Posted: Mar 27, 2009

Excerpt from Called From Silence

CHAPTER TWENTY – FINAL DISCERNMENT – 1977 - 1978 That summer, Dick and Yolanda took Masses to the migrants on Johns Island, SC, not far from Blessed Sacrament Church. One of the crew leaders, Adán Hernandez, later called his sister. “Rosa, we got a priest up here who came to the camp.” Rosa had not gone up the road for many years because she had a full-time job as housekeeper for the priests in Immokalee, Florida, but she looked forward to hearing how things were going. There was camaraderie when they met up at different camps and, in many ways, she missed it. But not the actual work. Fieldwork was backbreaking and exhausting and she was grateful she didn’t have to do it anymore. “What do you mean you got a priest?” “He came over to me last week in the parking lot by the store where all the Mexicans stop to pick up lunch. Somebody pointed me out to him, I guess, because he knew I was a Jefe, a crew boss. He came over and talked to me about if I had any crew in the area and if he could come and visit. I told him where my camp was located and then he asked if it was OK for him to come and give a Mass at the camp. I said yes.” “Nobody ever did that before, did they?” asked his sister. “No. At least I never seen nobody do it. So on Sunday I prepared the people who were around my camp and we waited for the Padre.” “Is he Mexican?” “No, gringo, but he speaks Spanish. Not great, but you can understand him. He came with a woman, too, Yolanda. I think she is cubana. She speaks perfect Spanish, but with that accent they have over there. There were two other people, too. They came in a white station wagon, I think it was a Dodge. The woman, she called him ‘Dick.’” “Well, what were they like?” “The first impression of him was that he is very serious, quiet, conscientious, dedicated. She’s real lively and talks a lot. It was Sunday afternoon so nobody was working. You remember the house where we stay, with the two trailers on the side? The one on Benjamin Jinkens Farm?” Rosa remembered. Their family had worked tomatoes on Johns Island for many years. “Well, in the back under that big oak tree where the benches are, where we sit and relax after work, he made an altar. He took a card table from his car, covered it with a white cloth and took out a crucifix and a chalice for communion. He even made a couple of confessions before Mass.” Rosa asked to hear more. “He talks soft and is cautious to speak, but he made the readings make sense to us. The service was dedicated to the people, to each individual, not to the crowd or not to the crew leader or the boss man, it was dedicated to all of us. You should see the attention that he put personally in each one of our people there. He stayed long enough for me to detect his manera de ser, his ‘way.’ He’s got a carisma, a way to reach us, a way to reach the people. He talked to every single one, asking where they came from, about their families, everything. Before he left, he talked to me again and asked me how I liked the service, and I said I enjoyed it.”

Posted: Feb 8, 2008

Padre Sanders Overview

In 1969, a Trappist monk left his South Carolina abbey to work with the poor, and eventually found his destiny among Hispanic migrant farm workers. The historical backdrop for Father Richard Sanders’ evolution from monk to migrant priest includes the stable decade of the 1950s, during which he came of age, the Second Vatican Council, social turmoil of the 1960s, Civil Rights and agricultural growth and change in the U.S. Southeast. The book is written with description and dialogue so readers can visualize the hardships faced by migrant workers and Father Sanders’ extraordinary efforts to empower them. Padre Sanders died in 1985 at age 47 from a massive heart attack and subsequent strokes. Over 1,000 people attended his funeral, singing in three languages as they buried him next to his church in Immokalee, Florida; his headstone reads, “Love One Another as I Have Loved You.” His effect on people was so profound that many believe he was a saint and others claim he was Jesus. His story is a message of God’s love for all people.

Posted: Jan 20, 2007

Latin American/U.S. Folk Music Sung by a Gringa

This is a new genre of music that seems to be coming out of my head lately. First there was Take These Hands (see Songs and also Video), then Nine Dead, and we just finished the ballad of the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I'm waiting to see what Latin American or Caribbean story inspires me next!

Posted: Jan 3, 2007

Padre Sanders

Padre Sanders is the title of the book I've been researching for a few years now, about a Trappist Monk who left Mepkin Abbey in South Carolina to find God among migrant farmworkers. In 1978 he founded the San Pedro Mission Church in Naples, Florida, part of St. Peter the Apostle, and then became pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Immokalee, where he died in 1985 at age forty-seven. Many people there believe he was a saint. I'm writing the book as a novel so I could have more flexibility in telling his fascinating story. It's about half written --- I'll keep you posted.

Posted: Jan 3, 2007

Larry's Music

We have a friend/collaborator named Larry Collins who also writes music and I'll be recording a few of his songs soon. They are country with a little bit of folk influence, backed by Larry's excellent piano playing and me on the guitar. One is about a woman in an abusive marriage; a second song is about a lonely woman looking for love; and a third, the story of the garden of a flower child of the sixties.

Posted: Aug 18, 2006

Immokalee's Fields of Hope