Cosecha in the Land of Oz

Though we spent barely two weeks with the women in Kansas, it was difficult saying goodbye. In that short time, they welcomed us into their homes and into their lives. They made us their family.

The first evening we arrived, our hosts at Amigas de Wichita, Iliana, Claudia, and China welcomed us with dinner. We talked until late into the night around the dining room table about everything — about what it felt like to be in Oakland during the 2006 mega-marches, about their time in Mexico, and about what it means to rebuild a life post-deportation. We talked for hours and then Claudia asked me a question that I haven’t stopped thinking about — a question that shifted my thinking about this movement profoundly. She asked how long I thought it would take to get to the strike. When I first shared the strategy with the training team in Kansas weeks before, I told them it could take 2–3 years — less if we are lucky. But ask she spoke, with hope and urgency in her voice, I realized that, in my fear of making false promises, I had lost sight of something important. I was afraid of betraying trust. I was afraid of not being honest with people about how long things can take. I was afraid of how difficult the road will be. But Claudia reminded me of another truth: that people are sick of never ending meetings. People are ready to try something new, and they are ready to try something new now. Not in two years. Not in three years. Now.

Sometimes, when you get used to losing, it becomes easier to think of victory coming in 10 years. In 20 years. In a distant utopian horizon that is perpetually beyond our reach. And when that happens, the struggle becomes an end in itself. Claudia reminded me that Cosecha is about refusing to get comfortable with perpetual struggle. That we already have everything we need in order to win — we just have to look at one another and see it.

I experienced the Wichita training that Saturday with fresh eyes, as though I hadn’t seen the strategy presented a thousand times. When they finished sharing the strategy, Claudia and Beto told us to look at the faces around us, and know that we will be looking at the same faces marching together — celebrating together — when we show this country it cannot function without us. There is no question that it will be difficult, that we will need to be creative, and brave, and generous in order to win. But Wichita, Kansas has creativity and bravery and generosity in spades, and I know the people here will figure out how to support one another when the time comes.

They are preparing now. We are preparing now. It’s around the corner and we will win.

Vera Parra
Cosecha Volunteer Organizer