Michigan Sugar "North Camp" license {was located about 4 miles NW of Capac, MI}
My history and that of the Port Huron area League of
Catholic Women are interconnected. Their
support {a $1000/month scholarship for three summers, 1966-68}, with Fr. Hogan,
and priests of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Emmet, MI, and Cardinal Dearden’s early
emphasis on Hispanic ministry at the turn of the 1960’s, helped me take first
steps as peacemaker, in migrant farm labor [and paid most college expenses my years at MSU].
Justice and peace shall kiss--Psalm 85--art by John Austin Swanson
There was a spirit moving in our church--of serving the
poor, of justice for the outcast, learning from and listening to those in need.
In this way the disadvantaged would gain the
tools for a better life, and those with plenty, could find the shared faith
that helps us save our own souls.
A
growing belief in our common calling as children of God was breaking down
barriers of culture, class, language, religions, and factions within
churches.
Cesar Chavez, organizer of farmworkers, breaks bread of his 40 day fast, with his wife and Robert Kennedy in 1968
Pillars of the Capac, MI church, St. Nicholas, the
Glombowski’s and Staniloiu’s, with area farmers, were coming together with the
Betancourt family from Immoklee, FL, and the Alvarez family from Carrizo
Springs TX, in migrant ministry, with hope to form a real lasting preferential
option for the poor. A Christian service
that could change the system so that all are welcome.
Adopt a Liberal {in prayer} is a new website--the helping hands and prayer should go both ways
See scripture below
The conservative right hand of the Catholic Church knew what
the liberal left hand was doing, and vice versa.
Both were enkindling a faith on the
move.
Evangelization was the natural
outcome of the devotional side of the church offering its prayerfulness to lift
up the social Gospel advocates’ work for justice.
In today’s dichotomous political terms, the
church’s “reds and blues” weren’t at odds, but worshipping in the same pew,
depending on each other for inspiration.
At least these were the signs of hope—a wonderful outcome of Vatican II.
Holy Spirit window--St Peter's Basilica, Rome
Descent of the Holy Spirit--on the People of God
The first summer I was a border at the home of an elderly
widow in Emmett, as our young church team organized youth faith discussion
groups in the migrant camps of the area.
The second year, seeing that in a couple summer months a city boy from
Jackson, MI had to learn more about the small town community, or the one in the
migrant camps, I decided on North camp, a couple miles from Capac.
Mike with Angie, migrant worker from south Texas, at St. Nicholas Church, Capac MI 1966
There for the next two summers the obreros del campo, taught
me a great deal about their living on the move, the 5 am to 6 pm work down the
rows of pickle harvest, and hospitality with buttered tortillas and cafecito on
entering any labor camp shack any time of day.
My small risk living a few months with a people I barely knew, in
barebones conditions, was richly rewarded by their acceptance, and a small
increased ability in Spanish.
They
invited me to visit their other places of harvest also, and I did—cherries in Traverse
City and strawberries Bear Lake {both western Michigan} tomatoes in Toledo OH, sugar
beet trucking in Colorado, and the marijuana side-business when visiting their simple
homes off-season in Texas {did not directly participate, but saw a bit more of
the side effects of living on the spare fringe of the economy}.
Junior [aka Lune, el Ojon, Crescencio], one of those I got to know
best, and father of five when I met him, {esposa Paulina still only 19, pregnant
with 6
th } was extremely sharp, clever and a leader at whatever he tried--knew all the words to corridos and Bob Dylan songs, 6th grade education, bi-lingual to the max. He died in a gun battle about 10 years later.
e and his brothers had made a gift to me,
after the first summer, of a Sears’s 1901 8” long sawed-off 10 gauge shotgun
with a whittled musket-like handle—hinge pin pulled, it made a small package
that could be carried under a trench coat.
They thought this present would be appropriate since I was partial to
disarmament.
Later on a friend of mine’s
gunsmith dad removed the firing pin. Thrown in were two scimitar-like pocket knives
that opened out to an S shape, each 9 inches end-to-end.
The metal blade homemade, painstakingly hammered and
sharpened, and handle from a cow’s horn.
Theirs was a hard life very different from mine, but they
welcomed me in, because I showed some live-in interest, and we shared the same
faith.
Pedro [an informally adopted
Alvarez] and Homar [Betancourt, son of the not-always-beneficent labor
contractor in charge of North camp], two other young men I came close to,
because of joint efforts and their initiative, went on to job training
experiences that opened up some doors for them to exit the migrant labor
stream.
Junior and Paulina, with some of
their six kids present, were married in the church at St. Nicholas the second
summer--a rarity in the common-law farm laborers’ life.
Fr.
Joe Melton’s pastoral care helped bring this about.
And it had been his invitation at the
beginning, and mentoring throughout, that made my learning and working in this
rural migrant ministry possible.
Fr. Joe [one of Cardinal Dearden’s Spanish language priests]
had facilitated the financing of my project from the League of Catholic Women,
and others, and welcomed my presence at daily mass. When I read my reports of those summers’
activities, it’s amazing how full of myself I was—so certain of my perspectives
and ability to figure anything out.
Humility has never been one of my native virtues.
"Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled" applies to all in the political spectrum [see Lk 18:9-14, the Pharisee and the Publican]
In the years since, I’ve made many mistakes and realized
plenty of personal limitations, but do wonder still at the power of God’s grace
to bless our small efforts a hundredfold.
My hope, in the years that remain, is to make the opportunity that was
given me, available in new ways for others.
Thank you to those who made stretching cultural boundaries, this
grace-filled experience, part of my life.
Therefore I exhort first of all that
supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men
and women, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and
peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Savior.
1 Timothy 2:1-3
Illumination by Kathy Brahney
