ARENAS: Good. Nedda, thanks so much for participating on this audio interview
call and today is September 8th 2015. So I was just wanted to ask you if you could say your full name and where you were born.AVILA: Okay, my name is Nedda, N-E-D-D-A, Avila and I was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico.
ARENAS: I love that okay and Nedda can you tell us when you came to Wisconsin
and what brought you to Wisconsin?AVILA: I came to Wisconsin in 1982. I got married and I moved from Indiana.
First Chicago, then to Indiana, to Milwaukee.ARENAS: Mmm. Okay. Love brought you here to Wisconsin. Uh-huh? So, we usually
start off and ask if there is something if you could recall from your childhood 00:01:00that has influenced the level of community involvement that you've been involved with in the past many years here in Wisconsin since 1982. Is there any one or two events in your childhood that think that influenced the work you have done over the years?AVILA: In my childhood it would have been my mom. Even though she was not
involved in the things that I am involved in now, but it did show me that community means a lot. She was always doing something for the community. Whether people were sick, whether she was always helping somebody around the area I was born. So I got it from her until I came to Milwaukee. I mean I was involved in Indiana as well.ARENAS: Yeah. What would be an example of something that your mom did and, you
know, did you observe it directly and what did you feel about that? 00:02:00AVILA: Okay, one of the things I vaguely remember is that she used to get
dressed in white like a uniform and I was wondering, "I don't think she is a nurse." And then I would ask her "Where are you going? You're not a nurse." And she said, "We volunteer to going to the hospital to help people out" or "We are going to the homes of the people that are sick." Many times she was taking care of people that had tuberculosis and I would remember. I was seven or six and I would ask her. "But if you go work with somebody with tuberculosis, won't you bring the germ home?" and she says "No I don't. I'm just doing help. That's all. I'm just helping people." and that's how I remember her or cooking for a family that had no food or water. She was always doing something.ARENAS: Wow. That's remarkable Nedda. Can you tell me that the city that you
grew up in la Isla. Was this just a rural area or an urban area?AVILA: It was rural, like a rural area. It's a- in the- I'm a valley girl from
00:03:00Caguas. That's what they call it because we're not close to the ocean but that's what it was, a small town. Well, it wasn't small but I can even name the suburbs since we lived close.ARENAS: That helps me. Thank you Nedda.
GÓMEZ: Nedda, define your ethnic identity and share with us that identity that
as you've defined it has changed over time.AVILA: Well, my ancestor to ethnic part is I don't feel, I don't like being
called a Hispanic, I like being a Latina and it has to do with me being in a Best Buy situation years and years ago. So I don't panic for his anymore so I want to be called Latina/Latina-Boricua if that makes sense.ARENAS: Yes it does.
GÓMEZ: Did you want to describe what Boricua means for someone who listens and
00:04:00may not know that?AVILA: Right Boricua is the Indians that came to Puerto Rico. Instead of being
called Puerto Rico it was called Boricuen by the Indians. You know Indians that was before they arrived from Spain. So they changed it from the Indians and Boricua is for Boricuen.ARENAS: Alright.
GÓMEZ: So how do you feel about your ethnic identity, full of pride? How would
you characterize it?AVILA: I'm very proud, very proud of being a Latino woman. A strong Latino woman
at that and I'm proud to have been a Latina-Indian because my parents or my grandparents came from Spain but even though we're such a mixture of culturism 00:05:00of other ethnic groups that I'm very proud very, very proud.ARENAS: Thank you.
GÓMEZ: How would define- do you define yourself as a community activist and if
you do, why do you do? Why would you call yourself a community activist and if you don't call, consider, yourself a community activist, what would you call yourself in terms of all your community work?AVILA: I believe that I am a community activist because of what I hear and see
things that are not helping out Latino. I am going to say something about it and I am going to do something about it and I didn't even know I was and activist until someone told me that. I was just I was just helping people, that's all I cared.ARENAS: Nedda, who told you were an activist?
AVILA: Pardon me?
GÓMEZ: When was that?
AVILA: That well- when- It is a two-fold story. Okay I didn't know I was a
00:06:00feminist and I didn't know I was an activist. They just told me that I used- that was raising a lot of hell. It's technical is what's worst. So that's what an activist is? Okay so I am.ARENAS: Wait when you say "they" are those people in the Milwaukee South Side? I
mean, help me understand who was telling you were and activist and a feminist.AVILA: Okay this was way back, starting from Indiana.
ARENAS: Okay
AVILA: Because you see I was getting involved in things that only man do. So
when we started acting up in Indiana, because I was in politics over there. They started saying well they called me something else besides activist but I am not going to say it. Then when I moved here, I still had that in my blood I says "Wait a minute, we don't have the right to say something or another?" Then when I started working here, I started doing the same thing. It was totally different 00:07:00politics but it was the same thing, women are supposed to be quiet, women are not supposed to say anything. I mean so I said, "Yes we do. We have a right. God gave us a mouth. " So that's become another word I don't want to say.ARENAS: Okay, that's helpful, thank you.
GÓMEZ: When did your activism start, Nedda? How did it first kick off and maybe
it started in childhood. I don't know. Can you share with us how it all started?AVILA: Well you know it all could have started in Caguas and I just then noticed
but it started when I was married to my children's father and he was an abuser and I needed to get out of the situation and I started little by little and I started saying "Wait a minute; I have a voice. I could get out of this. I could 00:08:00talk. I am not stupid. I am not dumb." So I believe that I started being an activist in 1959 to 1960 or somewhere around there. After I had my kids, I worked for a long time with my ex knowing that I was working and I started from the bottom up and here I am.GÓMEZ: Yeah. Could you share with us a little bit of your activism in East Indiana?
AVILA: It's East Chicago, Indiana
GÓMEZ: East Chicago.
AVILA: Right. The men were, the Puerto Rican men were involved with the city as
far as elections and getting the Puerto Rican vote out and being involved. But it was only a man thing and then I- I saw what they were doing and I was listening and I was saying, "Wait a minute they can do this. I can too!" So then they had an organization. My ex-husband was the one that got involved in 00:09:00politics then I would go to the meetings and I would hear them but I couldn't say anything and so one day I said "Hey wait a minute mister mayor sir! You say that you would do anything any for anything for the Latinos right now because you are running. Could I have a job?" And he looked at me and said, "Well what do you know to do?" I said, "What do I know what to do? I don't know anything!" But I said "I could be a secretary." Well, I got married at sixteen, quit school and that, but I said, "I could be a secretary". So I went my way and I started learning how to type again and doing things and I did get a job in the city, which my husband was very, ex-husband, was very angry about because I was not supposed to be working but that's how I started. I started as a cross guard mind you.ARENAS: What year was this approximately that you were you actually in East
00:10:00Chicago, Indiana?AVILA: Okay, I got there when I was eight years old and that was in the forties.
ARENAS: Okay.
AVILA: And then I got married in '55 I believe and then when I started working
at I believe at 1959 1960. I started working as a cross guard.GÓMEZ: When did you-
ARENAS: Okay. A very important safety job. I love that.
AVILA: Yes.
GÓMEZ: When did you begin to work for the city as a secretary?
AVILA: I was just a cross guard, just filling as a cross guard then at the time
she wasn't there. Then one day the gentleman came by at the corner where I worked in a car. He looked like a Kennedy kind of person and he said "Are you Nedda Almeda?" because I was Nedda Almeda back then and I said at him "First of all, I don't talk to strangers and I'm sorry to say this but especially a 00:11:00Luddite. Why do you want to know who I am?" he said "I want you to go to an interview for a job at the City Hall for the Building Department" and I go "Oh my lord." So I said, "Okay, at what time? When?" So at the time he told me and I only lived about three blocks from city hall. So the day I was supposed to go I was so nervous and so scared. I called city hall and said that I could not go for the interview because it was raining. Obviously they knew it was because I was very nervous. So they rescheduled it and I went and I took a typing test, which I knew which I did terrible, but then they hired me as a clerk for the Building Department and I worked there for twenty some years. I mean I went up in the ladder but then I got involved with politics. I was the precinct in committee person, which is next to the alderperson. 00:12:00GÓMEZ: What is it called again? A precinct--
AVILA: Precinct in committee person.
ARENAS: Ah.
AVILA: Think of a man or woman.
GÓMEZ: and were they met with women positions at the time?
AVILA: Yeah but mostly it was Anglo women and I had an assistant, which I chose
as a Mexican gentleman I had been raised with. So I was there for five, five to ten years. I was a teaching, committed person; I didn't want to run for alderman or alderwoman. But Latinos no or Latino women, there weren't that many.GÓMEZ: When was-
ARENAS: Nedda was that was that an appointment where the mayor said, "Nedda, I
want you to serve as a precinct person" or was it an elected position where you had to run and garner votes?AVILA: No, you have to run.
00:13:00ARENAS: Okay so you ran for election. You ran for a seat. Huh.
AVILA: Mm-hm. five times.
GÓMEZ: And when was this again Nedda? What years were you a precinct committee person?
AVILA: It had to be possibly in I think in the seventies. Mid-seventies to yeah
seventies. Early seventies or late sixties.GÓMEZ: Okay and-
ARENAS: This is amazing! This was not in your first interview. You're working in
East Chicago, it's fascinating. What were you-What were your responsibilities in this position?AVILA: Our responsibility the most important one was to make sure that all the
people that lived in the district precinct; which a precinct would be about let's say ten, twelve, fifteen streets and then they took the streets and made it into the alderman would then take care of all those precincts. So our thing 00:14:00was make sure that everyone is registered to vote. Make sure that you knew if there were teens that were going to be eighteen make sure they'd get registered. Make sure that we got the absentee ballots. Make sure that the alleys were clean the streets were clean. That teens were getting jobs of- at fifteen. What else? Oh! We had to open up the polls early in the morning. Make sure that they have sure of the book-holders whatever have you and we had to hire people, very different from here, to stand outside so many feet from the area where people that were going to vote. Pass out literature. We went door-to-door and pass out literature and we were making sure people were voting for the candidate was one we were pushing for and we were very forceful.GÓMEZ: Nedda when you- when you had this responsibility were you the only
00:15:00Latina at the time?AVILA: No, there was other Latinas that were there in the other that were in the
other sides. Like I was like on the North side different from here and other women. Latinas I don't think that many. There must have been five or six of us in the whole city of East Chicago and at that time Latinos very hard for Latinos to do whatever we needed. We had two clubs that- one was a Mexican Independence, Fiesta something or other at the time, and a Puerto Rican club that used to be the ones that used to work with the Latinos and with the city, trying to get the mayor to help out, whatever we needed and get more police more people into the city. 00:16:00GÓMEZ: Nedda when you said you ran for office, what was involved in running for
a precinct committee position?AVILA: Well you had to go to door be recognized and talk to people. You know
it's funny because now that I think about it and it was difficult because a lot of the area where the precinct was there were Anglo. Polish and German and other Europeans like that and you had to convince them they weren't monsters we didn't know what a Puerto Rican looked like except for when they said "You don't look Puerto Rican." And I said, "What does a Puerto Rican look like? Do we have a third eye or something?" I said "I'm an American, I was born an American. You know, that can happen?" So you had to convince the people that you would be able to be a good representation of the whole community not only of the Spanish 00:17:00community, but that's what they thought. You're Latina so you're only going to look after the, you know, Latino population. That's- we're striving to let the mayor know that there are Latinos here and he is to help all those people that are here, Anglos. So we had a hard time.GÓMEZ: But did you- you were elected?
AVILA: Yes!
ARENAS: Yeah. Those in the precinct had to elect a precinct committee person?
AVILA: I'm sorry? I didn't hear.
ARENAS: So they- So people that lived in your precinct-
AVILA: Right, right, the neighborhood, the neighborhood. The neighbors and the
people around that area.ARENAS: How many- How many precinct committee persons were there in all of East
Chicago, Indiana?AVILA: I couldn't tell you right now how many there were. I know that each
precinct like I said before had ten or twelve, fifteen blocks of there was five 00:18:00aldermen. So I'm assuming that each precinct was different. You know how they divide the automatic district? That was the same thing over there and the thing was all around the area, they would meet with the alderman once a month to make sure that we were doing what we were supposed to do. So I was also involved in the community center, which was in the area, making sure that because we had like the chairs of the committees making sure we did our job. We all would meet once a month and make sure we were doing our job and it was not a paid job.GÓMEZ: No it wasn't? Okay. That I was- That was my next question.
AVILA: No.
ARENAS: And what was the name of the agency that you worked with?
AVILA: I worked for the building, building, plumbing, and electrical department
00:19:00for the city. Yeah.GÓMEZ: and when you were able to hold that position as well as be a precinct
committee person?AVILA: Yes!
GÓMEZ: Okay. Okay. Alright so and how many aldermanic seats were there did you say?
AVILA: I believe there was six or seven. I'm not- I don't quite remember that
much now or more.GÓMEZ: Okay, no it's just a general sense of-
AVILA: Ballpark estimates because that was thirty years ago. You're always
behind my back here on Alzheimer's. Just kidding.GÓMEZ: And how many precinct committee persons were there for each aldermanic
seats more or less?AVILA: I think it was one precinct committee person for the area of ten blocks,
00:20:00twelve blocks depending and they say there were five or six precinct committee persons and then they voted aldermen for office. Any of us could have ran for office but a lot of them didn't and a lot of them did and lost but that was- it was more pressure being alderman. They knew they had to almost take care of all those precincts.GÓMEZ: Oh Yeah. Oh Yeah.
AVILA: It was a totally different plot from here.
GÓMEZ: Yeah so there were five or six precinct's committee persons for every
aldermanic district and there were about six or seven aldermanic districts.AVILA: Yeah
GÓMEZ: Okay and you were one of maybe five or six Latinas during that that five-
AVILA: Right.
GÓMEZ: Six-year period?
AVILA: Mm-hm
GÓMEZ: And how did- What was your term for? What was the amount of time per term?
AVILA: I believe it was three years. Four to three years
00:21:00GÓMEZ: Ah. Okay
AVILA: It wasn't long though.
GÓMEZ: Wow.
ARENAS: Amazing.
GÓMEZ: Okay. Now you had mentioned that your husband may have been--I think you
may have described as being more traditional. How did he accept you being a precinct committee person?AVILA: He didn't but that- I'm sorry at that time I was already having problems
with my marriage. So I had just opened up my cage and flew out of it. So he was- he was a politician and for me to turn around and then be the politician. Well, after I became a precinct committee person we got divorced.GÓMEZ: Mm-hm Okay.
ARENAS: What position did your husband hold?
AVILA: What? Oh! No. He worked for the steel mills there.
GÓMEZ: Oh. But when you say he was political, you mean he was politically
engaged in the community--AVILA: Yeah, he was just involved with the Latinos, with the Puerto Rican
00:22:00community. They had a flexor that was involved with the Mexican population and then there was another one with the Puerto Ricans. So then finally, thank god, that we joined forces and that was the straw that broke the camel's back because my girlfriend and I, the two quarter rebels, Puerto Ricans, we did join the Mexican community leaders. So we had more force that way.GÓMEZ: Okay. So when you- Nedda when you said you were one of the five or six
Latinas who were Precinct Committee persons. There was only two of you who were Puerto Rican and the other four were Mexican or Mexican-American?AVILA: No. No, but they had a Puerto Rican club and they had a Mexican club.
GÓMEZ: Oh. Okay
AVILA: So we had our own women that that did work because there were wise
veterans. Puerto Rican veterans so we were always involved within the community. 00:23:00So they knew us, I mean they knew us because we were involved with cooking and other things like that. So we didn't have a voice-GÓMEZ: Yeah.
AVILA: Until started working on having a voice and that's when we were working
into the others. It was called 20/20. It was twenty men so we got involved and it was called 22/22.ARENAS: I love it! I love it! I love it!
AVILA: Yeah.
GÓMEZ: But I had just wanted to be clear you had said that there were only five
or six Latinas at the time who were precinct committee persons. Were they all puertorriqueña?AVILA: No
GÓMEZ: Okay
AVILA: But there were Mexican as well.
GÓMEZ: Okay so it was a mixture of both then.
AVILA: Mm-hm
GÓMEZ: Okay and let's see before we move on to you coming to Milwaukee was
there any other community activism role that you played in East Chicago? Before 00:24:00we move on to Milwaukee?AVILA: Okay well, we belonged to different clubs we also had strikes for - my
girlfriend and I for the union when the steel mills went on strike. We would march with the unions. I mean, we were so into making Latinos letting them know what Latinos were all about and we could do a good job, that we were getting involved in every little thing that we could.GÓMEZ: Yeah. Yeah. Wow. So you helped with the strikes at the steels mills and
you marched with different union groups.AVILA: Mm-hm
GÓMEZ: That's incredible.
AVILA: And because we worked for the city it was like you worked for the city so
00:25:00that was your rice and beans, they knew. So you were supposed to make your time to volunteer to at different banquets, at different things when presidents came when governors came. We were supposed to be there as hostess and help out as a city worker. They didn't have to tell us we knew that already. That we were supposed to you know, be involved in all those things. So we did. I met a couple of presidents and back and governors and it was a given that we were supposed to help out.GÓMEZ: Okay. Alright.
ARENAS: I have one question and that would be: which political party were
you a member of when you ran for?AVILA: Democratic
ARENAS: All right. Thank you.
AVILA: Yes.
00:26:00GÓMEZ: Okay all right. So let's move on to Milwaukee, Nedda.
AVILA: Okay.
GÓMEZ: When did you become involved in the community in Milwaukee and what kind
of involvement did you have?AVILA: Okay I moved to Milwaukee in 1982 because my girlfriend in Indiana got
married and moved to Brookfield and then when I got divorced I came to visit her and I met somebody and got married and moved to Milwaukee not knowing anybody but her and I thought that I was going to sell Milwaukee Empire because I use to sell Mary Kay. I was involved in politics but when I got here, I noticed that it was totally different. I at that time it was again you were Latina you can't get anywhere. I didn't know anybody so my girlfriend would come from Brookfield and 00:27:00she would help me get a job. I didn't have to work but I said "I can't be at home I have to work and do something." So she would to tell me "Hey, there's a job here". I applied here for a couple of jobs and nobody would hire me. And I was- I wanted to sell Mary Kay and people here didn't wear the make-up like they did in East Chicago or things like that. So it was, I couldn't get into the Mary Kay thing at the time and, mind you, you know how they sell so much you get a Cadillac, a pink Cadillac?GÓMEZ: Oh yeah.
AVILA: I was close to getting a pink Cadillac! Thank God I didn't! But that I
couldn't do here either so then my girlfriend took me around and I filled out applications. So I got a job in an insurance company downtown as a bilingual 00:28:00person. I had never worked in insurance and then I worked there for three months and then I heard of an opening at Sixteen Street Clinic and then I said, "Well, this is Sixteen Street Clinic! What is this?" So then I found out that they worked with the Latinos and they worked with the Hmong and I said, "Here is where I am going". When I applied for a job the only job they had open was a clerk, a file clerk. So mind you when I left Indiana I was, I forgot to tell you, I was the Acting Bus Transit Director at that time and I left all that to come here. I started all over again as a file clerk at the clinic. I didn't know anything about medicine; I didn't know anything about clinics but I started working there and that got me involved with the Latino community and I said, "Wait a minute, there is something I could do here." And mind you I had a 00:29:00wonderful boss. Could I say his name?AVILA: Paul Nanos.
AVILA: Which was wonderful and he helped me out and I was a clerk and I became
the supervisor of the front area and then since we didn't have the funding was getting kind of slow then there wasn't an opening but a need for Sixteen Street Clinic and Paul to get more out there in the Latino community so I made myself a position of PR-PR, Puerto Rican Public Relation.AVILA: Yes. So then with Paul I allowed to go to all the meetings he couldn't go
to and introduce him to all the Latinos more in the community. I worked there 00:30:00for ten years and then I got started getting involved with the people more and hearing of the domestic violence, women, drugs and alcohol. So then I thought, "Who is helping our Latino population with the drugs and alcohol and domestic violence?" and at that time there wasn't that many people helping them.So I said, "Wait a minute". I got involved then I got involved with the
governor's council and working trying to get something for the Latino women. Then after that, ten years later, well, there was nothing more for me at the clinic. So Paul left and then there was I wasn't going to be going anywhere because I wasn't a doctor, I didn't have a degree in medicine, or anything.So then I read they had an opening at Milwaukee women's center. So I applied for
the job as a case manager and then I studied drug and alcohol counselor. So I 00:31:00started at Milwaukee women's center as a drug and alcohol counselor and started working with African-American women because Latino women were not going into Milwaukee Women's Center or to shelters for violence because they didn't know what it would entail.So I said "Okay, this is what I'm going to plan to do". So I started getting
Latina women into Milwaukee's Women's Center's shelter to come and talk about domestic violence to tell them there was help here and it was okay for them I started working with more Latinos in on drug and alcohol because I only used to see at the time they had no beginnings for Latino drug population alcohol but the women were not going there it was mostly for the men which, thank god, they opened up for the women as well. 00:32:00So I was taking the women to someplace else but I would be the interpreter. So
I'd be the interpreter for anything that they needed. So I was doing more and more case management then Milwaukee's Women's Center saw the need and they applied for a grant that would be split. I would work with the Latino family and the other partner would work with African-American women or families and the beautiful part about this is that my counter-part was one of my ex-clients.AVILA: Well she became sober she took her tests she was an alcoholic, drug and
alcohol counselor and I still keep in touch with her and up until this year she is still sober.AVILA: Yes. So that's how I got involved and got started getting involved and
said "You know, who has the care for Latina women?" And that started when I went 00:33:00to the meetings of the governor's counselor, I would always say the same thing: This isn't working.GÓMEZ: When did you join the governor's council and what council was it?
AVILA: That would have to be Domestic Violence. That would have to be 1997, '98
somewhere around there or before I'm not- I can't remember.ARENAS: Remember, I'm retired so I'm forgetting all those feelings!
GÓMEZ: Yeah. So in that role, well, let's just talk. So you were involved with
both Sixteen Street Community Health Center and working for the Milwaukee Women's Health Center.AVILA: Yep! Well that is why I was employed, right? Aside from that I belonged
00:34:00to different organizations different agencies on the board. Right now I only belong to two boards, which is La Causa, and I believe I've been on the La Causa for at least twenty-two years on the board in the executive committee and UMOS with a just twenty-five years at UMOS.ARENAS: I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the two programs that
you created one at one at La Causa, which was the Crises Aid Care Center and the- at UMOS, the Women's Resource Center. Could you tell us about your role in each of those?AVILA: Okay I will start with Latina Resource Center. Like I said, I keep
00:35:00arguing and arguing the fact of what are we doing for Latino women? Why are we not teaching Latino women that it is okay to leave the home when you have violence? What do you do? How do you prepare? Why do you do this? So being that you when belong to the council, they usually think that Milwaukee is a big, well it is, the big part that we don't need anything or whatever, and the rural needs more which is okay but they also have Latinos in the rural part.So we started talking and talking and a bunch of us women including Leonor Rosas
and Gladis Benavides we belong to- made this little click of women. That were- is called we even had a name for it. It was S.O.S Mujer. Like S.O.S., like help. 00:36:00And we met and we met and we met and half of us wanted a shelter because Latino women don't go to a shelter where they don't speak their language. Then we were arguing the point that there are two shelters already in Milwaukee. So why can't we just have a place to teach the women? What to do and prepare them for leaving the home? And the same thing was happening with the drug and alcohol part okay? So, like I said, thank god that the UCC opened up. Something for women, for drug and alcohol recovery home.So then as talking and talking and working this and this, I was lucky enough to
get to go to the Hispanic Chambers. I had asked if I could present at a Hispanic 00:37:00Chamber luncheon for women and open up something about domestic- talk about the domestic violence. You know, how can we get women to talk about this? Say, "Hey! I'm battered. I mean I don't care if I am a sheriff I don't care if I'm a factory worker, I don't care if I work for whomever. I don't care. I need help. I need somebody to help me out". That it's okay, no one is going to categorize you as a woman that has no respect for herself because that's what a lot of women think.So we started talking. We did the first the first workshop and it was Ben Ortega
and I. Ben Ortega used to work for Milwaukee Women's Center a long, long time ago. It was the first male that worked with domestic violence and him and I started working together and we presented the man's view, the woman's view, and 00:38:00what can you do about it and where could they go. So the peoples, the women, started saying "Hey! I remember when my mother was, you know, battered but I didn't dare to say anything and she said 'Un pasito acá tengo pasar.' 'I have to stay in this marriage'.'"AVILA: So then the interest was there. So then the following year, we followed
up again and I went and presented again but then this time I took a therapist that spoke about how women, Latina women, don't go to a therapy on mental health because they think that people are going to categorize them as "Locas" and they're not and I took one of my clients so she could talk about her experience about being battered. So this brought up a lot of attention. So thank god Maria, 00:39:00I was already at that time after all of this we presented three times after this, Maria Monreal said, "I didn't believe them that there was this much violence of Latinos here in Milwaukee." Well, obviously she worked in a different set-up we do because we see it.So then, well, I was in Washington, DC presenting on domestic violence and then
she made she had consortium of the department, not the department heads, the directors of agencies that worked with Latinos including La Causa including her, including UMOS including others, UCC so they discussed this over and over and over. I think you remember it Eloisa. They were discussing about what are they going to do about domestic violence. I mean, how could we to help these women 00:40:00and it so happens you met with Lupe Martinez and you tell him an idea, he said, "Fine! I'm fantastic! How are you going to work things through?" So he went to two or three meetings and said, "You know what? We'll take it over". So UMOS the first one to say "Hey we will take it over and we will put an office and for the first year, we will fund you But after that whoever has that job has to go and write grants, has to go out there into the public, and has to go out there in the neighborhoods and find out what's going on and what is needed" and that was nine-ten years ago and that's how the Latino Resource Center started.GÓMEZ: and what was your role was with the Latina Resource Center, Nedda?
AVILA: My role was I was the one involved the beginning to make sure that they
have something.AVILA: I have always been the back up making sure people were getting to this
00:41:00and that people think that I work for UMOS but I say no I don't I'm on the board, UMOS works for us. So I mean the interest and I tell you what, when we interviewed the Mariana, which was the manager, she was pregnant and we told her "Okay. Well, by the time we will have all this fixed, we'll wait, until you come back when you have the baby and come back to work". There was a line waiting for her before she even got back. There was a line of women and it was extending to its max.As a matter of fact, this Saturday, we have the Bride's Walk again this year.
It's going to be the ninth that we dress in white and we walk on the street all the way to UMOS, chanting about domestic violence and you could get help. So that's my involvement I'm still get involved in it and make sure that it's safe and that it's growing. Leaps and bounds it's growing. They're going out of the 00:42:00building already.AVILA: La Causa right now they have the daycare center, they have social
00:43:00services, which have grown, and they also have, let's see, the charter school and They have they started a little with the Crisis Nursery. Which they bought this tout little house and they build it to have to be a respite center for moms that have to go to the hospital, that have a doctor's appointment, that needed time out they can leave their children for 24 hour to 72 hours. From birth to twelve years old and once they bring the baby or the child there, they take care of them and they then try to get help for the mom.When this started, again, Dave Ortega was one of the directors there then. The
director of, not the director of La Causa that was David Espinoza, but he was in 00:44:00charge of the nursery. So when I was getting involved in it I myself I told him, "You know what?" I said, "We're babysitting for these women!" because there were a lot of women on drugs and they were taking their babies there. And he answered me right then. He said "Would you rather they leave them alone?" so I said, "You're very right then!" so then I personally would take my clients when they had a problem from the home to show them that this definitely was a safe place for child.Again, at the start of the thing again, Latinos wouldn't leave their child
anywhere or with anybody they don't know. So that way if they started using it, if I needed to go to a doctor, I could go. I mean obviously I would have to call first; they'd have to make an appointment, and make sure that there is a place there for them but it's a beautiful place, as a matter of fact, we could build a 00:45:00new one. That was involvement with La Causa and I'm still on their board.AVILA: That's a part that was very important. The Crisis Nursery.
AVILA: It's the only one in Wisconsin.
GÓMEZ: What made you decide to join La Causa's board as well as UMOS's board?
AVILA: Okay well, UMOS. I was at the UMOS board before I was at La Causa board.
UMOS board because I saw the work that they did with the migrants. I mean, to go up to and go up North and see the way the migrant workers traveled from Texas and Florida and back to work here and the conditions that they were working in 00:46:00with the growers, and the conditions that they were living in and then when I saw UMOS building homes for them, so they could have a sane home to come to, when they had all these. I mean they help a person if the car broke down. They hired them from Texas. They go to Texas and they hired people up there every- before the season starts they go and hire people. Some come. Some don't. Some come here and then they stay or some just go back to Texas or they go from here to Florida. In order, I mean, in order to know how hard the migrants work, you need to see that. You just need to see it. I said, "This is just a wonderful, wonderful agency to be-GÓMEZ: Nedda, you were talking about, you know you saw both the conditions of
00:47:00the housing and living conditions for migrant workers were doing and you saw what UMOS wanted to do and was doing for them and that was your reason for joining the board then?AVILA: Well, I just liked what they did, what they had. The passion that they
had for what they do and I said "If I am going to join something it's going to be for something worthwhile" and as you know I've been on there for twenty-five years on the board. I don't think that anybody lasts that long on the board but I have. Thank god and you're voted in by the members.AVILA: And also what they're doing for W-2 and other programs they have. It's
not only here. I think that's why I think you should talk to Rob for more information because anytime we're supposed to interview whenever we have board 00:48:00member do interviews. Anytime we talk about it but I'm so proud to talk about it I talk about it always. Period.AVILA: The reason I joined La Causa board, was because at that time UMOS used to
own the building for where La Causa was on 8th and Metro, I'm sorry, 8th and Greenfield?AVILA: and they used to- then they rented the house and they rented half to UMOS
and the other half they had La Causa. And when I would see all these little kids come when I used to go to meetings. I would see these little children and the moms and one day I saw David out front at daycare and when he knew every child by name and he knew every mother by name. I said, "My Gosh! This, I would love 00:49:00to belong to because they're doing so well with the kids like that and bilingual at that." So when they had an opening I joined that's when I joined La Causa, on board and that's when I got interested in all of the other things that they do.GÓMEZ: Was there any other organization that you wanted to mention? I know you
were involved in quite a few issues and activities. Is there one more you would want to bring up and mention?AVILA: Right now one that I would like to mention is Latino Nonprofit Leadership
Program that Dr. Figueroa runs. I've been mentor since it started and is mentoring people that joined and that they know to be leaders within the community and the need. There are so many people that joined at the non-profit 00:50:00world and we teach them what we know and they give us a mentee and, like I have said, since I've had, since they started, I have had a mentee.I used to belong to other things at one time I belonged to the board member of
Journey, Journey House. That's not Journey house. I'm sorry. I forgot the name of it right now but the other boards I've been involved with for a little while for domestic violence but I've been more involved with, like I said, drug and alcohol and mostly domestic violence and working with Latinos most of the time.GÓMEZ: So, this would you just be able to generally describe the Latino
community at the time? Let's just talk about the 1990's. What was the Latina community like at that time from your point of view?AVILA: At that time it was kind of again, hard for us to get into just thinking
about women and the Latina women, per say because we were I mean, not too much to say involvement with that but then they had...What was it? I remember back Maria Cameron. I mean, different prospects there in Hispanic chambers then women started popping up. Maria? What was it? Maria Franco. As a matter of fact Maria Franco and I were doing workshops for the police department on domestic violence. You know, our beliefs on domestic violence and things like that before Latina Resource Center came about. And what's her name now? What? Just a friend, Maria Guerrez or Emiliana Lopez.AVILA: And with the Schools we were mentees as well teenagers at South Division
and things like that. So.AVILA: But like I said, now to see all these professional women, Latino women I
mean it just makes my heart pound. You feel all the seeds that we have planted are flowering. Different ideas, different perspectives, different ways of doing things, never the less, they're doing it and I could say for myself and I don't speak for nobody else, just to see that I'm very proud of what has come of the Latino professional women nowadays.ARENAS: Well you certainly set the course for us with your activism and all of
your agencies. I mean and I think your influence is in us for the next generation.AVILA: Yes, that's why we say we planted that seed. They need to water it and
they need to take care of it now.AVILA: but they're doing a great job, a great, great job.
GÓMEZ: You had mentioned, Nedda that you know you had a person who influenced
your life. It was your mother. Were there any other influences that shaped your activism?AVILA: Well I could say that when I - First of all, when I lived in Indiana I
already sent my mother and said all man is here. When I lived in Indiana I started working in the city and obviously I was shy. I was afraid because of my husband, ex-husband, and two men in my life one was Polish and the other one was African-American they taught me and they kept saying "You could do it. You could do it. You have the knack. You're smart. Don't let nobody tell you that you're not. You know you just have to believe in yourself." As a matter of fact the African-American boss that I had for the building department and he would call me "May Thelma" and I used to say, "Mr. Wrong, my name is Nedda, not May Thelma." And He says "No I'm calling you May Thelma because you remind me of the History books where the slave women would just say 'Yes Ma'am. Yes sir. Yes Ma'am' and you're doing the same thing. Life has changed. You stand up for your rights and you be proud of whom you are."Not that I wasn't but I was afraid because we were shunned. You know, when we
came to the states; they didn't like Puerto Ricans anywhere. I mean the prejudice was so bad then and those two people Mr. Edward Chicao he passed away and the Polish one, Mr. Robert Hogs I don't know if he is still in packed up in Indiana I don't know if he passed away or not but god bless both of them and then here when I started working it was Paul and then from Paul there then I started with Lupe Martinez and with David Espinoza believing in me and things like that. I mean that helped me believe and say "Hey, we do have a right." I mean, they respected us and that's what you need.GÓMEZ: Yeah. Nedda you mentioned you experienced prejudice and prejudice in the
US when you came. What kind of prejudice did you experience?AVILA: Well, I'll start with Indiana. At the time I came to Indiana, my dad was
already in Indiana in the forties and he was working at the steel mills here. So he sent for us but we went to New York first. So we lived in New York for about three or four months but we couldn't get used to it so we took a bus from New York, from Brooklyn to here and when we got here we had to live like bunches because it was rent to Latinos.The whites didn't like us the blacks didn't like us the Mexicans didn't like us,
so we had to live in the. As a matter of fact my Dad never owned a home in Indiana he would rent big apartments or he could take it and divide the rooms and we would rent to men that came or couples that came from Puerto Rico to work here and my mom would be the one that would cook and we would help out since I was eight years old. Help out and cook and clean and let for the people that lived in our house. And little by little once they started working they would move to another apartment then some more would migrate.As a matter of fact, this is the story that I always tell that I started at UMOS
as a board member. One time one of the board members asked me, "Why are you of the Puerto Ricans involved in UMOS which works with migrants?" and I said "What makes you think I'm not?" I said, "I migrated here. I was brought here by my parents because they came here to work. That's migration and further when the steel mill was on strike, my dad and a whole busload of people went to Kentucky to work and I was what? I was nine. I was jumping on bales of cotton. Does that not make me a migrant?" That shut him up.So that's how we were there. School kids. I didn't speak English. I didn't. I
was in. I had little Mexican friends and I couldn't understand what they were telling me and they couldn't understand what I was saying because I had Puerto Rican ghetto talk and they had their Mexican dialect so I didn't understand what they were telling me half of the time but we became friends and I learned and we lived with Mexican people. I also learned from them. It was funny because the one time the lady that we lived with, Mexican lady, she was going to make me, if I wanted a tortilla and I said "Si!" All of a sudden I looked and she gave me a tortilla. To us, tortilla is an omelet. A tortilla huevo is an omelet. Where are the eggs? She just gave me the tortilla with butter. I said "Oh! This is good!" and then I had a little girlfriend in school from the South, from Kentucky and she wanted to give me comic books to start reading and learning how to read in English and I went to her house to come pick them up and her mother wouldn't let me in. She wouldn't even let me pass the sidewalk because I was Latina.So all those things, all those things we had to go through. We could not walk on
the sidewalk. There was Anglo-people that won't let us walk, but things changed. That really changed until I came here and there was prejudices, too and I said "Oh no! I went through all of that already so sorry! If I walk into a place and I'm dark complexed and I have an accent? You leave. I'm sorry; I got here first, so you leave because I'm not." But that's what I call ignorance not prejudice, just ignorance.GÓMEZ: Thank You. Did your community activism role evolve over time Nedda? Did
you think of it as evolving?AVILA: Yeah, I saw a lot of changes, yes, and have seen a lot even now that I am
retired. I'm still involved because my husband's tells me. "I thought you were retired." I say, "Yeah, I'm retired from the Milwaukee Women's Center not the community" So I'm still involved and I still see the involvement I do besides mentoring at the Latino non-profit. All these young professional women they, thank God that they still trust me and still believe what I believe in and still come to me with questions. GÓMEZ: Did you experience any gender issues with men either Latino men or non-Latino men? Was there any prejudice against you as a woman?AVILA: Yes but not- the only time I had problems was with the fact when I was a
drug and alcohol counselor and I had males that I needed to talk to. Especially if they were going to be my client, they would - especially in domestic violence, and drug and alcohol. They looked at me like as if like if it were a Mexican male he would look at me and one told me right then and therGÓMEZ: "Do you think that I'm going to listen to a patorra?" He called me a patorra, which is a word that I hate. Which means Puerto Rican but it sounds like patorre because we talk a lot. So he says "You think I'm going to let a patorra come into my house and tell me how to handle my family and take my wife away?" I said, "I'm not doing none of that. I'm trying to teach you how to treat your wife." So, those were the things. Some threatened to run me over, some wouldn't look at me, and some would later on come on their own and help and thank me. As a matter of fact, I had a couple that moved to I believe is Michigan. Is it Michigan? Anyway, they moved out of Milwaukee and were my clients, they came to visit family, and they came and found out. They looked and looked and asked people until they found where I lived and they came to my house to thank me for the kind of family that they had now.AVILA: I have people in Florida that still text me and call me and tell me "My
husband is not behaving can you talk to him?" I mean I'm not a counselor any more. I don't care that they call me Monita. The Puerto Ricans call me La Menta or "Mine". The only thing I can say is "Negrito no esta portando bien. You are not behaving." And he says "Okay Maybe. No me porto bien" So those people still call me I see people at Wal-Mart, I'll see people at the stores like El Rey even when I used to work at the clinic I'd still see those people at El Rey. Those things still happen but I'm not going to turn away just because I'm not working. Tell them if you have any problems, I'll direct you to the Latina Resource Center, fully bilingual, they'll help you out.GÓMEZ: Nedda did you- Could you describe any personal sacrifices that were
involved in your activism, if any?AVILA: Oh Definitely. First thing, there was that I got so involved in what was
happening. I am going to say here first in Milwaukee. When I first when I came here. I was married then, I went to El Burno at nighttime, and then I found out that there was an El Bruno excess you know, running around. So I said, "Maybe I'm supposed to be home with everything that is going around. Maybe that's my fault. I'm supposed to be home." So I said "No, I going home to take it to MATC or something." And I gave up an education, which I is never too late they say for that.After I got divorced I was I went to every MATC in town. So every workshop I got
no degree but experience and to me that means a lot because what you learn in books is not what you really do with your clients and what my clients meant a lot to me and they deserved the best. So any class they had I submerged myself in trying to learn more and more just to help them out. And by the way, when you are a drug and alcohol counselor, first of all, you're a registered drug and alcohol counselor. Then after that, you have to complete a test and do whatever have you, to be certified and I took the test twice.Very difficult because what the test was asking me, the questions, it was not
what I was doing with my Latino clients and I had to more or less plan for it, everything, to so they could understand and the last time that I went to take the test, to one of the people that were given the tests one of the people I said, "You know, I don't know why I'm having so much problem with the tests? I know what I'm doing. I know exactly what I need to do but it just does not jive with, you know, the tests with what I do." And he said to me "You know what? When you walk into that room you've got to turn your mindset into an Anglo, think like a white person." I said "Excuse me, I can't do that. I am not! You see, I've worked with Latinos. I've got to work. I've got to treat them like the need to be treated!" So I said, "No, I'm not going to take this test anymore."So I went to Carrie Tradewell, who was the director of the Milwaukee Women's
Center, and I told her "I'm sorry and you know what? If you want to fire me, go for it but I'm not getting it. I'm not going to pass this test anymore. I know what I'm doing works, all my clients are doing fine." They told me you don't need to take it anymore, no, you're doing fantastic as you're doing. Very unethical but I did it but that was the part that bothered me because I'm working with Latinos. I mean it was different, different that the way that you treat Latino clients. Regardless I mean, you should be friendly towards them, you need respect. You need to respect first so they can respect you. I mean even if you're a battered woman or a drug addict, they still need respect. So that's why I never became a state registered.GÓMEZ: Okay, were there any other barriers that you experienced during this
time of your activism, Nedda?AVILA: Well, I did with some men that saw that they had to pull my strings in
order for me to get somewhere and I said, "I have my own mindset and I am defending and I love what I'm doing and I'm not going to change it for anybody or anything unless it harms them or harms me.So I mean they tried to make you think the way they should think you know and I
have my own ideas of things and just because of let's say for example that I'm working with a Mexican couple and I'm Puerto Rican, they need to respect me as a Puerto Rican counselor and my excessiveness that I want for that family and I'm respecting your culture. It's just - I don't want to change you. I don't want to change me but every one of us could alter some of the things that we do. That I mean is some of your charisma of who you are! This is your all! What would you offer, certain things? You know, in order to help you grow, but don't change because then they you are not you.GÓMEZ: Let's see, what would of all of the things that you have done over the
course of the years, what would you say is the most impactful activism work you did and why?AVILA: I, because of my background coming from domestic violence as a child
because my mother was a batterer, and she would hit us, she would hit my Dad and she would hit my neighbor's kids, anybody that came and didn't listen to her and being a battered woman at the age of fifteen, I was married 23 years and until I decided, I opened my eyes and I said, "I can't do this anymore" and seeing the Latina Resource Center to me is a very proud thing; that I had a part of it, that I fought for it and that I am still fighting for it. Well, Mariana is doing a wonderful job.GÓMEZ: Well, you mentioned that even though you're retired, you didn't retire
from the community. Are you still on the boards of UMOS and La Causa?AVILA: Yes.
GÓMEZ: and is there anything you would change about your journey that you've
taken thus far?AVILA: Like I said the only thing I would have changed was I should've thought a
little bit more about me and my education not that I think that a PhD behind my name would have helped me anymore with what it already has but I think I would have done the same thing the same way. So, I mean, I still have people, I still keep in touch with people that I have worked with I still want to work with. I still make sure when someone sees me at Wal-Mart or Target and they ask me "Señora Nedda, do you know where I could go for this?" that I still could say "Yeah. You could go here. You could go there"I mean, right now I'm trying to get through and get monies for whatever have you
to help the elderly Latino Women. That are still- They are still abused my their children for taking their checks and even though I did a lot of workshops at Spanish center, for their elderly and also at UCC which they're doing a fantastic job with their elderly but they need to have more workshops for them and let them know it's okay if you've been married forty-four-five-fifty-sixty years and your husband is still mistreating you verbally that you could say something about it and then let him know as well or her because she could be the one that's battering him. I've had that too. That he knows that he could get help as well.They have this fantastic program at Latino Resource Center that work with males
that have been batterers-AVILA: -and they have, I mean, this fantastic work where they work with them. I
think it is eight or ten weeks they did go in total groups and things like that and if you were to see two years ago, there was twenty to twenty-five men marching at the Brides Walk.AVILA: they have a program, little kids from ages I thinks it's seven to twelve.
That they have a group for them and they could go into this little group and talk about how scared they are at home and this and that and they could draw pictures and things like that of their- and they work with their parents as well. I mean that is fantastic, being a part to tell these kids we know. You are to say something and call the police. Don't be afraid, one of them could get killed too. So,ARENAS: Nedda can I ask a follow up question? When you talk about your- What you
would have done differently, was it perhaps get more education? You've mentioned that you've done several kinds of program training for the, you know, AODA and domestic violence. How far did you go in formal schooling? Because I heard you say that you dropped out to get married at fifteen.AVILA: Yes I did have a GED. I learned through books. I also have been to, like
I said, to every MATC and I think I had one class to go to, to get an Associate's in Business. I have taken a lot of workshops to date.GÓMEZ: Nedda, our last question of the evening is: What words would you like to
share for current and future generations of Latinas about being an activist?AVILA: I think The first thing I would say and I have always said it is: If
you're born from a Latino Family, either mixed or whatever but you are a Latina or Latino, is be proud of whom you are be proud of where you came from. Don't forget where you came from. I just can't stand when people say I don't go to Southside anymore because I live in Brookside or whatever have you. That is fantastic but don't forget where you came from and always have an open hand up there for somebody that needs you and I mean, be glad that you are able to be where you are at now because of the work that we, the elderly have done and it took us a long, long time to be where you are and learn your Spanish if you can because that is going to help you and also law and teach your kids about your culture. I mean fine you can live wherever you want but teach them about their culture, where they came from their family. My married family or grandkids, I don't have any family here in Milwaukee but I have the most wonderful friends.AVILA: I'm not a writer like you that it was just a feeling. I don't write
poems. I write feelings and it was a little bit about my life.I'm so grateful that you had a chance to share that with us. It's- The title is
"Do Not Give up Hope"GÓMEZ: Nedda, what time is the walk this weekend?
AVILA: It starts at ten o'clock. The gathering at ten o'clock at eight-oh-two
West Mitchell and then they-GÓMEZ: What day?
AVILA: Saturday of the twelfth and then what they have is a little is some
people talk or one of the women that tell about her story and whatever have you. The walk is from eight and Mitchell all the way to Sixth Street and then you turn right and then you go up to walk it around park. All the way to UMOS on Chase and then they have like a little program there as well.AVILA: This is our ninth year, which is fantastic.
AVILA: it starts gathering at ten o'clock, eleven o'clock. If you don't see me
there it's because I'm dressed in a wedding dress and I look like Miss Fiona from Shrek and we're going to restaurants looking for food, my husband and I! So and then we're delivering it to UMOS where they're having a luncheon after that.30