Migrant workers to praise triumphs

Victories come slowly for farmworkers in their fight for better housing, wages and health care, but The Sarasota/Manatee Farmworker Supporters will be celebrating a small triumph at their Cesar Chavez annual dinner Monday.

Manatee County government helped farmworkers with relocation funds after the closing of the Trail Mobile Home Park for code violations earlier this year.

"That was a victory," said Marvin Mills of the Sarasota/Manatee Farmworker Supporters. "Our organization picketed along with a lot of other organizations. Eventually, our modest demands were met. All of the farmworkers have been relocated.

"The trailer park was closed, but on terms the farmworkers wanted," Mills said.

Local farmworker advocate Joan Mahon, along with local attorney John Dubrule of Gulf Coast Legal Services and Bradenton's Sister Nora Brick, will receive awards at the dinner for their roles in persuading the county to provide a housing allowance for the farmworkers.

Buoyed by the victory, Mills' group called on the Manatee Players to commission a play about the plight of farmworkers.

Dylan Jones, 20, of Bradenton, a New College student majoring in British literature and theater, wrote "The Spirit of Growth," a 30-minute series of monologues, songs and dance woven around the life of Chavez, who founded the National Farm Workers Union in 1962.

Jones' play will conclude its one-night run on Monday, but it's an important run, Mills said.

"The supporters and the farmworkers themselves loved the idea of a play," Mills said. "Our idea was to bring theater to the issue. I wanted to see farmworkers themselves getting together and putting it on, but that didn't happen. It's not easy for them to find time for theater. But that could be in the future."

Jones, who has acted in 11 Manatee Players productions, is the play's principal performer and co-director with Manatee Player managing artistic director Rick Kerby.

Jones will be joined by dancers and singers Laura Parks, Kellie Cordes, Megan Brewbaker, Raven Jones and Tahlia Byers. Luz Corcuera of Healthy Start, advised.

For Jones, the work was eye-opening.

"I had never heard of Cesar Chavez," Jones said. "Oh, I take that back. He was a blurb in one of my high school history books. But I started doing research and talking to people who knew farmworkers and I realized, unfortunately, conditions now are just as terrible as they were for Chavez 40 years ago."

Perhaps one of the most telling lines in the play will be delivered by local Hispanic actor Gerardo Ramirez, who plays Chavez:

"You cannot organize a strike, or build a union, until the members who must do the real work understand what this all means, what activities are involved. They must, first, be able to articulate their own hopes and goals. They must be able to help themselves, before we can help them."

IF YOU GO

• WHAT: Sarasota/Manatee Farmworker Supporters annual Cesar Chavez Memorial Dinner

• WHEN: 6 p.m. Monday

• WHERE: The Golden Apple Dinner Theater, 25 N. Pineapple Ave., Sarasota

• ADMISSION: $30; $15 for students and farmworkers, includes dinner. A portion of proceeds go to needy farmworkers

• INFORMATION: 351-8726