What called you to community organizing or the work that CAFe was doing?

NM CAFé has been a  significant part of my life since 2010. The years since have included multiple training sessions, work on the campaign to put a minimum wage initiative on the ballot, work on immigration policy and multiple get out the vote campaigns. My path to NM CAFé and community organizing started in 1968 when I was living and working in Washington  DC. The civil unrest following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, and its aftermath had a profound effect on me, pushing me to get involved and to find a way to make “things” better. That summer I joined VISTA and spent the following year as a community organizer in Denver, CO. I wasn’t much of an organizer, but  a year of living in public housing taught me a whole lot about how our systems fail those who need them the most. A dear friend from that year, Pauline, wanted to be a geriatric nurse. She was provided training as a CNA. When she finished, jobs were available; night shifts in areas of the city which had little public transportation. Also, as soon as she started to work, her Food Stamp allocation was reduced and her rent went up. And there was no child care for her young children at night. So she couldn’t really go to work. Hers was a common story and it had a profound effect on me. After my year in VISTA I moved to Alaska, where I spent the next 36 years living in a variety of communities, small and larger, both on and off the road system, seeing instance after instance of situations like Pauline’s, exacerbated in Alaska by distance, the huge costs of living in villages accessible only by air, and the capricious ideas of bureaucrats who only looked at an immediate problem, never at the big picture. 

How did you grow as a person/woman while being at/with NM CAFe?

As I was considering  and exploring  a number of things to do as a new retiree in Las Cruces I heard about NM CAFé at a presentation at Temple Beth El. It didn’t take me long to realize that the community organizing was very much part of the Judaism that I wanted to practice. In the words of the German rabbi, Leo Baeck “Religion embraces both faith and action. The primary quality is action, for it lays the foundation for faith…”. Clearly it was time to try community organizing  again in my 60’s. Time and experience would allow me to be a better and more perceptive organizer. It certainly was the right choice. That year in my mid twenties, plus almost 40 years more of lived experience provided an excellent foundation for me to grow into a better version of the activist I had hoped to be all those decades ago.

What was the most important thing you learned?                                    

I learned to hold my tongue and listen. Community organizing isn’t about imposing my ideas about good solutions to problems, it’s about allowing those who are affected to find solutions that will work for them. It’s about the Paulines of the world  saying, after you train me, help me with things like with child care and transportation as I work my way into stability. It’s about  those dealing with injustice having the agency to find the solutions to the injustice. And finally, it’s about seeing the whole picture and not just a single part of it.

How has what you learned helped you with where you are at now in your career/life?   

One of the projects I worked on with NM CAFé was the effort to place a minimum wage initiative on the Las Cruces ballot.  We spoke to lots of folks while collecting signatures, and had many discussions over coffee.  NM CAFé staff and leaders were regulars at City Council meetings. As a  result of experiences like these I have a deeper and more nuanced understanding of what community organizing means to a community. I  formed relationships with a diverse group of people from across the city and county which has led me to a truer understanding of what living on the Border is all about. Many of these working relationships have become close personal friendships that enrich my life here in the Southwest.

Is there any word of advice you have to give for future staff, leaders, and/or organizers? (regardless of gender, but even as a woman).                  

Listen to everyone’s story, we all have one to tell. Question your beliefs. Learn the joy of working together towards understanding and acting on mutually valued goals.

What is your hope for the future of CAFe and the scope of community organizing/work?

My hope is for current and future staff, leaders, and organizers to understand the value and difficulty of what they are doing, to realize that the way will not always be clear or easy, and to remember in the words of Pete Seeger to “keep your eyes on the prize”.