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Castro, Anita (audio interview #3 of 6)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This third interview with Anita Castro, recorded in her home, covers several of the topics discussed in previous interviews, but includes more detailed information on her organizing efforts in cities outside Los Angeles. Because of her rapid fire and slightly slurred speech, it is sometimes difficult to understand her. TOPICS - her relationship with her 3rd husband; attendance at summer session; and her activities and role as organizer;her organizing campaigns in San Diego; experiences with violence on picket lines; activities as a business agent; internal conflicts in the union; ethnic conflict in the union;the control of the union by a largely Jewish contingent from New York; internal conflicts and dual unionism; her election as a business agent; conventions and sexual liaisons; and sexual harassment in shops and in union; 4/20/1976
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- File: lhgwacastro5.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-1:47)... Tape begins with discussion of topics to be discussed within the interview. Castro began working as an organizer when her second husband was in Mexico. She left him a short time after he returned, after he beat her at a union dance. She met her third husband, the same day her divorce was final; they dated for three years before they married. (1:47-6:38)... After she left her second husband, she and a girlfriend rented a room from a union organizer. She met her third husband, Oscar Castro, at a wedding over the labor day holiday. Apparently, her husband's mother did not want him to marry because he was a heavy drinker; however, Castro fell for him immediately and thought he was a perfect gentlemen when they began dating. (6:38-11:01)... The day after she met her husband, she participated in a Labor Day parade that included labor unions from all over the city. The Spanish-speaking members of her local had their own float in the parade (shown in photographic on her bio page). At this time, she was working part-time in the office and part-time in the shops. When the union needed an industry organized, she was asked to get a job there and attempt to organize the workers from within the shop. In 1936-37, the union sent her to a summer session of college, where she took courses in public speaking and labor education. One of her fellow classmates was Estela Avila, whose husband was a labor organizer. (11:01-13:04)... She and her husband waited three years to marry because his family disapproved of her because she was not a Mexican and was divorced. They also believed that she was a communist because of her labor activities. (13:04-19:31)... Prior to marrying her third husband, Castro received a letter from her mother in which she threatened to take Castro's son away if she did not marry. Her future husband refused to marry her because of his family's disapproval, so she began dating a chef at the Ambassador Hotel who wanted to marry her. Ultimately, Oscar Castro asked her to marry him, and in 1938 they secretly married in Las Vegas. Her husband refused to have a reception when they returned to Los Angeles for fear his mother would find out they married. (19:31-25:00)... Although she wanted to marry Oscar Castro, she also wanted to to be with her son and believed she would not be able to care for him if she was not married. After returning to Los Angeles from Las Vegas, her husband went home to his mother and for two months, he saw Castro only on the week-ends. Eventually, Castro told him that if he did not tell his family they were married, she would. He sent his mother to Mexico and wrote her a letter telling her he married Castro. His mother went into mourning and refused to see him for six months. Castro's mother-in-law refused to recognize their marriage because they were not married in a church, and she never accepted Castro. (25:00-28:39)... She married in January 1938 and her son came to live with her in June 1938 when he was twelve years old. Her husband's family objected to him adopting her son and they never considered her son a part of the family. In general, Castro's son never cared for his father and for a short time went to school under the name of Castro. Her son does not know how to speak Spanish and most of his friends are Americans. (28:39-30:28)... Her son often cut classes in high school because both she and her husband worked during the day and were unable to supervise him. When he was seventeen years old and in his third year of high school, he volunteered for WWII. She believes that she neglected both her son and husband because of her union activities. Her son often told her that her first love was the union and both her husband and son resented her because of her involvement with the union. (30:28-33:00)... Shortly after she married, she left the union as a result of her husband's request. She went to work for a non-union shop because the family could not survive on her husband's income alone. One day she ran into Harry Scott, a union organizer, who encouraged her to return to the union. When she returned to the union, she worked as an organizer and as the switchboard operator. In general, organizing efforts within the union had decreased at this time. However, she continued to organize outside and inside shops. (33:00-36:31)... A typical day of organizing included meeting people and providing them with information on the benefits of joining the union. She usually ate both lunch and dinner at the union hall, and was reimbursed for any expenses she incurred when taking potential union members out for meals or to events. After talking to workers about the labor conditions within their shops, she told union officials what shops needed unionization. She would tell people that if they unionized they would be rehired or the union would find them a job. However, there were occasions when this did not occur and she felt very bad for not finding the jobs she promised. (36:31-41:49)... On several occasions, the union paid her fare to travel to other cities and organize industries. For instance, she went to Azusa and worked in a shop owned by a man who had her arrested on several occasions for her union activities at his shop in Los Angeles. During WWII, she was also sent to Ventura to organize an industry there. It usually took her anywhere between three to four days, to two weeks to organize a shop. At this time, she was still working part-time in shops making $10-12 a week and part-time for the union, making $10 a week. When she started working for the union full-time, she made $20a week in addition to the pay she received if she worked in a shop. end of tape File: lhgwacastro6.mp3 (0:00-3:16)... Castro discusses the timekeeping practices of the shop in which she worked and organized in Ventura. Each day she accumulated her slips so that she could prove the poor wage and labor conditions taking place. Most of the women in this shop knew that she was a labor organizer. Because of her efforts, one woman was paid $500 in back wages. This shop then moved to Vernon and went on strike, but the workers did not win the strike there. (3:16-6:16)... It was very common for shop owners to move their business or change their names once a labor contract was reached. She recalls the difficult organizing efforts she experienced at a shop in Watts, which attributes to the pachucos (alleged Chicano gang members). Although she was friendly with the woman who led the shop, Castro's efforts to persuade her to unionize were unsuccessful. In order to get this woman to cooperate, Castro lied and said that she was interested in adopting this woman's friend's baby. Castro later told this woman that her husband refused to allow her to bring the baby home. Nevertheless, this act of charity inspired the woman to help Castro organize the shop. (6:16-11:00)... The union also sent her to San Diego to organize a shop there. On the ruse that her husband was in the Navy and was stationed there, she obtained a job at the factory. She was paid .80 cents an hour because she was an American, while the Mexicans who crossed the border to work were only paid .42-.52 cents per hour. There were more than 100 people working in the factory and she organized meetings with the Mexicans in Mexico. She had a difficult time organizing the Americans and after discovering that a meeting was scheduled at a local restaurant, the floor woman announced to the factory workers that they should not attend the meeting. Her husband was very unhappy with her decision to work in San Diego. She came home on the week-ends and he was usually drunk. (11:00-14:48)... There were very few American women working at the shop in San Diego who knew she was a labor organizer. However, all of the Mexicans knew she was an organizer and Castro did not fear they would expose her. When the meeting was held at the local restaurant, only three women showed. The day following that meeting, the employer of the factory orchestrated an election, at which time Castro stood up on one of the machines and announced to the factory that she was the labor organizer and told them not to vote in the election until the union was notified. The employer attempted to fire her, but because she was a union member, he could not. interruption in tape (14:48-18:17)... The employer instructed the floor woman to move Castro's machine to a corner of the factory and a carpenter was brought in to partition off her station with boards of plywood. She became afraid not only because of her working conditions, but because of the mob like atmosphere that was being created in the factory. During her initial speech, a cutter and an English woman spoke out against her and the union, making her presence there very tenuous. The following day, the employer of the shop was very angry that Castro returned to work in the shop and would not allow her to punch her timecard. The English woman who had opposed Castro during her speech overhead Castro's exchange with the employer and announced to the factory that Castro was going to sew her hand to the machine. The factory became disorderly and people told Castro she was crazy and needed to go to an insane asylum, which horrified her because she knew that no one from the union would know if she was sent to an asylum. (18:17-21:31)... Castro was allowed to finish her work and the employer wanted her to collect her check and leave the factory. When she refused to do so, the police were called, which relieved her because she preferred to be arrested to being sent to an insane asylum. When the police arrived, she told them she was a union organizer. The officer was belonged to a San Diego local and he agreed not to arrest her if she took her check and left the factory. When she left the factory she was traumatized. During these events in San Diego, Castro's requests to send additional union representatives to San Diego had gone unanswered and she was very upset by the union's lack of cooperation, which she openly expressed when she returned to Los Angeles. (21:31-23:31)... Following the initial organizing effort in San Diego, Scott traveled with her every week and they passed out leaflets. When they finally got enough cards signed to hold an election, the factory owner closed the shop. This angered Castro because all of the Mexican women she organized were left without a job. The factory owner moved to Los Angeles and opened a shop, but the union was unsuccessful in organizing that shop as well. (23:31-25:20)... Unlike Los Angeles, where there were several union shops to place unemployed workers, it was difficult to find jobs in San Diego. She considered job placement part of her organizing responsibilities, and although very few women resented her after they lost their jobs, there were women who occasionally insulted her for getting them fired. However, she was never threatened or physically beaten. (25:20-30:11)... At the time she organized the shop in San Diego she was working for the union as a business agent and someone was handling her responsibilities in Los Angeles. Her organizing tactics changed depending on the mood at the factory. At times, she spoke against the union to fool people who believed she was a labor organizer. For instance, when she worked for the 20th Century shop in Los Angeles, a Yugoslav woman confronted Castro about being a labor organizer, which she denied. This woman later informed the employer that Castro was working for the union and she was fired. This is the same employer who came to the picket lines with a gun when the workers were on strike. This employer also got scabs into the shop by rolling the women in rugs and transporting them by truck into the factory. (30:11-33:26)... During the strike at 20th Century, union organizers decided that Castro would stand in front of the trucks carrying strikebreakers when it approached the factory. However, Scott decided against this because he was afraid she would be run over. She also mentions a time when she was hit in the face by a strikebreaker, and although Castro did not fight back at the time, when she returned to the picket line the next day she beat this woman. (33:26-35:24)... As an organizer and business agent, she related to the Spanish-speaking women more than to the others. She did attempt to organize Russian women, but was unsuccessful. However, she was very successful in organizing "Negro" women. She became friends with one of the Black women she organized, who later went to work for the union as an organizer. (35:24-39:05)... When she first became involved with the union, there was only one local, Cloak Makers, Local 65. When the initial activities were taking place to organize Local 96, she was placed on the Executive Board of the local. At the time, her name was Anita Andrade. After the general strike in Los Angeles, Local 266 (Sportswear) was born, probably around 1938. She transferred her membership to Local 266. She recalls that Rose Pesotta and the man who was the vice president of the union at the time, did not get along. At the time, the union was comprised of several cliques, including one of Jews from the New York union. She believes that the Jewish contingent was running the union and although it was not an ideal situation, she did not complain about it because she was satisfied with her position within the union. Other organizers in Local 266 were Josephine (last name unknown), who was also a Spanish-speaking organizer, Mary Donovan, and Sue Adams. (39:05-42:20)... There was some resentment between the Jewish contingent in the union and the Spanish-speaking members. The resentment began when the Jewish promised the Mexicans their own local, only to deny their efforts to organize a local later. In addition, the Mexicans often felt that Jews were getting more jobs as union organizers and business agents when they were not qualified. Castro noticed the favoritism towards non-Spanish groups when she worked on the financial committee for the union and had the responsibility of approving expense vouchers. Following her first arrest, she noticed vouchers for three Russian women in the amount of $7-8. She was told that this money was lost pay for the time the women were in jail. However, Castro was in jail the same time and she was not informed that she could submit a voucher for lost pay. From that point on, she submitted vouchers whenever she was arrested as a result of her union activities. end of tape File: lhgwacastro7.mp3 (0:00-1:53)... One of the difficulties she had organizing Mexicans was that the women liked to go home directly after work so that they could cook dinner for their husbands. This did not allow her a lot of opportunity to speak to the workers during the day and she often took streetcars to visit the women in their homes. During her first organizing effort, she succeeded in organizing 100 people and received a union pin. (1:53-5:05)... The Jewish group from New York was controlling the union in Los Angeles. She did not question their authority because she assumed they received their orders from New York. However, when she became a business agent she began to notice how this centralized power caused problems within the union. When Levy became vice president of the union, he had conflicts with Rebecca Goldberg and her husband. [Note: An interview with Rebecca Holland Goldberg is included in this series on Garment Workers.] Although Goldberg claimed that she is who brought Castro into the union, Castro was already involved by the time Goldberg arrived. (5:05-11:34)... Prior to leaving the union shortly after she married, Castro worked for the Goldbergs. She recalls that when elections were held for a business agent, someone spread a rumor that she wanted to be the president of the union. Goldberg called her in and she denied this, but he proposed that she become a business agent. She went to Levy, who told her to take the opportunity and that he would teach her to be a business agent. Although several people disliked Levy, she admired him and he did a great deal to help her when she became a business agent. Prior to the election, she was hired as an interim business agent on the condition that she be placed on the ballot for the election. She claims that subsequently she received the largest number of votes in the entire union. She continued to be elected as a business agent for the next thirty years. (11:34-13:39)... She was not prevented from seeking a management position in the union because of her ethnicity or gender. She probably would have been elected because so many people in the union liked her; however, she did not want this type of position because it required much more knowledge and commitment. She objected to the creating of voting blocs in the union because it allowed unqualified people to come to power. (13:39-16:45)... When she began working for the union, many union benefits were not explained to her. For example, she did not know that she had the opportunity to attend conventions if she was elected to do so. The first time she wanted to run for a convention, union officials discouraged her because her opponent was a Jewish woman and they feared there would be a split in the vote, causing the communists to win. After she withdrew her candidacy, she found out that she would be paid for many of her activities at the convention. Later, she went to the third convention that was held, as well as the Chicago and Cleveland conventions. (16:45-18:41)... When she became a business agent, she began to notice the cliques and politics in the union. Although she felt slighted at times, she did not complain. When she attended the labor conventions, she was surprised by the relaxed atmosphere of the event. She disagreed with a lot of the behavior that occurred, such as men and women getting drunk and spending time in each other's hotel rooms. She recalls an incident when she and the manager of the Seattle union went to meet the manager of the Cleveland union at his hotel room. When they arrived he was drunk and he sexually harassed her friend from Seattle. (18:41-21:24)... She recalls other improper incidents that occurred at the conventions, including an incident in which a married presser from New York made unsolicited advances towards her, even after she told him she was married. On another occasion, she and her friend from Seattle went out with two Black union officials from San Francisco. After the men invited them back to their rooms for a party, she was shocked when the men suggested that they spend the night alone with them. (21:24-25:32)... Women working in the shops were often sexually harassed by their employers. For instance, when Castro's sister moved to Los Angeles and went to work in a factory, the employer asked her to model a dress and while she was in the dressing room he came in and fondled her. Personally, Castro experienced this harassment when she was offered the job as the business agent by the manager of Local 266. At the time, this manager was married and had a girlfriend on the side, but this did not stop him from grabbing her. It was difficult for women in the shops because not only were they harassed by their employers, but they were often harassed by union officials when they joined the union. Castro had very few problems with union officials and business agents because she had a "do not touch" reputation. (25:32-28:48)... During a weekend convention of the Cloak Makers locals, one of the business agents had sexual intercourse with a woman there and she ended up giving birth to twins, which many believed were his children. In some instances, women pursued union officials just as persistently. For example, a Mexican woman began a love affair with the married manager of a union and they were brave enough to engage in sexual activity in his office. He ultimately left the union and his wife and went to Texas with the Mexican woman and when his divorce was final, he married her. End of tape.
- SUBJECT BIO - Anita Muretta Andrade Castro became one of the first Spanish speaking women organizers in the ILGWU in Los Angeles. She became active in the union during the drive leading up to the industry-wide general strike of 1934, and was named to the Executive Board (under the name Anita Andrade). She remained active in the union as an organizer and a business agent, working particularly closely with the Spanish-speaking workers, until her retirement in 1972. Although she was actually born in Yugoslavia (the Austro-Hungarian empire), Castro was raised in Argentina and spent most of her life in the US in the Mexican community. She married Mexican men following a teen-age marriage to a Croatian, and was viewed and accepted as a Latina by the workers in the industry. At the time of the interview, Castro had suffered several strokes and her health and memory deteriorated over the course of the interview series. She was interviewed as part of the Feminist History Research Project labor series. INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - This third interview with Anita Castro, recorded in her home, covers several of the topics discussed in previous interviews, but includes more detailed information on her organizing efforts in cities outside Los Angeles. Because of her rapid fire and slightly slurred speech, it is sometimes difficult to understand her. TOPICS - her relationship with her 3rd husband; attendance at summer session; and her activities and role as organizer;her organizing campaigns in San Diego; experiences with violence on picket lines; activities as a business agent; internal conflicts in the union; ethnic conflict in the union;the control of the union by a largely Jewish contingent from New York; internal conflicts and dual unionism; her election as a business agent; conventions and sexual liaisons; and sexual harassment in shops and in union;
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