History of Washington Through Food: Food Politics

10/15/2004

In the 1970’s Yakima valley radio station KDNA played this song, “The Scent of a Woman”, when immigration officers were cracking down on undocumented farm workers. KDNA listeners tipped the station when they saw immigration agents. In turn the station tipped off the farm workers…

RICARDO GARCIA: “To us that was news so we would put that on the radio.”

KDNA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RICARDO GARCIA.

GARCIA: “And at the same time we would say, okay, when you listen to certain music, you know, it also means that, to be careful stay home instead of going to work, don’t take a chance...”

THOUSANDS OF LATINO FARMWORKERS NOW CALL THE NORTHWEST HOME. MOST ARE U.S. CITIZENS OR PERMANENT RESIDENTS. THEIR STORY IS TODAY’S FOCUS IN OUR ONGOING SERIES ABOUT HOW FOOD HAS SHAPED THE HISTORY OF THE NORTHWEST. KUOW’S RUBY DE LUNA REPORTS THE GROWTH OF WASHINGTON AGRICULTURE HAS CHANGED THE STATE’S ECONOMIC AND ETHNIC MAKE-UP.

(MOVIE MUSIC)
EASTERN WASHINGTON ALWAYS HAD FERTILE LAND. BUT FOR MUCH OF ITS HISTORY THE REGION LACKED A VITAL INGREDIENT.

(MOVIE CLIP)
MOVIE: “It was during the 1920s that throughout the West forward-looking men began to realize that the future expansion of their vast empire depended wholly on the beneficial use and conservation of still tremendous natural resources…”

THIS GOVERNMENT FILM FROM 1940 CELEBRATES HOW THE GRAND COULEE DAM BROUGHT ELECTRICITY AND IRRIGATION TO EASTERN WASHINGTON.

MOVIE: “Early attempts to dry-farm this semi-arid country were doomed to tragic failure. But irrigation from Grand Coulee Dam, man’s biggest concrete structure, assures a secure, prosperous future for a one million acre area. This gives the nation the equivalent of an entire new state in agricultural assets.”

THE DAM TRANSFORMED A DESERT INTO A GARDEN: HOPS, ASPARAGUS, POTATOES AND APPLES. THIS BOUNTY CONTINUES TODAY. YOU CAN SEE IT AT THE FARMERS MARKET IN DOWNTOWN YAKIMA.

BAUTISTA: “My name’s Isella Bautista. I selling today zucchinis, radish, peas, beets, cabbage and onions.”
LEMOS: “My name is Paula Lemos, right now we got a lot of fresh spring broccoli…look at our yellow beans, the wax beans they’re beautiful right now.”

THE FARMS ATTRACTED LABORERS FROM OUT OF STATE. MANUEL LEON’S PARENTS WERE AMONG THEM. THEY CAME TO YAKIMA VALLEY TO HARVEST SUGAR BEETS.

LEON: “It was a labor intensive crop… Prior to that I think the United States imported a lot of sugar from Cuba and Hawaii, but you know during that time of the war, they had to rely on sugar beets to furnish sugar for the United States.”

THE FAMILY STAYED IN YAKIMA BECAUSE A VARIETY OF CROPS GUARANTEED WORK THROUGHOUT THE YEAR. AFTER 25 YEARS OF WORKING IN THE FIELDS, MAUNUEL LEON DECIDED TO GET OUT OF FARMING. IN 1986 HE OPENED EL RINCON, ONE OF THE FIRST MEXICAN RESTAURANTS IN THE AREA. HIS CUSTOMERS WERE MOSTLY WHITE.

LEON: “Mexican people don’t have the money to go to restaurants…and when you’ve got a big family, you just got to do with what you have. You just don’t go to a restaurant where somebody makes it for you, you know.”

YAKIMA VALLEY’S FIRST MEXICAN BAKERY WAS OPENED BY AN IMMIGRANT WHO BECAME A BRIDGE BETWEEN LATINOS AND WHITES. POLO AGUILERA DIED THIS YEAR. HIS WIFE TERRI AGUILERA-FLEMMING RECALLS ONE SUNDAY WHEN POLO SAW A MAN SELLING MEXICAN BREAD OUTSIDE HIS CHURCH.

AGUILERA-FLEMMING: “He tasted the bread, this is the best Mexican bread I’ve ever had. At the same time, we don’t have a Mexican bakery here in Yakima. Here we have a population that’s at least 30 to 40 percent Mexican and no Mexican bakery. Wonder what we can do, what I can do?”

AGUILERA AND A COUPLE OF PARTNERS OPENED LA PETUNIA IN 1991. TODAY ALL KINDS OF TRADITIONAL BREADS AND PASTRIES ARE BAKED EACH MORNING.

AGUILERA-FLEMMING: “These are called bolillo, it’s like a French bread… some others these are traditional breads called empanadas, they’re like a turnover. And they’re filled either with pumpkin or apple or cherry, sometimes pineapple…conchas are real traditional bread, they look like shells.”

THE LABORERS IN THE FIELDS AND ENTREPRENUERS IN TOWN HAVE BROUGHT A LATINO FLAVOR TO YAKIMA. STILL, ONE TRANSITION HAS YET TO TOTALLY TAKE HOLD - POLITICS. TERRI AGUILERA-FLEMMING SAYS THAT WAS SOMETHING HER HUSBAND POLO WANTED TO CHANGE.

AGUILERA-FLEMMING: “By and large our city council does not reflect the Hispanic makeup of this community. And I think he had a great hope that someday that it would be a better reflection of the ethnic diversity within the community.”

LATINO LEADERS NOTE THAT HISPANICS HAVE MADE SOME INROADS. SOME ARE SERVING ON SCHOOL BOARDS AND ON THE COUNTY COMMISSION. BUT THERE ARE NO HISPANICS SERVING ON THE YAKIMA CITY COUNCIL OR REPRESENTING THE REGION IN THE LEGISLATURE. KDNA RADIO IS TRYING TO BE A FORCE FOR CHANGE. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RICARDO GARCIA SAYS THE ETHNIC POPULATION BASE IS THERE TO GAIN POLITICAL CLOUT. BUT SHEER NUMBERS AREN’T ENOUGH.

GARCIA: “We don’t have enough U.S. citizens who are Latino to make a difference. And FOR those who are eligible to become U.S. citizens, that process has barriers that has slowed down. The naturalization process has slowed down.”

EVEN SO, GARCIA IS OPTIMISTIC THAT SOME DAY YAKIMA LATINOS WILL ELECT A CANDIDATE OF THEIR OWN.

GARCIA: “It has happened with other ethnic groups. In Yakima there was an Afro-American mayor for a long time, Henry Beauchamp. He changed that around by being the mayor of Yakima. We see that coming down the pike for our Latino community. And of course those are steps for eventually a Latino to be a candidate for the governor.”

THESE DAYS KDNA RADIO NO LONGER PLAYS SONGS TO WARN UNDOCUMENTED WORKERS OF IMMIGRATION RAIDS. INSTEAD IT’S PLAYING MUSIC ABOUT THE FUTURE, AND IS URGING LISTENERS TO REGISTER TO VOTE. I’M RUBY DE LUNA, KUOW NEWS.