Activism in Ripples — What We Hold

By Kaiya

A teen dressed in a graduation cap and gown stands in a dining room, smiling at the camera

"How lucky I am to have you there to show me how to bend my hand so the lines crease in the right places. Just like yours."

Kaiya: Traditions: folded into the crevices of creased wise hands, weathered by stories and communities and family. In comparison, my hands are smooth. Not yet experienced the lessons I need to learn and the world I need to see. How lucky I am to have you there to show me how to bend my hand so the lines crease in the right places. Just like yours.

OK, so can you tell me about your activism work with migrant farm workers?

Kathy: In college in the, in the early 60s, I went down to a little town called Parlier in California, and I met Cesar Chavez down there. And our goal going down there was to help the farm workers get knowledge about a possible United Farm Workers, a union. There was no union. There was no UFW when I went down. So what we did is we went, and I walked with Cesar Chavez, and we went from one house to another throughout the neighborhood. We talked to the people and explained Spanish, we wanted to start a union that would protect them, that would give them places in the, in the fields where they would have water, which they didn't have, where they would have bathroom facilities, which they didn't have. Um, where they would have some shade to get out from the sun, which they didn't have. Um... and also that... it would protect them, and make their lives better.

Kaiya: How did the work make you feel?

Kathy: I felt, you know, I'm contributing something; I'm not just taking. It helped me emotionally, psychologically, cause to know that I was doing something for somebody else that needed help really drastically. So it made me feel very good. Very good.

Kaiya: My grandmother, Kathy Jordan, is a role model to me. Her activism, rooted in her desire to make social change and help those in need, inspires our entire family and myself. She taught me the importance of looking beyond myself and giving back to the people around me. She taught me that we can create great social change by dropping stones into water, doing whatever we can to help, which turn into waves, changing history and changing the future.