This is my new friend Gannon! I'm fostering him through Peace of Mind Dog Rescue in Pacific Grove (California)! He was neglected and eventually abandoned by his former owner. If you're looking to adopt a sweet old man pup who just wants to snuggle through his retirement, lmk!
The last of the #Salinas#Chinatown elders and storytellers, Wellington Lee, has passed away. Old enough to have been around when John Steinbeck was writing East of Eden. Somehow, Steinbeck's fictional vision of the neighborhood is what the public tends to remember. But it barely cracked the surface of what #Chinatown was. Bon Voyage, Wellington. . .
-Pueblo Del Mar, a Sun Street Centers program;
-Safe Place for Youth;
-#Salinas Valley bike repair workshops;
-Interim; and
-Bicycling Monterey projects.
"Monterey-Salinas Transit (MST) was recently awarded $570,500 from the Clean California Transit Initiative Program....Work will include activities like the installation of a #bike workstation, replacement of #BikeRacks," and more.
Today in Labor History October 9, 1936: A lettuce strike had recently ended in Salinas, California. However, when red flags went up throughout town, the authorities feared communist agitators had returned and removed the red flags, only to find out later that they were part of a traffic check being done by the state highway division.
The first effective organizing in the Salinas Valley began in 1933, with the mostly female lettuce trimmers demanding equal pay to the men. The Filipino field workers supported the women’s demands. In 1934, members of the Filipino Labor Union (FLU) struck the lettuce farms. So, the farmers brought in Mexican and Anglo scabs. They used vigilante mobs and the cops to violently attack the strikers and arrested their leaders. When the Filipino Labor Union and the Mexican Labor Union joined forces, a mob of vigilantes burned their labor camp down and drove 800 Filipinos out of the Salinas Valley at gunpoint. The 1934 strike ended soon after, with the growers recognizing the FLU and offering a small raise. This violence inspired John Steinbeck to write “In Dubious Battle” and “Grapes of Wrath,” for which he won both Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes.
Issue #114 of Eulipion Outpost is up, "The Shape of Memory," with a focus on #Salinas#Chinatown memoirs, the 20th anniversary of the hay(na)ku #poetry form, invented by Eileen Tabios, Buddhist ethics and creativity (Noel Alumit), breaking the law for art 😉, and much more.
Today in Labor History August 27, 1934: 7,000 Filipino lettuce cutters and mainly white packing shed workers went on strike against the powerful Salinas Valley growers and shippers, demanding union recognition & improved wages and working conditions. Many of the white workers were Dust Bowl refugees. Most of the Filipino workers had immigrated as U.S. nationals, after the U.S. took over the Philippines, in the wake of the Spanish-American War. There was rampant persecution of Filipino workers in California. Laws prohibited Filipino women from immigrating to the U.S. and prevented Filipino men from consorting with Anglo women. The American Federation of Labor initially refused to recognize or support the Filipino Labor Union (FLU). Scabs and vigilantes viciously beat Filipino strikers and chased 800 out of the Salinas Valley at gunpoint. They also burned down a labor camp. Police arrested picketers and union leaders for violation of the Criminal Syndicalism laws (laws that prohibited advocating any change to the economic and political status quo). The FLU ultimately won a raise and union recognition. However, discrimination and racist violence against Filipinos continued.
Steinbeck wrote about the plight of Filipino migrant farmworkers in the Salinas Valley in a 1936 series of articles for the San Francisco News called “The Harvest of Gypsies,” which formed part of the basis for his novel, Grapes of Wrath. He said they were among the most discriminated, and best organized, ethnic group in the U.S. Their organizing, he went on to say, brought on terrorism against them by vigilantes and the government.
I live near #Monterey California, and it’s #CarWeek so there’s going to be lots of #Photography#CarsOfMastodon as we attend events and show our cars. Kicking off today with the #GGLC#AutoX at #Salinas airport and my silver 2001 Lotus Elise Series 1 (with K20 Honda engine).
#Obon Festival is happening at the [Japanese] Buddhist Temple of #Salinas today. 12 noon to 5pm. San Jose #Taiko will be performing, along with martial arts demos, bonsai, lots of food, games, a raffle, and respect for the ancestors.