People With No Names - The Undocumented #86

I am not sure that this painting is finished... but it is a series called 'The Other End of the Pool'.
 The two chairs make me think about this wonderful thing that Father Don preached to us two weeks ago.  He said, "En la mesa del Senor hay bastante espacia por todos"  (At the table of the Lord,  there is space for all.)  My daughter just explained to me the idea of "The Social Contract",   that she learned about in her philosophy class.  It is an idea/agreement in society that "this is HOW it is,  this is HOW WE DO THINGS,  this is how we have ALWAYS done things.  It may not be best for the dignity of every individual in society,  it may not INCLUDE every individual in our society,  but by and large the ruling majority is comfortable".  Then, along comes a "Moral Hero" who says, "I am going to go against the prevailing social contract, in order to do what is right for individual dignity".  (Think Dorothy Day, Cesar Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr., the Freedom Riders, The Stonewall Insurrection)  Today we have an opportunity to offer disenfranchised, undocumented people a seat at the table.  We have an opportunity to treat immigrants with dignity and respect.  We have an opportunity to lift them up in prayerful support...not so they become more like us...so they become fully who God means them to be.

People With No Names - The Undocumented #39

"Lettuce Pickers" oil on canvas 15x21". I was flying from the N.W to the S.W. last Monday and noticed an article in the airline magazine about Yuma, Arizona being the 'lettuce capitol of the world'. The article showed pictures of people eating gourmet luches right IN the fields...lunches of fresh greens and veggies. Food ingredients, that they had selected during pre-lunch tours, magically appeared on their plates. The article was trying to drum up more foodie tourism and the photos looked very Napa-ish. The promoters claim that rigorous care is taken to keep the fields "clean and uncontaminated"..."if a dog wanders into a particular field, they don't harvest it". Which brings me to my painting. In a small, far-away photo, showing lettuce pickers, the caption claims that it takes 40,000 pickers a day to keep up with the lettuce harvest!!! ERK! I quickly read and reread the article...hoping for info on these 40,000 workers. There is no info. They are clearly beside the point. I want to know where they come from. I want to know if Cesar Chavez's workers rights are protecting them. I want to know if their living conditions are hygenic...because they want only the "cleanest" conditions in their fields.