9/26 Weekly Email + Hispanic Heritage Month
Hi all,
I have a quick writeup this week about Hispanic Heritage month and then some reminders and updates.
Hispanic Heritage Month: September 15th - October 15th is Hispanic Heritage Month so I wanted to shout out a few important Hispanic labor leaders. I’ve already highlighted some of the more famous ones like Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, and Jessie Lopez de la Cruz - you can read about those people in the archived section on our blog. Unlike some other heritage or history months, this month is celebrated starting in the middle of September - this was done so that important historic events could be recognized over the 30 days. While there are some other important milestones, Chile, Costa Rice, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Mexico all celebrate their nation’s Independence Days during this period.
Santiago Iglesias Pantin (1872-1939): Santiago was born in Spain in 1872 to a carpenter and cigar factory worker. He began work as a cabinet maker at a very young age and helped organize a strike against the cabinet factory owners at the age of 12. At the age of 14 he stowed away on a boat and ended up in Cuba. After several years of work in Cuba he moved to Puerto Rico where he became involved in trade unions and started three trade magazines. He was imprisoned several times during this period for organizing - at the time it was illegal in the country to “conspire to raise the price of labor,” something which effectively outlawed unions.
The United States took over Puerto Rico as a territory in 1898 and Iglesias was invited to participate in the AFL’s (American Federation of Labor) annual convention. At the time Samuel Gompers, one of the AFL’s founders, was pushing the organization to integrate. He also was interested in organizing Caribbean islands like Puerto Rico and Cuba - I think he recognized that US unions could be undermined if there was cheaper labor available on the islands. Iglesias gave a speech about the struggles of Puerto Rican organizing at this convention and Gompers saw an in - he gave Iglesias funding to get a new Puerto Rican union, the FLT (Federación Libre de los Trabajadores), off the ground. Iglesias was also appointed the AFL’s chief organizer for Puerto Rico and Cuba.
Iglesias became very influential in Puerto Rico and was appointed to the territories’ Senate several times before becoming the Puerto Rican “Resident Commissioner” (a non-voting delegate) in Congress from 1932 to his death in 1939. After he passed an estimated 200,000 Puerto Ricans visited his body as he laid in state and an estimated 50,000 people visited his funeral.
One fun fact about Santiago from his family’s foundation website - he named his 8 daughters Victoria (Victory), Libertad (Liberty), América (America), Fraternidad (Fraternity), Igualdad (Equality), Justicia (Justice), Paz (Peace), and Luz (Light). I could find no information about how his daughters felt about that.
Blanca Rosa Rodríguez López/Luisa Moreno (1907-1992): Blanca (known professionally as Luisa Moreno), was born in Guatemala but she was raised and educated in Oakland, California. When her family returned to Guatemala when she was a teen she was frustrated to discover that women were not allowed to attend college in Guatemala. In response she founded the Gabriela Mistral Society to advocate for women in higher education. (This society was named after a famous female Chilean poet who later became the first Latin-American winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature). After moving to Mexico for several years and working for a Guatemalan newspaper she moved to New York where she worked in a garment factory to help support her family. Like many women at the time she was frustrated by the low wages and racial discrimination of the garment industry and participated in several strikes. During this period she began to call herself “Luisa Moreno” to avoid connecting her work to her family, who disapproved of her involvement in labor issues.
In 1935 she started working with the AFL and worked in Florida to organize tobacco workers. After 2 years she split due to concerns about the AFL’s treatment of minorities and joined the FTA (Food, Tobacco, Agricultural, and Allied Workers of America) to organize workers at food-processing facilities in Texas and California. During this period she also became involved in the Hispanic Civil Rights movement. This was a particularly difficult time as during the Great Depression a tidal wave of xenophobia swept the country - many workers blamed Mexicans for taking their jobs and exacerbating the country’s economic problems. Many levels of government worked in unison to “repatriate” foreign-born workers to Mexico - estimates about deportation numbers range from 300,000 to 2 million. Some of this was voluntary deportation as a few workers thought they would have more job opportunities in Mexico, but a lot stemmed directly from bigotry - many of the deportations were done without due process, much of it was done based on Spanish speaking or skin tone, and it is estimated that as many as 60% of the people deported were actually American citizens. Luisa had to deal with these conditions but pushed through - she helped organize one of the nation’s largest canneries (and helped establish one of the nation’s first workplace daycare programs at the company), helped found the Citrus Workers Organizing Committee, and founded the National Congress of Spanish Speaking Peoples in 1938, a 100-organization committee that promoted Hispanic rights across California.
Luisa likely would have continued her work but in the late 1940’s she was forced to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee for her “subversive” actions - after being threatened with deportation, she chose to voluntarily return to Guatemala. There she taught indigenous women until the 1954 overthrow of the Guatemalan government - she and her husband fled the country and she did a variety of jobs until the 1960s when she moved to Tijuana and set up an art gallery. Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta occasionally visited this gallery to solicit her organizing advice. She remained there for many years but eventually moved back to Guatemala in the late 1980s and lived there until her death
Humberto “Bert” Noé Corona (1918-2001): Humberto (known for most of his life as “Bert”) was born in El Paso, Texas and experienced many of the anti-Mexican sentiments mentioned above during his early childhood. His mother became frustrated with how immigrant families were treated and eventually sent him to a private school in New Mexico. Though he experienced discrimination there he was also introduced to organizing - after several students were threatened with expulsion for reporting physical abuse by one of the teachers, the entire student body struck and refused to attend classes, something which caused the school to back down.
Bert returned to El Paso for high school and excelled at basketball, something which won him an athletic scholarship to attend college in Los Angeles. During college he worked as a supermarket clerk and helped organize his workplace under the ILWU (International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union). After working with the union for several years he became President but was accused of causing an illegal work slowdown and was fired. Shortly after he was invited to work as an organizer for the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations), a group of trade unions that eventually merged with the AFL to become the AFL-CIO. As a fun crossover, the CIO started working with Luisa Moreno’s Congress of Spanish-Speaking Peoples in the 1940’s, and began advocating both for English and Spanish-speaking workers.
Bert joined the Air Corps in the 1940s to fight in WW2 but never saw combat - the Army flagged him as a possible dissident due to his involvement in unions and the Congress of Spanish-Speaking Peoples. After the War he began to work with the CSO (Community Service Organization), the same Latino civil rights organization that trained Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. He also worked throughout the late 1940s and 50s with ANMA (Asociación Nacional México-Americana) a labor organization that fought against unfair labor practices such as requiring Mexican and Spanish-speaking workers to do the most dangerous jobs. He represented ANMA during a mine-workers strike in Mexico and became acquainted with Mexican intellectuals like Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. In the 1960’s he helped found MAPA (Mexican American Political Association), a political group that worked to get Hispanic, Latino, and Mexicans interested in politics and elected to public office. He also started working as a part time professor in California and helped pioneer the field of Chicano Studies throughout the next 20 years. His main intellectual contribution was analysis of immigrant workers and his writing about their influence on and importance to the American economy helped push many unions like the AFL-CIO to develop new policies and programs for immigrant workers.
Prenuvo Screenings: Tempe is now offering free Head and Torso MRI screenings for all employees over 40 who are on the Tempe medical plan. This service can detect early stages of cancer, Alzheimer's, and even aneurysms. The attached email has more details.
Employees can schedule an appointment online or over the phone. Please note that results are NOT shared with Tempe - they will only be shared with you or any doctor of your choice. Other considerations - you do not need to pay anything for this service if you are covered by the city’s insurance - if you accidentally click the wrong link on the company's website and see that payment is due, please double check you are on the Tempe-specific page. Please also note that either you or a dependent on your insurance can use this service once per year - if you and a spouse both want to get the service only one of you would be covered but they can take advantage of a discounted rate.
Employee Development: Employee Development asked that I share the following blurb and opportunities with UAEA members.
How can Employee Development help me even if I can’t go to classes?
It always happens. You see the big list of Employee Development events at the date or time aren’t convenient. So how can Employee Development even help you?
Take advantage of the “out of class” opportunities. In addition to expanding the frequency and offerings of in-person classes, Employee Development has expanded growth opportunities you can do on your own time.
Maybe you want to take advantage of personal coaching through CliftonStrengths Coaching, Emotional Intelligence (EQ-i 2.0) coaching, or a Career and Growth Consultation?
Perhaps you are more into taking advantage of a complimentary subscription and spend a few months learning at your own pace on LinkedIn Learning or MasterClass at Work two incredible online platforms with thousands of development opportunities available for you?
Maybe you’ll hop into the next round of the Employee Development Book Club starting in 2026?
Or maybe it’s about Employee Development help you in your formal education journey through Tuition Reimbursement & Educational Partnerships?
The reality is that Employee Development is here to help you. Please feel free to reach out to us and allow us the opportunity to help you reach your goals.
QUESTIONS?
480.350.5930
employeedevelopment@tempe.gov
Upcoming Employee Development Events
OCTOBER
10/1 CliftonStrengths Discovery: Enhance Your Unique Strengths
10/15 Presentation Skills: Mindset & Delivery
10/16 Crucial Influence
10/21 Growth Mindset: Progress of Potential
10/22 Getting Things Done
10/30 Interview Preparation
NOVEMBER
11/5 & 6 Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue
DECEMBER
12/2 Connect 101
12/2 Connect 201
12/4 Presentation Skills: Purposeful PowerPoint
12/10 Connect 301
October Member Meeting: Our next member meeting will be at 5:30am on Thursday, October 23rd, at the TMOC Building 1 Conference Room (ground floor of TMOC Building 1). Click here to rsvp.
October Blood Drive: Vitalant will be doing their next blood drive on October 1st, 8am-noon, at the Escalante Center (2150 E Orange St., Tempe, AZ 85281). Please remember that you are paid at your normal rate if you take time out of your day to give blood - you get that, the ability to do a good thing, and a small incentive from Vitalant all at once. You can register here.
Ice Cream Socials: We have two events scheduled this coming week.
3:30pm on Tuesday, September 30th, at the TMOC Building 2 Ground Floor Break Room.
12pm on Thursday, October 2nd, in the 2nd floor hallway at the 525 Building.
Thanks for a great week, everyone!