Neither side was quite right on that Dolores Huerta ‘English-only’ shout-down

*Perspective, gente. . . This is a needless squabble, it accomplishes nothing. On the other hand, there’s nothing like a good political spat to get the partisan blood boiling, the interest up, the voters out. VL

---

By Janell Ross, The Washington Post (4.3 minute read)

News is a developing, living thing. As new information becomes available, previous insights can be shown to be wrong or at least incomplete. And that — not some grand conspiracy against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and his ardent supporters — is what appears to be at the root of a fierce online battle about labor and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta’s claim that she was shouted off a caucus stage with chants of “English only!”

On Saturday evening, as the Nevada caucuses drew to a close and Hillary Clinton was pronounced the winner, Huerta tweeted out a message indicating she had been barred from providing English-to-Spanish interpretation services at a Las Vegas caucus gathering in Harrah’s Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. Her observations were seconded in a tweet by the actress America Ferrera. Huerta and Ferrera are Clinton supporters and have made no attempt to hide that fact. And at the caucus event in question, Huerta was wearing a Clinton campaign T-shirt.

Click HERE to read the full story.

---

[Phtoto by DonkeyHotey/Flickr]

Suggested reading

In this bilingual collection of short vignettes, García remembers her family’s life as migrant workers in the 1970s. Every year, they packed their red, Ford pick-up and left McAllen, Texas. The children’s excitement soon waned during the long drive through Texas, but grew as they passed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and skyscrapers in Chicago. Finally, they arrived at their destination: the Ponderosa in Coloma, Michigan.

The family worked year in and year out for the same patrón, who allowed them to live in a house they called the Ponderosa, named for the big house in the TV show Bonanza. It was surrounded by fields full of fruits: an apple orchard lay to the east; a peach orchard was on the other side. There were strawberry patches, cherry trees and a grape vineyard.

García’s family worked long, back-breaking hours for a pittance, but they were together and their love for each other pulled them through. García was nine when her father found a full-time job in McAllen and their migrant life came to an end. “We missed the adventure of travel and sightseeing, but we didn’t miss the hard, back-breaking work.” Staying in one place allowed the kids to focus on school, ensuring that they never had to do that back-breaking work again. This is a heartfelt recollection of the life of migrant workers.

[cc_product sku=”978-1-55885-780-3″ display=”inline” quantity=”true” price=”true”]

---