I know that I said I would try to get a complete update up here before things got really crazy, but it's looking like I failed to do that. I'm actually just slapping this quick update together before my bag of goodies slides off the short side of Mount Krumpet, so forgive me if this feels hurried or incomplete.
The reason that blogging has hit the back burner is because it's March, and that will apparently always be a crazy month for me in Immokalee. The last month or so has been filled with protests leading up to the huge CIW protest in Tampa this weekend, all intertwined with a cross country tour (from Immokalee to Boston and back) that started last Friday. Now I did not get a chance to accompany the tour, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy working logistics for the CIW for the past several weeks.
The reason for the tour is that the CIW is expanding their "Campaign for Fair Food," and even though Publix is still a major target, they're expanding to three other major companies: Giant (owner of Giant and Stop & Shop), Trader Joe's, and Krogers. The tour (of about 75 - 100 farmworkers and allies) started with a massive rally in downtown Boston this past weekend (nearly 1,000 supporters came out in the freezing cold), and has worked it's way down the country (New York City, Baltimore, Atlanta), protesting the different aforementioned grocery chains on the way down. They will meet us (their very supportive Florida crowd) in downtown Tampa this weekend to march on Publix for the third time in a year and a half.
While the tour's been gone this week, I've had the honor of getting to work with two incredible artists from California, Mona and David, who have been painting beautiful images of the CIW's struggle and mass producing several hundreds of pieces of protest art for this weekend. I promise I'll bring my camera, but here's a sneak peak of some of Mona's work (she's painting images of some of the current and former atrocities in the fields, as well as more hopeful shots of what can come from these agreements. This is an atrocity shot.):
On top of all this CIW business, John Carroll is sending 14 students/faculty members down to us on Sunday. THIS Sunday. At 10 AM. Probably less than 12 hours after we get home from Tampa. As you know from last year, we act as hosts and tour guides for these groups, so we've also had our hands full preparing their entire 8-day schedule for the past month or two.
Shortly after that, we'll be getting a 6-day visit from my former house-mate Liz, as well as a week-long or so visit from my parents, brother, and aunt and uncle. Just like last year, I'm incredibly grateful and happy for the visitors, events, and groups, but you could see how my blogging has taken a back seat.
I'll try to get a detailed post up after the JCU group leaves and before my next set of visitors arrive, and you should buckle your seatbelts for hopefully hundreds of pictures. If you'd like to learn a little more about the CIW's tour so far, click here to review their Boston visit, or here to review their NYC visit, or here to review their visit Giant's headquarters in Maryland.
Of course, you can always follow our current progress this weekend at CIW's event page, which you can get to by clicking here.
Thanks for your interest and your patience, friends! See you on the other side of the worm hole!
Thanks for blogging hombre
ReplyDelete