Interview with Sister Melanie Maczka, 2013

INTERVIEWER: Would you mind stating your name, date of birth and where you're from?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Okay, my name is Melanie Makzca, I'm the sister of The Society of Sisters for the Church. I was born in Chicago on December 22nd, 1943.

INTERVIEWER: And you mentioned what order you're from--

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Right. Actually, I joined another community when I was 15 and that was the Holy Family of Nazareth and after a number of years, the type of ministry I got involved in, I decided to change communities. So, the current 00:01:00community is the Society of Sisters for the Church.

INTERVIEWER: And how does this relate to your current work, with this community?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: The good thing about it is that the type of community that I'm part of is one where we take our own initiative. We're responsible for our own jobs, our retirement, for the ways that we're going to be involved. We support each other through -- we encourage each other in what we do, but we have the freedom to move into whatever ministry we'd like to.

INTERVIEWER: So, is that why you decided to work in the Latino community here in Green Bay? Or did like the church ask you to?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Well the interesting thing is, I've been working at Saint Willebrord since 1981. Actually I came in 79 and I was working part time, but I started in 81 and the Saint Willebrord's is a downtown church, so there are people from all over the city, all walks of life who come, and I remember at one 00:02:00point saying, "I'd really like to learn Spanish, but when am I going to use it?" And then shortly after that I went to a workshop in the diocese that would have been in probably the late 80s, and we were told that there are Hispanics in the Green Bay area, and my first question was where, I don't see them and from that point on it was just really exciting because we decided since Saint Willebrord is a downtown church, we asked people that we knew were members and from different nationalities we brought them together and we said let's talk a little bit about our similarities and our differences and then I said how would we get the word out to Hispanics that they'd be welcome here, I remember somebody saying that the very fact that you asked that question, the word will go out and that's how it began. When we began, Father Ken and I were the two who initially 00:03:00started, neither of us spoke any Spanish, so it was quite a challenge.

INTERVIEWER: Going into the questions about the parish, is it the only parish you've worked with in Green Bay? Or have you branched out to other churches within the Green Bay area with your work from Saint Willibrord?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: We worked cooperatively with other parishes, a lot of what we were doing originally when we worked just with the Anglo community was pretty much religious centered. It would be sacraments and catechism and things of that sort. When we began working with the Hispanic community, one of the things we learned was that when people are new to an area or a community, they need to find places they trust. So, they would come to church and needed more than just religious things, just to get their way around the city, knowing where safe places, where would they be able to get help. So, that was where we began 00:04:00working with other churches, other agencies, but on a real limited basis. We didn't have a whole lot of staff or a whole lot of time to do all the kinds of things we would have liked to have done. So, that actually was the beginning of Casa Alba. Father Ken retired and I retired, we thought we had to have a center that was neutral, that people would trust and the other kinds of services that people needed could be provided.

INTERVIEWER: Was that when you started to reach out to the Hispanic community? Was that in the 80s?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: It would be late 80s, there were a few families here in the middle -- Luis Sánchez was one of the first we had gotten to know and he said he got here in the early 80s, when we started talking within the parish, we took a year just to get the entire parish to be thinking just in terms of 00:05:00welcoming; it would not just be the staff but the whole parish would welcome the Hispanics and that would have been 89-90, 91 is when we had our first Spanishmass and from there had it every week. And it was the 90s, from around 91 to 97 that the big influx of Hispanics came to the Green Bay area, so the timing was perfect.

INTERVIEWER: You had mentioned that you and Father Ken didn't have any Spanish speaking skills, so how did you prepare or did you take some language courses or?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Right, it would be interesting because we had people come to the door and Father Harvey Tunin was the priest who would offer the Spanish mass so we would call him and pass the phone back and forth and he'd interpret for us and we decided that wasn't going to work, we needed to be able to communicate so we alternately went to Mexico to study. I went first in 92, late 00:06:0091-92, for three weeks and then the following year Father Ken went and then went again the next year and then we would also work with people in the parish. My first statement was I need help, so if I get something wrong correct me right away because I want to say it correctly, if I'm looking for a word help me and over the years that really helped. One of the best things for me not knowing Spanish and going to Mexico to study was just being overwhelmed by what a challenge it is to learn a language. I went down with nothing else to do but study, I have a master's degree, I was highly motivated and by the second week I was in tears because I just felt overwhelmed. So, I always feel when people say 00:07:00why they don't learn English, my experience is if you're going to ask that question you need to try it yourself. Try another language for a couple of weeks and then ask it again. Really it's grown over the years.

INTERVIEWER: Apart from the language barriers you had at the beginning, what were some of the other challenges that you and Father Ken faced when you made the effort to reach out to the Spanish speaking community?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: One was with the parish itself, we had a lot of people -- it took a year before we actually extended the invitation, a year to talk with the people who are already in the parish and say the future of this parish is going to change and we want you to be part of it. There were some people who came right on board from the Anglos, some who said so long as we don't touch our 00:08:00services that's ok, and we had a lot of people who left, they were just really upset. The challenges were even knowing when people would come with questions or concerns that weren't church related, even knowing where to begin to look, where to ask. A lot of the, unfortunately to this day our public image in Green Bay still isn't very good toward minorities and that attitude gets promoted by radio, by newspaper and we were trying to combat that too, you know, to say to people, if you get to know each other, language is a minimal thing because you're both such good people, caring people, that trying to find the opportunity to bring the English speaking and Spanish speaking together that would be comfortable and natural enough.

INTERVIEWER: Did people, did Hispanics did they start reaching out to you, was it word of mouth that, oh go to Saint Willebrord, they're able to help, there's Spanish services, is that how the community started to grow within the church?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: It was interesting because when we started Luis Sánchez and the people from Jalisco were the ones who first came and so they all knew each other and whatever Luis said they trusted and we said "Are there people from other parts of Mexico, other countries?" and he said yes, and I said "Do they work the same way, do they have the person they trust?" and he said "pretty much so," so we said "how do we start reaching these leaders of these different groups?" I remember saying that it would be nice to have a broad base of people here and it took time, it took quite a while, but now I think if you walked into the church you'd see people from almost every part of Mexico. You'd see them 00:10:00from Central America, from a few from South America. In fact we had gotten to the point with the Spanish choirs at the end of one of the masses that was really lively and everybody was singing, the choir leader said, "este era muy mexicano [this one was very Mexican" and I said, "oh oh oh, can't do that anymore! Because there's more than Mexicanos here." That was the exciting thing, to see little by little people saying we have a place where we can go, you know you come you're welcome. When we first got started it was slow. We had one mass and we had a Bible study group and I think for a year people would say we keep inviting others and they just don't come, and we invite them and they just don't come and we said, you know, be patient. Sooner or later it's going to happen and it did. It went from one mass to four masses on the weekend.

INTERVIEWER: What are the current needs of the Hispanic Community in Green Bay?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Wow. Probably the biggest one is to be able to, we're actually going to do a display at the museum on Hispanic presence and the title will be 'Out of the Shadows'. And I think that's the big thing, to be able to feel safe, not to have everybody wonder, are you documented or not. The ability to find a job because you're qualified, not because you have or don't have a social security number. The ability to drive around town, to have a license. For young people to get in state tuition. I think a general acceptance and probably more opportunities to interact with people because once that happens it clicks. But what people fear they tend to judge and they will reject. Some of the things 00:12:00that we do here at Casa Alba are to put people in touch with service providers that already exist, we don't want to duplicate anything, but we're ending that there are some needs that aren't being met. One for example is Spanish speaking counsellors. That's a real hardship and a lot of individuals, a lot of families are struggling with depression, with fear, with not knowing how to raise their kids in two cultures and there isn't actually anybody who can help them professionally. So that's one of the areas we know we definitely want to work on.

INTERVIEWER: How else do you address the issues faced by the community? Aside from Casa Alba and volunteers that you have.

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Just to keep encouraging people, I just keep saying that the Hispanic community is fabulously talented, very vibrant, one of the things 00:13:00we're seeing is that whenever we have a project and we ask for help people come forward. I used to work with catechism classes in English and you'd have to be on the phone for weeks trying to get people to volunteer as catechists. With the Hispanic community we make an announcement in church and ten people come up and two of them will say I have experience, the others will say I don't but if you prepare me I'll do it. So, you know, we've seen that there's a lot of internal empowerment that we're trying to nurture.

INTERVIEWER: Members of the community helping others?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Right, right.

INTERVIEWER: I think one of the problems that you were talking about is work and jobs and all that. I would like to ask a question about if you would talk a bit more about the immigration raid at one of the local meat packing companies in 95.

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Right, that was a huge, I guess I call it huge because it was so, it caught us off guard. ICE came in, they weren't ICE at that time, they were, I forget, Immigration Services and 187 people were actually rounded up and taken to the armory, word was out in the streets that something was happening and that people were afraid to go out, to shop, and to come to church. They had no idea what was happening to their relative who was picked up and in many instances it was the men who were taken, so the wives and the children were left behind. That was probably the only time it was done that noticeably, after that, unfortunately raids still go on. This past Saturday and Sunday, ICE was in town 00:15:00and picked up, the rumor is, 40 people. Now it's not a publicized thing, they simply go to people's homes, they go to their workplaces, and they arrest them. Just take them away. So we've been working a lot with trying to help families as we did then. What we were able to do is Father Ken asked the American Food for the list of the people who were arrested and then we tried visiting as many families as we could to find out what they needed, we took food to them, and what really impressed me to this day was visiting young mothers and hearing them say "if you can and me a job so that we could keep living here." There was one family I visited, the Mom was 23 years old, she had a two year old and a six 00:16:00month old, and I said to her, what happened is something a lot of us are really upset with and this was wrong and she said, "Look at my children. If we were not here they wouldn't be alive, there's no way in our home back in Mexico we would have survived." She said, "We knew that we were taking a risk and every night we went to bed saying thank you God we got through another day. So we knew that someday this would happen," and I thought wow, you know, 23 I never thought of stuff like that. So, it was a very heart rendering experience for all of us. The sad thing is it still is heart rendering but it's not public enough. People don't know and we'd like to address it, but the remaining family members are afraid. So, if we make it public, even though they shouldn't be on the next list 00:17:00we can't promise them that. So, we try to help people individually, we get the word out but we don't make it a public issue yet because people ask us not to.

INTERVIEWER: So, when this raid happened in 95 and the subsequent raids did you work with any other organizations within the Green Bay community to help the families affected?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: We've established a good report with the police department, especially with the sheriff, because many times people are taken to Brown County jail and held there temporarily until everybody is picked up and then taken on to Dodge County. So we've established ties. The sheriff even yesterday called to say he's still trying to get a list from ICE to find out who were the people that were taken. We work with the Salvation Army, Saint Vincent 00:18:00de Paul. We work with other churches, try to and somebody in the family, we've been working with the immigration attorneys, that was one of the real pluses in our work was that we got to know some really good immigration attorneys who now come up and offer free initial consultations with people so they don't get ripped off. Many times they're told, "if you give me $500 up front, I'll see what I can do," whereas they'll tell people, "tell me the situation and I'll let you know if we can do anything or not." So, that's been another good thing that has happened. When the Postville raid took place, back in 2008-2009 somewhere around there, we didn't know if that was going to happen again in Green Bay, in Postville, Iowa they were not ready for what happened and it was just struggling 00:19:00to get shelter for people. So, we thought we would anticipate that, should anything like that happen we wanted to be ready, so we started an emergency hotline, an Immigration Emergency hotline in 2009 and it was 24/7, we had different volunteers who were bilingual who carried the phone, who would document things, so that if someone was picked up they could call that number. They were given advice as to where to call if they were going to call Dodge County or if we needed to do some tracking down for them, if they needed an attorney we would give them some names so that people could get some type of immediate help. The biggest thing is not knowing where your loved one is going, so just even knowing where they are and finding out if anything could be done. We officially terminated the hotline last October because there weren't as many 00:20:00calls coming in and we already now have Casa, so people come here. It's that need, that initial shock it's just horrifying, we've had people tell us that one father was taking his children to religion class and they came up, dragged him away and left the kids right there in the car. We've had a lot of situations where doors are knocked down, and people come in and really toss other people around. There's been a lot of abuse. So, that initial response to say you know we may not be able to do a whole lot for you, but we care about you and we will try to get the connections made so you can begin the process to make something happen.

INTERVIEWER: Was all of this part of your work with the Migration Advocacy Network? Or was that something in and of itself? What role did you play?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: That came kind of as a second wave, most of the people on the Migration Advocacy Committee are still Anglos, who really care about what's happening to Hispanics. So, we all got together and decided that it would be important to have a support system of people from a lot of different backgrounds, a lot of different agencies, a lot of different religions coming together around a common purpose. And our three fold goal was, one was education, that we would be better educated ourselves as to what the issues are, and then to get that information out, so people get correct information, a lot of times people come off of the negative stuff they hear and they don't hear the other side. Second is relationship building, so it would be trying to set up 00:22:00projects that would connect English speaking with Spanish speaking, get to know each other's cultures, but also building relationships with some of the key people in the community, for example we have the Mayor come and meet with the group. We could tell when he first walked in he was very guarded, like we were going to confront him, and we said no, we just want you to know that there are people in the city who think positively about our newest neighbors and this is important to us. If you're ever facing an issue and you're hearing only the negative, we want you to listen to us too because there is a positive side. So, we've done that, we've had the police chief, the sheriff, we've had some county board members, so that was the relationship building. Then the third was advocacy, to be aware of what's happening, so for example now with the deferred action opportunity for young people, there are some people from Migration 00:23:00Advocacy who are trying to assist with that too.

INTERVIEWER: And when did the Network form?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: It's probably been in existence 3 or 4 years now.

INTERVIEWER: So, it's fairly new.

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: And we are, there's an outreach to Hispanics, to try to get more Hispanics to be part of the network. In fact, there is going to be, they did already on in 'Embracing our Cultures' that had people from Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and maybe it was those 3. Who talked about their home, why they came here, they had some sample food, dress, music and then April 30th of this year they're going to do one on Mexico. Focusing on the different sections so that Anglos can get to know a little bit better too.

INTERVIEWER: Apart from the Migration Advocacy Network, have you been involved in other grassroots organizing: social, political, environmental issues?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: We had and again I don't remember the year we had on May 1st a march through the city and that was some years ago.

INTERVIEWER: I think it was 2006, I believe I was a sophomore in high school.

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Right, so I was part of that. I did go before the county board when they were talking about English as the official language, I was part of the four hours of testifying against that issue and they went ahead and passed it anyway. There was also an issue that involved one of the restaurants that was being really attacked for, it was the trigger point for this whole idea 00:25:00that if anybody on the city council found out that a restaurant or a business that was hiring somebody who was undocumented then they could take away their license and whatever.

INTERVIEWER: It started off from Julie's Cafe, I think it was the cooks from the west side, I remember seeing in the news.

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: So that too, I addressed that. I was involved when the 8 Hispanics were picked up from Julie's Cafe and actually went to Chicago with two of them when they were facing deportation proceedings. Pretty much the interesting thing about Green Bay is that we don't go out on the streets waving flags and screaming and stuff, you know, I think every now and then we should but as much as we can we try to address the issues. Right after that raid in 95 00:26:00we had a number of concerned Anglos sit down with the law enforcement and with the companies that hired Hispanics and said we need to work together so that this never happens again because this really was wrong. So it's things of that sort.

INTERVIEWER: And what were the companies?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: It's American Foods, what's now JBS which was Packer Land, TNT Crust, I think Anamax, but it was about 4 or 5 different companies. The unfortunate thing was, we didn't get a whole lot of positive reaction from the companies because there's pretty much a competition with each other. If 00:27:00nothing else it at least let them know that people are concerned about it and attentive to it.

INTERVIEWER: Switching gears a little bit, have you had a chance to work closely with the Latino youth of the community? I know you talked about Deferred Action and Dream Act, can you talk a little bit more about that? And are the youth active when it comes to social issues within the community?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: The youth are terrific. I got to a point where I couldn't work with young people anymore, I'm getting older but I have really been energized and it's great to see there's a very active youth group at Saint Willibrord, there's one at Saint Philips, every holy week from Thursday through Saturday they have a retreat and again this year there were over 100 kids signed up and another 20 who came who weren't registered. The young people I think still really feel a connectedness to the religious community, but then also 00:28:00we're working with a Hispanic group at Saint Aubrey College called La Alianza, who are coming today at three o'clock to talk about how they can work with Casa Alba. We're talking about possibly role modelling for young Hispanics, we have looked again, yesterday in the paper they had an article about graduation rates from high school, and Hispanic is still somewhere in the 70 percentile. So, to have Hispanic youth like yourselves, college students begin to talk with the kids in 5th grade, 6th grade, and really start to encourage them personally to stay in school and aim a lot higher. We had, every year at graduation time the 00:29:00graduates-- Were you part of that?

INTERVIEWER: Yes I was!

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: It's so exciting to see all the kids from all different schools in their different colored togas and the young kids in the pews are like, wow that is cool. Also a real exciting thing is happening, we have some of the high school athletes who are Hispanics they are forming, they named it GB Youth training, they want to reach out to the middle school kids who are not active and get them involved in training for the bellin run. To work together as a group and help build their self-esteem and then help them find a sport they might enjoy when going into high school. So little by little the involvement has been great. Up to this point the youth aren't that involved, I think things are really still new in Green Bay, I think a lot newer than Milwaukee and probably, 00:30:00Madison. So, even with the adults, people are coming into their own but it's the first steps and I think for the young people too, we worked with well over 100 youth who applied for deferred action and most of them already have their work permits. We wanted them to come together and we said, "You know we'd like to have you come together, share your experiences and then let's start looking at what you can do advocacy-wise because your parents and family members still need some help." And actually the two year Deferred Action isn't compared to what it should be. But we didn't get many coming forward, and when I talked with one father he said, "Well my son was concerned that by advocacy you meant going to the streets and demonstrating and he was afraid for our family." No that isn't 00:31:00what we wanted to do and we need to get the word out that it's more about ending a sense of togetherness, finding a strength being able to speak about the good things and about the things that need to change. Taking action so that the immigration reform is a decent one. We're still working on it, but it's going to happen.

INTERVIEWER: For the purpose of our video could you please provide a quick outline of the work of Casa Alba?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: I actually put it on paper because sometimes it's hard to recall all of that. The exciting thing is that we opened our doors a year ago in February and within that time-- initially we had planned to be kind of a hub for information and referrals. A Hispanic, instead of taking a risk and walking into an agency not knowing if it's the right place to be could come here and say "I 00:32:00have this need how do I get help?" and we would get to know the key people in different agencies and help make the connections. So, our original idea was to get on the phone and call every agency in Green Bay and tell them we're here and that never happened. It seemed from the time we started, agencies got in touch with Casa Alba because they were working with Hispanics and said, well if we can connect that would be really good, so one of the first services that happened was a nurse from Brown county asked if she was able to be on site once a week. So every Thursday morning we have a Brown county nurse here who speaks Spanish. Natalia Sidón who is the Hispanic police lady is here at least two days a week. We have Elvita Ergmen, who's our president, she works with sexual assault and 00:33:00she is available. Also, Lorena Valentin from Golden House who is domestic violence, they're here different times a week on site for people just to stop in and talk. Another level would be education. There are people who came forward wanting to work on their GED. So we have two different groups now taking their GED classes, we have teachers from NWTC coming in and teaching in Spanish and for those who don't qualify to enter GED, Marissa Lisa who's on our volunteer team, works with them in pre-GED. We also have classes de primaria, people who came from villages that never had schooling, so they speak Spanish but don't read or write so she has classes in literacy, Spanish literacy. We definitely 00:34:00have the immigration services. Greg Coloughman comes from Milwaukee once a week, rents an office and has been tremendous. They're very good people who really care about helping people with whatever concerns they have. They also keep us updated so we have correct information that we are passing on when it comes to questions about immigration. In line with that we have individuals who help the young people who can apply for Deferred Action, to help them put their paperwork together. We have Father Ken who is here. A lot of the Hispanics in the community know him so they feel comfortable coming in and talking to him, they feel it's a place to trust. Also he's well known in the city so he helps get us some funding. He knows the people who, actually we're still all volunteer right 00:35:00now, we work on minimal funding, we're going to eventually start working towards developing a budget and regular income, but Father's helped us in that way. The beautiful thing is, you all met Rita Salaz, she's our office manager and she's the person who rely helps things evolve because if people come in and say, "Do you have sewing classes?" and she'll say, "Not yet. Put your name down and your phone number and when we have 5 people and a teacher we'll start them," and we do. We now have sewing classes, one of the Hispanic women, Dalia is an excellent seamstress so she teaches the class and then the wife of one of the Hispanics in town, she's an Anglo but she owns a fabric shop, she came in and she's working with a group of women also and even said that if there's a point where they're interested and ready she can help them form a co-operative and start selling 00:36:00things. The second Tuesday of every month a teacher comes in from UW Extension to do healthy cooking classes. As you noticed we don't have a kitchen so she uses an electric frying pan and just works with what we have here. A group of women got together for a couple of weeks and did beauty tips for each other. We have the young people who are going to start GB Youth training that was an initiative that came from the teenagers themselves to begin to work with middle schoolers to help them build confidence and a sense of their own capabilities to get involved in sports. It's one of those things, a lot of things just got established because of a need that surfaced or just if people felt like they 00:37:00really wanted to do something and were willing to take the initiative, this is a place they can do it.

INTERVIEWER: Why is a center like Casa Alba so important?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Probably because there hasn't been a place, a central place that, we've teased but we haven't done it yet, that we should put a sign on the window "English is also spoken here," like stores have "se habla español" because we feel that people should have a place. Church for many people is a safe place, but not everybody feels comfortable there, a central place that people can call their own where they know they're always welcome and that they will be put in touch with the services they need. We try to do as much follow up as we can to make sure that people did receive the help they needed, 00:38:00or if they didn't we can help them a little bit more.

INTERVIEWER: Where did the inspiration come from for the founding of the organization?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: It's something that kind of evolved over time. When we started doing some of the response to the social needs and family needs of the people at Saint Willibrord's, we knew we didn't have the time or the personal to do as much as we wanted to. So when we knew that Father Ken was retiring we thought maybe this is the key time to find a place and just begin. So it was varying groups, I was probably always at the center of it, but varying groups of Hispanics who came forward with different ideas. We had actually gotten to the point where we wanted to use the term esperanza [hope], but there's a Casa de Esperanza in Milwaukee, so we thought maybe 'Hogar de Esperanza [Home of Hope]' 00:39:00and then somebody said, "Can you imagine Anglos trying to say, hogar de la-- oh forget it." So, we went to Casa and then the logo was designed by one of our youths and it's the sun with the rays of all the different colours of the flags of the Spanish speaking countries in the Americas. So, then they looked at that and said amanecer [awake] is too long, so maybe alba would be a sign of hope, new beginnings, and then it became the acronym for Asociación Latina de Bienestar e Ayuda. So that's how we got our name. Then we have the name and we have the idea and we had a couple of Anglos who were helping, Eileen was one of them, we had no place. We would go looking at different buildings and they would 00:40:00say, "What's your budget?" Well we had no money, and said how do you raise money if you don't know how much you need? We were kind of in that interim place, then in September of 2011 the Migration Advocacy Network sponsored an immigration plunge, which was a daylong event for people of the city, Anglos who were somehow associated with Hispanics, but didn't really know a day in the life of an immigrant. During that day, one of the women who was with our group was talking to Kathy Hinkfuss who's the CEO of the YWCA and she said, there's this group who has a great idea but they have no place and she said, we have an empty 00:41:00building that nobody's renting and you can rent it. So in January of 2012 we got the building, renting the building, it was empty, people started donating furniture and stuff and in February we opened our doors. So the idea kind of evolved through a lot of different phases with a lot of different ideas. But we have a wonderful board, we have 16 members on the board, our policy is that no less than 51% of the board must be Hispanic, but we have a mix so it's a nice balance of people who are involved, people who have access to financing, and people who have connections with different agencies in the community.

INTERVIEWER: So you mentioned a lot of collaboration and people who helped out, 00:42:00did you get any resistance?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: I was surprised that we didn't. We had a few people sort of say, "Well there are a lot of places trying to help out, what is Casa Alba going to do that other places aren't doing?" But it wasn't resistance so much as raising the question, you know it was our question too -would it even work? The first couple of months because I was still working at Saint Willebrord, the people who were part of the volunteer team we'd each take a few hours here. And Father Ken was here a lot, he said "I don't think this is going to work, no one knows we're here," then all of a sudden just boom, especially with Rita coming on board. She opens up each of the days, closes up and we come and go, we just kind of evolved. We've had surprisingly, even yesterday, a couple who came in 00:43:00the door, an Anglo couple from Luxembourg who said they heard about Casa Alba and they would write out a check for us. They said, "This is the kind of thing we want to support." It's one of those really wonderful things that's been happening.

INTERVIEWER: What were some of the expectations when you started Casa Alba? Have these been way beyond?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Yes, they've been way beyond! I think we were just hoping to do two things: one to respond to peoples' needs like we tried to do with the immigration hotline and the other was to make people feel connected. Probably the one area that we still want to work on more consciously is broadening the 00:44:00base of people who come from all different countries. Our president is from Colombia, we have somebody from Puerto Rico, somebody from Guatemala, Nicaragua, but the majority, which is also percentage wise in Green Bay, the majority are people from Mexico. So, we'd like it to be a place that everybody feels comfortable coming, so that's something we're still working on. But our expectations I guess we didn't really have very high expectations except we really wanted to be of service and we hoped that by opening these doors we can be and we got blown away with not only the response of people but the generosity and people wanting to get involved. In fact the challenge now is making sure that when people say they want to volunteer that there is something that they feel is worth doing, creating opportunities that are going to be mutually beneficial.

INTERVIEWER: Do you think the needs of the community have changed over time?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: I would say so. The community has probably stabilized a lot more, in the early years in the 90s people were new to the area. One of the very first things we did at Saint Willibrord's, now that I think of it, we arranged with the public library right down the street one Sunday to be open and right after mass we walked families over to the library and the kids got cards and they got tours and so on. Because a lot of the people came from little villages and they said, "We don't have libraries, what do you do when you walk in there? What rights do you have?" So we wanted them to feel that this is a 00:46:00place that you're welcome this is a place you can use. We did things of that sort and I think it was probably just knowing where to go and what is available and now it's more, one of the things always is job opportunities. To be able to survive and keep your family cared for. It's more becoming established within the community, beginning to feel recognized as part of the community not just an outsider who's here, but someone who is a vibrant part of the community.

INTERVIEWER: Can you tell me about any awards or recognition you have received throughout your work?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: The greatest one is just being able to be with the 00:47:00community. Every time I'm able to interact with families, with people, to me that's the greatest recognition. My medal is La Virgen de San Juan de los Lagos, it was given as a gift on the 10th anniversary of Saint Willibrord's welcoming of his Hispanics, so it's now 12 years old. In 2003, the Girl Scouts had the Women for Diversity Award and I was one of the individuals who won that along with Anna Hex who was 18 at the time, she now works as a volunteer here with us, Eileen Littig is the other person who does the newest broadcasting, focuses on teen connection and different programming and she's on our board, so that was a 00:48:00real special event.

INTERVIEWER: Can you talk a little bit more about your favorite part of your work and least favorite part?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Well what's telling is that I officially retired last year but I'm busier than ever! Basically all of what I do is with Hispanics right now, so I work in the Diocese with Leadership Formation and here at Casa Alba and I'm involved in the community for advocacy. For me it's energizing, I keep saying that this segment of my life has been the best part of my life. What I don't like? I guess I am still not a person who's good with conflict, when 00:49:00people are really negative and judgmental and don't want to even want to consider the fact that we are a community of people from a lot of different places. Every now and then I run into that and that bothers me. I often say my grandparents came across the ocean to be here, how much more right should I have than people who live right on this continent should have? I often times don't do well in the presence of people who are very negative and don't want to hear anything else, that's my least favorite.

INTERVIEWER: How do you think Casa Alba might grow or evolve over the next 10 or 20 years?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: My immediate goal is to see that eventually very soon the leadership becomes completely Hispanic. I love it being the director and being 00:50:00here, but the idea is to be able to give it start and then turn it over and it will grow. We chuckle because a group of us went down to Milwaukee and we saw the United Community Center, that stretches for four square blocks and they started in a gymnasium and now they have every imaginable service including housing and everything, it's a Hispanic Centre. And we keep saying, "well we've got this building so maybe in 10 years we'll be across that parking lot and into that house and another story high." And continuing to be very active.

INTERVIEWER: Do you think your initial goals have been achieved? Do you see progress?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Oh yes. The dream was to keep interacting with and 00:51:00encouraging the life and the hope and the joys of people and it's happening. For every negative thing that happens, I see a dozen positive things. It's gone well beyond anything I ever imagined. It's exciting! We laugh about this place because when we first came in we asked Father Ken to bless it, so he took the reading from the Gospel: Don't worry, God provides for the birds of the earth, the leaves of the field, don't worry. So every time we say, "What are we going to do about--?" somebody says, "Don't worry!" And it happens, I mean literally every time we think we need something or something has to be taken care of, it does happen. So I know it's going to keep on happening.

INTERVIEWER: What is some of the advice you would give to Hispanics or minorities in general? In the community or outside the community.

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Be proud, do your best, know that you make a big difference.

INTERVIEWER: Is there anything else you would like to share? Any closing comments or last thoughts?

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: I guess I just feel extremely honored because even though I've said to people over the years I think my heart is becoming close to 90% Hispanic now, I know I'm not and it's been a real honor, a privilege, a blessing for me .

INTERVIEWER: Thank you so much for sharing.

SISTER MELANIE MAKCZA: Thank you.