From: ww@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Date: 01 Jan 93 14:18 PST
Subject: "La Adelita" inspires drywall strik
Nf-ID: #N:g3wPwB3w165w@nyxfer.uucp:-1215046825:000:5191
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!ww    Jan  1 14:18:00 1993


Subject: "La Adelita" inspires drywall strikers
From: nyxfer!ww (Workers World Service)


Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit


              "La Adelita" inspires drywall strikers

           By Rosa Maria de la Torre and Veronica Golos

The Mexican drywall workers' strike in Southern California, now 
six months old, has won significant victories. Fifty-one of the 
region's 90 contractors have signed agreements with the strikers.

Only those in San Diego continue to hold out. Police repression 
there is the strongest, and resistance is reaching heroic 
proportions.

The strikers are optimistic about the prospects for a settlement.
Hugo Gutierrez, an Orange County striker, told Workers World, 
"Many of the developers `don't want any more trouble' and are 
themselves urging other companies to sign."

Encarnacion Sandoval is the sole woman drywall striker in San 
Diego. She starts walking the picket line at 4 a.m. every day. 
She has faced violence, shootings and police beatings. She is the
backbone of the San Diego strike.

Fellow strikers say her strength and courage have earned her the 
name "La Adelita," after the legendary women of the 1910 Mexican 
Revolution.

Sandoval, 34, was born in the state of Hidalgo, in Mexico. She 
and her family came to San Diego eight years ago. She has two 
sons, ages 15 and 17, in high school. Both are active in the 
community.

"La Adelita" worked in agricultural fields, restaurants and 
sewing shops before becoming the first woman drywall worker in 
San Diego. Before the strike, Sandoval was active in Hermandad 
Mexicana Nacional, a mutual aid society common in Mexican 
communities. She served as president of this group, which serves 
500 families in San Diego.

"Fighting discrimination is the main force motivating me to work 
in the community," Sandoval told Workers World. "The resources 
are there, but they are not within the reach of the community. 
Therefore, Hermandad focuses on informing the community of their 
rights and making the resources more accessible to them.

"Very often one person alone will not be listened to. But if you 
organize and struggle as a group, you can accomplish more."

When the strike started, she says, she struggled to choose 
between continuing her community work or strike activism. "But I 
felt that the strike had to take precedence. For we want our work
to be valued, like anyone else's work.

"We don't come to take anyone else's jobs. But we are not 
accepting the low wages and we will ... not be used. That is why 
our strike helps the American workers too."

`I AM A PART OF THE STRUGGLE'

"La Adelita" does whatever is necessary--including getting 
arrested. "I always tell the men to stay strong," she says. "If 
we take one step back, the repression will be worse.

"And police aggression has been strong. On Nov. 12, in Carmen del
Mar where we were picketing, police attacked and arrested several
of us. I was one of those arrested, and I was beaten.

"The police took me into the police station and tied me up in a 
special chair they have. They handcuffed me with my hands behind 
my back, tied me on this chair with several straps across my 
body. I stayed this way for more than an hour.

"Altogether there had been 100 picketers, 11 arrested and 15 
beaten. One of the men vomited blood and had to be taken to the 
hospital. I am still under daily therapy. The doctor tells me if 
in six months I am not better, I might have to have an operation 
on my back. I am in pain all the day, head, neck, and back.

"After this incident, we decided to build a special room in our 
union hall as a shelter for battered women and children, victims 
of violence. We know what that is like. The Carpenters are 
providing volunteer work to construct this."

Sandoval is conscious of the importance of her role as the only 
woman striker. She says: "Also, one of the reasons I went 
full-time for the strike was it was necessary for women to show 
support, to show that women could do whatever was necessary, 
struggle side by side with men. I admire [strike leader] Tony 
Hernandez; I felt we were of one idea, that we were seeking 
respect as workers.

"In San Diego I am the only woman in the strike," says Sandoval. 
"The other women, mostly wives, show support morally, but do not 
participate on the picket. This is because families cannot risk 
both parents to be arrested at the same time, the repression 
being so brutal. It is a tactic we use to keep us strong.

Sandoval says: "I am honored that my companeros [comrades] call 
me `La Adelita'. I see it as a form of recognition of my 
participation in the strike. It shows that they, the men, really 
do think that I am a part of the struggle.  This is con mucho 
carino [with much love]."

                               -30-

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; email: ww%nyxfer@igc.apc.org; "workers"
on PeaceNet; on Internet: "workers@mcimail.com".)


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