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deputy sheriff” of Starr County. A list in the county courthouse, dated May 5, lists him and 39 other men as such deputies, in addition to the county’s regular 17 deputies. Jim Rochester is also in charge of on-the farm operations at La Casita. His brother, Ray Rochester, is the chief spokesman for La Casita. There are no members of the union among the county’s special deputies. These circumstances were explored during the civil rights hearing. Rodriguez told the hearing that Allee asked them on the picket line why they didn’t go into the fields and work and that the Rangers abused the picketers as scum and the like when they were picketing. Domingo Arredondo, an official of the union, told the commission he was arrested and brought to the county jail, whereupon a deputy sheriff, whom he named, set upon him in the presence of witnesses, knocked him down, and flashed his gun at him. A picketer named Zoila R. Ozuna said a grower, whom she named, pushed her and hurt her arm; she sought to file a complaint against him, but, she said, Nye, who has accepted many complaints against the strikers, investigated hers and refused it on grounds there was insufficient evidence. Nye acknowledged that he is an attorney for Starr Produce Packing Shed, which has been involved in an N.L.R.B. election dispute. \( The shed comes under the federal act protecting unionists. Apart from disputed votes, the election was .Nelson, the organizer from the Delano, Calif., grape strike who started the melon strike here, said the Rangers had carried “the strikebreakers” into the fields. Carlos Truan, a member of the commission who helped conduct the hearing, said it was “obvious” that Nye is on the side of the growers. In Corpus Christi, Truan, deputy state dierctor of the League of United Latin-American Citizens \( the LUgers, while consulting with the growers, have refused repeated invitations to consult with the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee. The advisory group also took an interest in the case of Pedro Dimas, who is charged with assault with intent to rape. Pedro Dimas was held in jail for about two and a half months before he was released on bond. Union sources have argued this is punishment because he was a union picketer. Nye says that no one tried to make bond on him for the first two months. Pedro Dimas said in Rio Grande City that he was given notice of his right to a lawyer and to make a phone call. He was released on bond after the advisory group’s staffer, the Rev. Bill Oliver, inter: vened with county authorities. Pedro is a brother of Magdaleno Dimas. The hearings ended Friday, May 26. That evening and right there was a lot of trouble in the Valley. MEDRANO, A member of UAW’s national staff connected with the citizenship department, has powerful friends in the UAW. This is his story about what happened to him at Mission the evening of May 26, as he told it to the Observer: He had his Bell and Howell movie camera in his hands and another camera around his neck on a strap. Standing about 120 feet away from the tracks, he saw Rangers advancing on girls who were carrying picket signs; the Rangers tried to grab their signs, he said. “At this time Captain Allee saw me taking pictures. I was about 25 feet away. He started moving toward me and said, ‘He’s taking pic How It Is in Texas am a U.S. Farm Rio Grande City \(A Union view of recent proceedings in Rio Grande City was obtained by the Observer in the following interview of Gilbert Padilla, 40, vice-president of the National Farm Workers Organizing Committee. One of the top lieutenants of Cesar Chavez, the architect of the union’s organizing victory at Delano, Calif., Padilla has been the director of the union’s strike in the Rio Grande Valley since January of this year. The interview was conducted in Rio Grande City by one of the Observer’s contributing editors, Larry GoodQ. What is the current status of the strike? A. Pretty bad, as of this moment. The thing here is we don’t have the very close relations between the community and the union that is essential if you’re going to organize farm workers. The power structure won’t give us an opportunity to present our views to the community. They’re constantly running us down as “outside agitators.” The fact is, of course, that the workers themselves voted to join our union and, under the circumstances, we’re obligated to do what we can to help out. Now the local strikers are pretty militant and not scared, but the rest of the community is scared. Q. Scared of who, or what? A. The Rangers. And it’s not hard to understand this fear. The way the Rangers operate is unbelievable. And let’s face it, the people are starving. They’ve been used to working for 50 cents an hour but 16 The Texas Observer the pressures created by the strike have boosted this to $1 an hour. They will scab for $1 an hour because they are hungry. Remember, across the river [in Mexico] farm workers have been getting 20 pesos [$1.75] per day and recently won a strike to get this increased to 27 pesos [$2.15] per day. Now, they can make $8 a day by crossing the river and going to work for La Casita. Q. I gather, then, that you have two problems getting the cooperation of Larry Goodwyn workers in Rio Grande City and getting cooperation of workers across the river? A. Yes. Q. Could we take them up one at a time? A. Well, insofar as the workers on the Mexican side are concerned, we had that problem licked earlier this month [May] until some high-level international politics intruded. Q. Would you review these events? A. I guess you can say it began when [Cesar] Chavez and [Walter] Reuther talked to Fidel Velazquez [the George Meany of the Mexican labor movement] and got his general consent to a concerted action to improve working conditions in the border area. Then, after I got here this January, I talked to Elias Pena, the secretary-treasurer of CTM [the Confederation of Mexican Workers] for the state of Tamaulipas. With me were Roy Evans and Henry Munoz of the Texas AFL-CIO. We talked to Pena and a number of CTM leaders from border towns. We explained we were not against Mexican nationals coming over to try to improve their lot and feed their families, but that we did ask that they not come into a strike zone. They agreed. When the time came for the melon harvest, our strikers held firm and La Casita was in so much trouble that they frantically tried to import Mexican nationals. CTM hoisted the red flag [put out pickets] on the Mexican side and, believe me, that stopped it. Not a soul crossed the bridge. For three days – with the melons getting riper and riper all the time. Then on the night of the third day, the chief of the labor department of the state of Tamaulipas came to urge us [CTM and AFL-CIO] to remove the pickets. We argued back and forth for about an hour. Then he phoned the governor of Tamaulipas in our presence and the Governor [Pedro Martinez Vera] told him to see that the pickets were removed because “Mexico was not on strike against the United States.” I said I’m not going to remove pickets until CTM tells us to move them. Then Vera said, “Well then, we’ll have to bring in soldiers.” With that, the local CTM people threw up their hands.and said “That’s it. We’ll have to yield.” The next day, the flag was down and the workers came across to work in the melon fields. It was not CTM who pulled out, it was the Mexican government apparatus that told us to get out. Q. Why do you think the Mexican government did this?