Childhood Observation

When I think about the meaning of community organizing, I recall a selective memory of my elementary school years. I recall being in Zamora, Michoacan and the teacher telling us that one of our classmate father just passed away. As I just want to point out that the elementary school was on the outskirts of Zamora, and everyone knew each others family. Personally, I knew the señor Francisco Peña but knew him as Don Pancho, he was the carnicero in the area of Valenica. Thus, as I heard the news, soon the community knew as well; we knew that the family Peña didn’t have the money to cremate their loved one. Eventhough he was a carnicero, Don Pancho was a humble community member, he had given food to the majority of the community for free. Since

the neighborhood of Valencia was known for its poverty level, Don Pancho believed that helping each other could benefit us all. I remember my mother organizing with other members of the community to join their cooking skills to sell in the Plaza de Zamora to help with the expenses for the Peña family.

As I saw people moving back and forward communicating amongst everyone in the community, I wondered if there was such word for their action. By the end of the week, the money raised by the community was enough to help the Peña family with the cremation expenses. I recall my Mother talking to the neighbors and explaining how the philosophy that Don Pancho worked towards, throughout the years, had been implemented in front of their eyes. After the funeral, I remember going with my mother as well as other people from the neighborhood to la plaza and repeating the actions they had done in the fundraiser to produce income. Unfortunately, we moved to the United States a year later due to certain circumstances. I visited Zamora, Michoacan in the year 2014, which was 14 years later, upon visiting my neighborhood Valencia, I was amazed how the community thrived. As I talked to my old friends, they brought up the wonderful news that everyone in the Valencia neighborhood has been able to improve their life through working

together. On this return visit I realized that this action did have a name: community organizing. Upon completing my visit, I kept a journal of what I had learned from visiting this community that had undergone a complete transformation. Since that day I have always remembered the hard work those people had out in to make their hometown better. In 2014, I was taking an Ethnic study class, after visiting my second hometown. During one of the lessons, the professor Bautista was talking about the book Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, he mentioned a quote from Freire that resonated with me:
True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the "rejects of life," to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these hands--whether of individuals or entire peoples--need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world. (Page. 3)
I reflected in this quote, by remembering how the community started organizing by showing true generosity by showing love for the death of a community member and by organizing a food fundraiser to help with funeral expenses. By the community taking action to help each other, the community was able to prosper amongst their generosity actions throughout the next decade.
Through my years of experience being an activist, I wondered if being a organizer was it’s own style of activism. Little did I know I was on the right track, currently I am taking Latina/o 680 with professor Kury, the class is named community organizing. I was able to go in depth with the different style of organizing while reading a book called Playbook for Progressive: 16 Qualities of the Successful Organizer by Eric Mann. Mann mentions a brief description of the meaning
The activist attends meetings, goes to marches, writes letters, and, after the organization develops confidence in her, might be encouraged to speak at an event. But she is still an activist- a good one, but not yet an organizer. The activist herself cannot come into being without an organization run by organizer- who have organized every event and action she participates in. (Page. 74)
Through critical thinking, I was able to see how organizing is an essential type of activism in order to make a movement move on forward.

Someone that organizes, is crucial since they are the people that are behind the scenes. For instance, when you watch a movie, you watch the actors perform their roles of personas perfectly. However, you never to see the producer coming out in the movie, yet again he is one of the reason for the movie to be produced. Thus, a organizer is mostly people who skills are used in planning the structure of rallies, flyers, etc; happen in movements. For me it has been an eye opener since, some people I believed we’re organizers, they we’re just great activist. Therefore, organizers play a big role since, a world without organizers will be chaos, reason being a world full of activist willing to stand for something, they will need for a group of people to build structure amongst the group. Don’t get me wrong other forms of activism is crucial to the movement itself, but without organizers the movement will not be able to keep on being

prosperous.