Spanish speaking peoples in Utah, oral histories: book 7, numbers 71 through 80

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INTERVIEW: Sierra Page 57 You couldn't, they just won't do it. They're roncerned and they don't like Chargin and they'll say so, but you couldn't get them to take off from work and go picket the courthouse. They just won't. GC: In other words, just whatever the limit. •• the member .•• DS: Well, I think what I'm trying to say is that you could not predict, I don't think ••• my experience has been, you could not predict what the American GI Forum ••• any given local chapter would do on a given issue at a given time. I don't think that there's any one person, possibly Dr. Garcia would know the organization far better than I do, I'm sure, he may be able to predict what some chapters might do, but I damn sure can't. GC: Then it would seem in a way it's an organization yet it's an individual organization and yet it's a family organization. DS: Yes. GC: Maybe that's the secret ••• DS: One guy, one guy put it very well. Jose Martinez, as a matter of fact. He said the American GI Forum will last for one good reason. He said, 'When the guys don't want to do anything, man, you sure know how to throw kinks in the machinery.' Like if some guy says, 'Well, look, I want this resolution passed. I want this action ••• ' Okay, fine. First of all, you have to bring it to the local board meeting, and after it gets past that then we have to take it to the membership meeting, and if it passes that then we'll take it to the regional meeting and if it passes that then we'll take it to the state board meeting and then from there we'll go to the mid-year conference with it, and then from there we'll go to the national convention. Now if it passes the national convention, then we'll go along with it. But the whole process takes over a year. See, and a guy could very easily lose interest. On the other hand if you want to do something and the GI Forum is behind it, I've seen chairman go out there