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Show Committee formed to aid migrants : H 1 - 1 ' V 1 ' a- n - - J Mil. i I r'l - f J- L :Jtk27 . . , J By Sylvia Cronstaai Staff Writer Simulating community-life education and JS migrant workers to settle in Utah be the t0 emPhases of a miSrant icting committee formed Saturday night at fluadalupe Center. The elected 10-member committee .eludes Dr. Clark Knowlton, director, University Center for the Study of Social Problems; and Bruce Phillips, Peace and Freedom party. The committee plans to set up the nucleus of a Utah Migrant Council within the next ;onth. At least $75,000 in Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) Special Projects funds will be appropriated to the council, Father Gerald Merrill, Guadalupe Mission, said. Formation of the committee was the climax of a day-long migrant symposium held at the Ben Lomond Hotel in Ogden, Utah. Jointly sponsored by SOCIO, the local Spanish-speaking organization, and the University of Utah Department of Sociology, the symposium explored problems of housing, health, education, culture and the defects of existing migrant j" programs. Pledges Support Attorney General Phil Hansen addressed (lie group briefly, pledging his support. "There is no more equality in America than 1 pinch," he said. "Discrimination is all around us." Mr. Deone Green, co-owner of a Day Care Center in Logan, complained the Chronicle Oct.' 30 article on the migrant iation"made an unjust blanket statement about day care centers." any time in their lives. But migrant programs, ignoring this basic pride and strength, "continue to be paternal patronizing and condescending." Gil Roman' Kansas City VISTA, also criticized "the Christmas basket approach." Henry Aguirre, OEO migrant analyst, Washington, D.C., agreed the approach is often a major weakness. "The question should be 'what can we do together' not fere's what I'll do for you' " he said. "Dont talk as an authoritarian to the migrant. He just might know a little more about it than you do. To relate to him you may have to get your nails dirty or eat a tortilla that was made yesterday." The number or kind of people on a council is immaterial, Mr. Aguirre remarked, as long as they do something. People-To-People Basis "It's time we stopped depending on -Federal funds," said Jack Facenda, VISTA representative. "Let's get down to basics - to people." Mr. Facenda suggested that Job Corps trainees could help migrants build , their own housing. Architecture students ; could design low cost structures. Medicine, " " ! sociology and law students should volunteer ; "to live with migrants, to help them, and at r the same time - to learn." , Dr. Clark Knowlton also favors such interaction. "The infusion of other cultures L l into our own can provide us with a most i precious natural resource," he said. "We f must erase the idea that English-speaking I Anglos are the only first-rate citizens. IMexican-American history and language should be included in educational curriculums." "Unless something is done now, we run 'the risk of greater unrest, increasing slums, ' spread of disease and a greater tax burden," he said. Some Utah migrants live in housing like this shack. A former migrant said a company's officials promised clean, homes, refrigerators and good wages, but later "broke their nrnmisps " r To protect those who really are trying, the name of the center criticized in the article should have been stated, she said. Mrs. Green's center is to be used as a blueprint for other centers around the country. "It's one of the best day care programs I've ever seen," said Henry Aguirre, OEO migrant analyst, Washington, D.C. "Mrs. Green ahd her partner really related to the migrants. The generalization in the Chronicle was not fair to her." Kinship With People Tomas Atencio, former director of the Colorado Migrant Program, discussed the migrant stream as a community. Coalitions between states, contact with 'home bases, and migrant specialists in state governments are needed to strengthen group identity. The migrant attitude is one of kinship with his people, Mr. Atencio said. "He's my compadre. If we don't go for each other man, we've had it." "We never say what about this man as human being? We look at him as i commodity - a person who doesn't realli belong here. We want to use him and discarc him as soon as we can," Mr. Atencic observed. Being a migrant and being a farm worker is an honorable thing, even if it doesn't conform to American standards of success, Mr. Atencio said. Only 8.4 per cent of migrants have ever received welfare aid at |