Audio Recording Otto L. Merida interview conducted by John W. McKerley, 2016-05-05.

Title

• Otto L. Merida interview conducted by John W. McKerley, 2016-05-05.

Summary

• Otto Merida was born in southwest Guatemala in 1961. He came from a family with (maternal) Mayan and (paternal) German roots. While his father's family were skilled workers (barbers and bakers), his mother's family had significant wealth in land. Disinterested in school, Merida moved to Guatemala City to work for his uncle, who was an "executive" at Colgate/Palm Olive. In 1984, an aunt (a long-time US resident) helped facilitate Merida's relocation to Los Angeles, CA. During his first years in the US, Merida worked as a home and office cleaner and focused on learning English. He also became involved with a US-born woman with Iowa roots. After he and the woman married, Merida's then mother-in-law moved to Ottumwa, IA. In 1990, struggling under the high cost of living in California, he and his family followed his mother-in-law to Iowa. In Ottumwa, Merida found work at the city's pork processing plant, recently purchased by Excel/Cargill from Hormel, and joined the recently established union, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 230. Merida began work in the Hambone department, from which he moved to Loinbone and the cut floor, eventually becoming a trainer. When first hired, Merida remembers being the only "Hispanic" in the plant. More Spanish-speakers soon followed, however, including several members of Merida's family. As one of the few bilingual Spanish-speakers, Merida was sought out as a translator by company, union, and government officials. He also participated in efforts to promote immigrant pride in the plant, including a program of displaying the national flags of various immigrant employees. Other points of unity came from intermarriage, working conditions, and the union, which Merida served as a steward and vice president. For example, all workers faced company demands for increasingly fast production-demands which resulted in battles over bathroom breaks and line speed. He describes how these battles sometimes resulted in tensions between workers, who also experienced divisions based on race, ethnicity, national origin, and immigration status. In the future, Merida looked forward to new union leadership that would better reflect the growing importance of immigrants in the union.

Names

• Merida, Otto L., 1961- interviewee.
• McKerley, John W., interviewer.
• Occupational Folklife Project, sponsor.

Created / Published

• 2016-05-05

Headings

• -  Merida, Otto L.,--1961---Interviews
• -  Employee rights
• -  Clubs
• -  Collective bargaining
• -  Corporations
• -  Discrimination in employment
• -  Diversity in the workplace
• -  Employees--Training of
• -  Factories
• -  Families
• -  Hazardous occupations
• -  Industrial safety
• -  Industrial relations
• -  Labor unions
• -  Occupational training
• -  Racism in the workplace
• -  Blue collar workers
• -  Meat industry and trade--Iowa
• -  Packing-house workers--Iowa--Interviews
• -  Ottumwa (Iowa),--event place

Genre

• Sound recordings
• Digital photographs--Color--2010-2020
• Interviews
• Oral histories
• Personal narratives

Notes

• -  Recorded in Ottumwa, Iowa, May 5, 2016.
• -  Recent immigrant workers in Iowa's meatpacking industry : Archie Green Fellows Project, 2015-2016 (AFC 2015/026: 03100) Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
• -  To honor the memory of Archie Green (1917-2009), a fellowship program was established at the American Folklife Center in 2010. Archie Green Fellowships support new research in the contemporary culture and traditions of American workers.
• -  In English.

Medium

• 1 sound file (wav) (02:00:01) : digital, sound.
• 1 photograph : digital, Camera Raw, color.
• 1 manuscript : digital, pdf file.

Source Collection

• Recent immigrant workers in Iowa's meatpacking industry : Archie Green Fellows Project, 2015-2016 AFC 2015/026: 03100

Repository

• Library of Congress Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, DC USA 20540 to 4610 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.home

Digital Id

• http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afc2015026.afc2015026_03100_sr01
• afc2015026.afc2015026_03100_ph01
• afc2015026.afc2015026_03100_ms02

Library of Congress Control Number

• 2020655372

Rights Advisory

• Duplication of collection materials may be governed by copyright and other restrictions.

Access Advisory

• Collection is open for research. To request materials, please contact the Folklife Reading Room at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact

Online Format

• image
• audio
• pdf

LCCN Permalink

• https://lccn.loc.gov/2020655372

Additional Metadata Formats

• MARCXML Record
• MODS Record
• Dublin Core Record

IIIF Presentation Manifest

• Manifest (JSON/LD)