Word: nuns
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Tramping softly through the sandy West Texas soil in her paisley skirt and black leather heels, Pearl Ceasar looks more like the first-grade teacher she used to be than the nun-turned-troublemaker...
...Sister is working the back roads of Socorro, a 17th century Spanish mission hamlet, mustering turnout for a meeting with an important politician. In the doorway of a cinder-block home, she embraces a key worker, Anastacia Ledesma, but wastes no time on niceties. "Cuantas personas? Ciento, maybe?" the nun asks in her novice Spanish, inquiring how ) many supporters the area can deliver to the meeting. "Doscientos," comes the reply. "Ah, muy, muy bien," exclaims Ceasar. "Four buses. This time we'll fill four buses...
...years ago, wanting "to make a difference," she became an organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), a community-action effort formed by master social organizer Saul Alinsky. A tough, tenacious workaholic, the nun has gained a sharper insight into the colonia dweller's plight from her own roots: her Syrian grandparents encountered discrimination in rural Louisiana at the turn of the century...
...measure of outrage, something not difficult to acquire in neighborhoods rank with the odor of cesspools and defective septic tanks: in addition to 28,000 people without water in the El Paso area, some 53,000 live without sewer systems. At a crook in the road outside Socorro, the nun pulls the car over and gestures toward a field of white cotton. "The waterlines just stop there. Can you believe it? All these people want is a basic right. They shouldn't have to beg for water...
Making them work with first-generation Mexican Americans who speak little English and are wary of Government poses a particular challenge. "What we are telling people," says the nun, "is that the system has failed and you must rise to fill the gap. Your vote makes a difference. You must organize...