Synopsis:
Being an Activist: Ramón Ramírez, tells the story of Ramón’s life, beginning with his youth in Los Angeles as a witness and participant in the Chicano movement, the anti-war movement, and meeting Cesar Chavez. Inspired by what empowered farmworkers can do and by his participation in numerous Latino organizations, Ramón was one of the founders of Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), Oregon’s farmworker union. In the film Ramón shares his growth as an activist and reflects on some of the key lessons learned and challenges he faced through his work with PCUN, eventually becoming president when Cipriano Ferrel died suddenly in 1995. Being an Activist brings to life what it takes to sustain activism and win important rights for farmworkers.
Producer’s Bio:
Lynn Stephen, Philip H. Knight Chair and Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in the Department of Anthropology, focuses her research on immigration and asylum, gendered violence, race, transborder communities, Latinx and Mesoamerican Indigenous Communities in Mexico, Guatemala and in diaspora in California and the Northwest. Her current research explores access to justice for survivors of gendered violence, the impact of COVID-19 on farmworker health and well-being, and mapping Mesoamerican Indigenous languages and communities in diaspora in the U.S. She is the author of 15 academic books and many articles and chapters. Social justice and collaboration are at the center of her research and teaching. Empowering students and co-researchers and people she works with to put forward their own critical questions, answers, and telling their own stories is a top priority. She has a strong commitment to research projects that produce findings accessible to the wider public and her work includes films, websites as well as scholarly publications. She serves as an expert on immigration, asylum and gendered asylum in the U.S.
