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BY: And I understand that there were some things that happened in your community or when you were around high school age that maybe led to your later political activism. Can you talk about those a little?

SS: Sure. Well, the two big things would be, number one, border patrol raids. So there were one or two summers that I worked on the farm every summer. Once I became old enough, which at that point was like twelve or thirteen years old, then I was first the assistant foreman for the raspberry crew, and there could be as many as thirty or forty people in that crew. And then by the time I was maybe sixteen or seventeen, I was the foreman, so I'm the guy at the truck who punches the cards as people bring in crates. I make sure the crates get taken back to the packing shed and that there's water for everybody to drink and all that. But a couple years, when I was doing that a couple summers, the border patrol was doing these big raids rounding up undocumented workers. And so I just remember our field was right next to the levy on Corralitos Creek, and these, they didn't have Humvees back then, so I guess they were like big jeep or small truck things, came screaming down the levee. I think they're only supposed to go fifteen miles an hour, and they were probably going like forty, screaming down the levee, screeching to a halt, and then the border patrol guys would jump out and they'd come running in the field. And all the undocumented workers who were in the field would just drop everything and they'd start running and trying to hide, escape. And then I remember just seeing people with handcuffs and being led in and put in the back of these trucks and taken away. And that seemed totally weird to me, because why were these people being taken away? Because I had worked with them, some of them for a few months by that point. Some of them I had known from the year before. So it was kind of like the hardworking, they're just trying to make a living.

BY: Did you talk to your parents or anybody about that?

SS: Well, I mentioned it, of course. Yeah, but I didn't have anyone really to process it with, but I just know that it made me feel really bad. Then the other big thing that happened was the year that the UFW, the United Farm Workers union was trying to organize, they were primarily targeting the lettuce industry, so they're trying to organize the lettuce workers. But they did a general organizing drive in the Pajaro Valley where we lived. And at one point they called a general strike, and everybody walked out, all the farmworkers walked out, including the strawberry farms, so our farm, too. And that must have lasted for two or three weeks. So I remember I was doing things that I'd never had to do before, like irrigate the farms and move pipe, irrigation pipes around. The strikers, they'd have picket lines, but they would mainly be sitting on the levy watching us. Anyway, I'd go over and talk with them sometimes because some of them were our workers so I knew them. And they were kind of laughing and saying, "You ain't doing it right." [Laughs] So I said, "Yeah, wish you guys were here doing it."

BY: So what did you think about that, then, the strike, the general strike?

SS: I thought they had a good reason for striking. I mean, they were talking about working conditions, and a lot of farms, they didn't have sani-cans or anything, so if you had to go, you had to go out in the field, literally, men and women. Some places didn't provide drinking water, so you had to bring your own. Or if they did provide it, it was kind of like, okay, so we dropped the water off here and then as you pick, you move down row by row, so by lunchtime it's like a quarter mile away to get a drink of water. And then the wages, of course, were a big thing, and piece rate versus having something more stable.

BY: So did that create any kind of a moral conflict for you? Because your family owned a farm and presumably hired these people to work on the farm. So do you remember having any thoughts about that?

SS: Yeah. So there are a couple things. One is I remember Dad... there was a really bad year where the prices were really low, and so the farmers, all the berry growers were not making much or just breaking even. And then the next year, the prices were really good. And so the farmers, it was kind of like a cartel, but they would meet at the coffee shop and talk about, "So how much are you going to pay per crate?" And a lot of the farmers were saying, "So we had a bad year last year and this is a good year, so this is our chance to make up, so we're not going to raise the rate per crate." And Dad said, "That's not right, so we're going to raise the rate." They were all kind of mad at him, saying, "Well, if you do, then we all have to do it, too." So he said, "I'm not telling anyone else." So he stood his ground, he said, "No. You guys can do what you want, but Shikuma Brothers is going to raise the rate." Because he didn't think it was fair that we're getting more money and we're not sharing it with the workers. So that I really appreciated and I really respected, then the strike happened. And during the strike, the UFW had circulated their proposal for a contract. And then the teamsters came in, and this was the Jimmy Hoffa era of teamsters, so fairly corrupt union. And they had sweetheart contracts, what they call sweetheart contracts, which is stuff that sounds good on paper, but in actual practice, it actually favors the employer rather than employees as long as the union gets their cut. So they were circulating these sweetheart contracts, so Dad had both contracts on the table and he was reading them. And he's going, well, I don't know, so he'd go this way or that way. So that's the only time I remember having a really big argument with my dad, because he was leaning towards signing the Teamsters' contract, because it was a lot more, not profitable, but it was a lot more beneficial to the growers than it was to the workers. So I don't know if I was actually yelling, but I was pretty steamed up. I said, "Dad, you can't sign with the Teamsters, they don't give a shit about, they don't care about the workers. They're gonna take their cut, and they don't care what the working conditions are, they're not going to enforce all the regulations. And at least you know the UFW does care about the workers, that they really represent the workers."

BY: So it sounds like your sympathies during the general strike were with the farmworkers.

SS: Oh yeah, yeah.

BY: Okay.

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