FRESNO -- THE BEAUTY OF CHANGING CULTURE AND PAIN OF HOMELESSNESS
Photoessay by David Bacon
FRESNO, CA - 29SEPTEMBER13 - Fresno is a city with big
contradictions. It is home to thousands of indigenous migrants from
Oaxaca and southern Mexico, and hosts one of the oldest guelaguetza
dance festivals in California. The festival celebrates the food,
crafts, music and culture of Mixtec, Zapotec, Triqui and other
indigenous Mexicans. There are so many migrants from Oaxaca living
in California that there are at least seven guelaguetzas held
throughout the state every year.
But Fresno also has one of the largest populations of homeless
people, per capita, of any city in California. People sleep under
freeways, next to railroad tracks, and out in the open in many
neighborhoods. Many camps and impromptu homes are hidden behind
bushes and boards, and homeless Fresno residents say the police come
down on them heavily, arresting them and confiscating their shopping
carts and belongings.
Outside the city, some ranchers and valley residents are proponents
of extreme political conservatism. A few areas in the San Joaquin
Valley continue to elect very rightwing representatives to Congress,
despite a growing change in California's population demographics.
Indigenous Mexican migrant families from Oaxaca at the annual
festival of Oaxacan indigenous dance, food and culture, the
Guelagetza.
A mother gives her daughter a bite of her tlayuda, a large tortilla
filled with beans, meat and cabbage, Oaxacan style.
A dancer with the Ballet Folklorico Nueva Antequera performs in the
Guelagetza in Fresno, one of many places in California where Oaxacans
organize the festival every year.
The Grupo Folklorico Donaji dances the jarabe from Ejutla, a town in Oaxaca.
The Grupo Folklorico Donaji includes young people and children, who
learn the dances of the many ethnic groups of Oaxaca, now living as
migrants in the United States.
A shopping cart with the possessions of a homeless man next to the
railroad tracks and irrigation canal near the Fresno airport.
Adam is a homeless man who lives in a tent next to the railroad
tracks and irrigation canal near the airport. He takes care of a
dog, Bullet, whose owner was picked up for being homeless and has
been in jail for a week and a half.
Adam, a homeless man, hopes to go to Visalia, another city in the San
Joaquin Valley, and get a job as a security guard.
Steve is a homeless man who keeps his possessions in a shopping cart,
and pushes it down the street near the irrigation canal and the
airport.
Outside of Fresno is the Tea Party Junkyard, a pile of discarded farm
equipment with lots of flags and huge placards with rightwing
slogans. This one says, "Roses are red, violets are blue,
[President] Obama's a commie, [San Francisco Congresswoman] Pelosi is
too."
Interviews with David Bacon about his new book, The Right to Stay Home:
KPFK - Uprisings with Sonali Kohatkar
http://uprisingradio.org/home/2013/09/27/the-right-to-stay-home-how-us-policy-drives-mexican-migration/
KPFA - Upfront with Brian Edwards Tiekert
https://soundcloud.com/kpfa-fm-94-1-berkeley/david-bacon-on-upfront-9-20
TruthOut with Mark Karlin
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/18972-mexican-communities-resist-environmentally-destructive-canadian-mining-companies
Books by David Bacon
THE RIGHT TO STAY HOME: How US Policy Drives Mexican Migration
Just published by Beacon Press
Illegal People -- How Globalization Creates Migration and
Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon Press, 2008)
Recipient: C.L.R. James Award, best book of 2007-2008
http://www.beacon.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=2002
Communities Without Borders (Cornell University/ILR Press, 2006)
http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=4575
The Children of NAFTA, Labor Wars on the U.S./Mexico Border
(University of California, 2004)
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/9989.html
For more articles and images, see http://dbacon.igc.org
--
__________________________________
David Bacon, Photographs and Stories
http://dbacon.igc.org
__________________________________
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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