns. So then I got bullhorns on our backs and we couldn't walk because they would see us

up on the border. And plus it was very narrow and we could fall. And we didn't want them to. We didn't want to alert the growers. So what we did was crawl we crawl with the bull horns and everything and the material the leaflets and and and and the most important part which were the cards that or the membership cards for the union. And so we crawled up to the point where we were able to see the workers and then struck and we got the bull horns and then we did accomplish our mission. Which was to get word to the workers and we were telling them where to meet after their work where to go to and what to do. And mission did get accomplished.

When growers discovered you were there they immediately called you. The cops and that's when they came. It was like I told you before. The city cops the. We have to do it again. You can't use like I told you before. I never heard this is I'm hearing this for the first time. OK so. So when the growers found out. So when the growers found out that we were. There in the holler trespassing. Right. So they sent City cops the highway patrol the sheriff's department every body around that area that probably own a uniform with a badge turned up. And so right at that point they started

harassing us they wanted to know who we were they wanted names they wanted to see well they were checking for our IDs. There was my roommate at the time. All right. OK good. OK OK. When I was jumpy about them. So those are some of his famous requests of the RCA says that Jarvis who us in love with the RCAF. The RCAF guys were the only group that I can remember that ever that he felt comfortable with. I don't mean that he didn't feel

comfortable with other groups and other people but this is the group that he could lead he's hair down and joke and you know and laugh and relax. So he had a very very special place in his heart for it for the guys of the RCAF and that goes along also with many of the members of his family. They feel very strong about the guys. OK let's turn your father a little bit. Yes. Great. Tell me about when. Give me some examples of how we call in the middle of the night. I mean a million. Of that. The guys learned how to work in crises and up to the wire kind of deadlines. Often times there

was through the years and it didn't matter what kind of weather or what kind of time it was. It could have been two o'clock in the morning or three or midnight or whatever and I would receive a call. Workers are coming from workers are coming into the capital. There's going to be a thousand and something plus out there and we need. Flags we need picket signs we need whatever was needed. We need to feed them. Can you do it. Can it be done. They'll be there by 9 o'clock in the morning or whatever time it was either the next day or in two days. Sometimes it was more than a thousand and sometimes it was in the thousands. Sometimes he was in the hundreds. It didn't matter. The guys

have always been there. The guys in the RCAF through the years came through. Every time there was a time when we even had a van and other times a station wagon. And it was like an instant office on wheels. We had silk screen to sell screen flags. We had a sewing machine. We had boards for we had staple guns we had nails. We had pots and pans. We had everything that was needed onsite. If if a strike broke out we were there with a flag. We were there with the picket signs we were there even with the entertainment because the guys always carried their guitars and their instruments and you know it was instant.

Even the eight or so they they have always been there. This group is a different a different kind of of artist group. It's not the norm. Paint a picture for us. Let's take people there. So you just got the phone call. I want you to feed a thousand people by 9 o'clock tomorrow morning to be prepared to feed a thousand people by. Give me the story of that and name names who was there who was doing what. Where did it happen. Tell me a story. Tell me about that. Usually I would get the call or sometimes if they couldn't reach me they would reach Jose or

one of the other guys of the RCAF. And usually what would happen is that. If they reached me and they told me we're going to need so many flags by tomorrow we need to tell the story again because in case I want to use this just this part we've been making a phone call. OK. So let's boil it down to a particular incident. One night we got a call for a thousand. Tell me who who got who got activated and where do you go and what do you do and how the hell do you put that together in eight hours and feed a thousand people. You're not a restaurant or caterer kitchen or. Well usually what would happen is that the years w whoever was the organizer. Would call either or say or

any of the other guys from the RCAF or myself whoever they could reach. In fact let's start this one over again one more time for me. This is something I need. In fact constrain yourself. OK so one night I get a call from you after you tell me that story. Well one I multiply by thousands of times OK. Because this is what usually would have been. You have doubly organizer whoever that would be would call either Jose or any other one of the guys from the RCAF or myself. And if it was me that they called immediately depending on what they want it or need it I would call core set to rally up the artist for picket signs flags send somebody to get sticks for the flags and get

nails get staples staple guns the whole bit. OK then for the cooking part to feed the masses of workers whether it was a thousand or it didn't matter what number of farm workers were coming into town. We would do it and I would usually call the squid. That is still the fish. Gina Montoya. I would call Pixie and Dixie and big rice and adjust the number of the RCAF ladies. And they would be attention at whatever time be there. We would get everything

done. And. Where where would you be.