Live Blogging at the Women in Migrant Work Panel

Tuesday, 02 March 2010 05:27

1:04p.m. --- Well the panel discussion has ended and everyone is headed out. I hope you enjoyed this live blog session at the Migrant Workers Panel. The WRC will be hosting a Brown Bag panel every Tuesday for the rest of March.

1:01 p.m. --- O’Leary is welcome to any emails and questions students may have about her research.

1p.m. ---O'Leary is active with pro immigrant agencies. She is the coordinator of Refugees and Immigrants and she is a part of a national advisory group.

12:59 p.m. ---She has written numerous articles that can be found on her website about migrant issues.

12:57 p.m. --- Immigration policies have made it more difficult, deadly and risky for migrants who are looking for work. Women are the 3 times more likely to have remains out in the desert. Women are more subjected to the risk. Women are perceived as liabilities and are abandoning in the desert.

12:56 p.m. --- More and more women have been abandon and have had to migrate because of the restructuring of the economy.

12:55p.m. ---Her recent work is focusing on migrant women from Mexico. She interviewed women about their border crossing experience and how they were treated with the Border Patrol agents.

12:54p.m. ---"Growing up in a mining community is the reason I got involved in migrant work." In 1983she helped strike with the Women Auxiliary committee.

12:53 p.m. --- Anna O'Leary is now speaking. "I grew up in a mining town."

12:52 p.m. --- "This work is the best thing I have ever done in my life."

12:50p.m. --- "Women in these towns are resilient."

12:49 p.m. --- "I loved this woman. To let people into your life is a very hard thing to do. I tried to speak about myself."

12:45 p.m. --- Dr. Leser is telling the story of Mrs. Jordan. She is a Native American woman, who married a migrant worker and wanted to pick cotton and see what it was like.

12:41 p.m. --- "Migrant workers are very proud. They work very hard to get their job done. They do not feel ashamed of their job."

12:40 p.m. --- Dr. Leser is now talking about a woman who was a proud migrant worker and at the age of 46, she went to Central Arizona College to be a CPA.

12:38 p.m. --- She also explain the story of Mrs. White, a pastor's wife, who said she could pick a 1,000 pounds of cotton in one-day. This was her claim to fame.

12:37 p.m. --- Dr. Leser says that she met a woman from Arkansan who would drive from Arizona to Arkansan and back to bring migrant workers to Randolph to pick cotton for the fall. Women in Migrant work had to be very creative and think ahead. This woman got her children to college by driving.

12:33 p.m. --- Cotton was one the four major industries in Arizona. In the 90's, Dr. Leser found that many black men and women were the primary cotton pickers in Eloy, Coolidge, Casa Grande and some parts of Chandler. Cotton was very rich but migrant received no money for their labor.

12:30 p.m. --- She met people and spoke with more than 25 people who did migrant work in Randolph. That work dealt with domestic work or cotton picking.

12:28 p.m. --- She did academic research on Randolph, Arizona. An unincorporated area of Pinal County, Randolph, at the time, had no electricity or mailboxes.

12:26 p.m. --- When you do academic studies then you need to do data and spend time in the library.

12:24p.m. --- Poor people are very proud. They don't want to admit that they have a problem or need help. When they come into small communities women are the ones who are taking care of everything and everybody.

12:23p.m. --- She traveled to Eloy and wanted to figure out why people stayed there when jobs where little.

12:20p.m. --- The Great Migration theme was the reason that Dr. Leser decided to work in migrant studies. She noticed that black people were the people who migrated the most to the cotton fields.

12:19 p.m. --- There was determination in the people who moved from the east to the west.

12:17p.m. --- In the 90's she read the Star and it showed many black males on the picture where it spoke about the growth of cotton. She found that black males came from Arkansas and other parts of the South to work in cotton field in Arizona.

12:15p.m. --- She really has migrant work in her blood. She loves John Steinbeck and attention to social issues.

12:14p.m. --- Dr. Leser has built a career in Women’s studies. She is a migrant herself, born in Jamaica.

12:13 p.m. --- Dr. Leser has now reached the podium. She is handing a worksheet of the cotton belt. 

12:11p.m. --- Studies have indicate that migrant women bare a great risk. They work in domestic work and as entertainers. They lack legal protection and job security, according to Uhatafe.

12:10 p.m. – Malia Uhatafe, the director for the Women's Resource Center, is speaking about the Brown Bag Discussion series.

12:08 p.m. -- The Women's Resource Center has created an information table with pamphlets on their programs, Women's History Month and assorted condoms.

12:07 p.m. --- More people have started to arrive to the discussion.

12:06 p.m. -- The panel will be comprised of Anna Ochoa O'Leary, Assistant Professor of Practice for the Department of Mexican American and Raza Studies for the UA and Dr. Geta Leser, Faculty of Practice for the Department of African Studies and Women Studies for the UA

12:02 p.m. -- The panel is getting off to a late start and there will be a 10 minute delay.

11:59 a.m. -- Just arrived at the Women in Migrant Work Panel and the panelist have just got here.

Join Border Beat staff reporter Allana Erickson this afternoon, March 2, 2010 at 12:00 noon, as she live blogs from the Women’s Studies Building at the University of Arizona, where a panel of experts will address a broad range of issues associated with women in migrant work. This event is sponsored by the UA’s Women’s Resource Center and is a part of their Brown Bag Series.  

Written by Allana Erickson You are reading Live Blogging at the Women in Migrant Work Panel articles