Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Alyosha Goldstein is Associate Professor in the Department of American Studies at the University of New Mexico.

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POVERTY IN COMMON

Duke University Press

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................................................................................................1INTRODUCTION "NOW, WE'RE OUR OWN GOVERNMENT"...................................................................................31CHAPTER ONE FREEDOM BETWEEN Inequality and the Democracy of "Felt Needs".......................................................77CHAPTER TWO ON THE INTERNAL BORDER Colonial Difference and the Locations of Underdevelopment...................................111CHAPTER THREE THE CIVICS AND CIVILITIES OF POVERTY Participation, Policing, and the Poor People's Campaign.....................155CHAPTER FOUR THE SURPLUS OF INCLUSION Poverty, Pluralism, and the Politics of Community........................................199CHAPTER FIVE THRESHOLDS OF OPPOSITION Liberty, Liberation, and the Horizon of Incrimination....................................245CONCLUSION A PECULIAR FREEDOM Community and Poverty, from New Federalism to Neoliberalism......................................257NOTES..........................................................................................................................323BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................................................357

Chapter One

Community development programs after the Second World War were concerned with identifying and cultivating local democratic initiative and neighborhood-level leadership. But tangible evidence of such activity and disposition—especially of the conciliatory type that the programs hoped to encourage—proved to be elusive. Policymakers and social scientists described the concern with this type of activity as an imperative to begin from the "felt needs" of a local community—claiming that community development "must come from within through the greatest possible participation of the people in accordance with needs determined by their values." Although reformers in the Progressive Era conceived of the local community as the principal site for their social initiatives, not until the late 1940s did reformers consider the full participation and self-determined transformation of those who were to be reformed as integral to the success of such initiatives. A brief example from a booklet in the Libros Para el Pueblo (Books for the People) series of the División de Educación de la Comunidad (Division of Community Education; DIVEDCO) in Puerto Rico during the 1950s shows how popular will and introspection were cast during the postwar era as a dilemma for government-aligned social action.

The story in the booklet, "La Voluntad que Ignacio no Tuvo" (Ignacio's lack of will), is simple, but skillfully enough written so as not to seem insincere or formulaic. Ignacio stares listlessly down the road and across a parched, weed-covered field, while behind him a small crowd of neighbors gathers before the beginning of a town meeting. He overhears Nico, a "nobody" like himself, complaining to the others that local farmers have no land to cultivate. "The government should bring industry to the countryside," says Nico. But Ignacio is lost in his own thoughts and pays little attention to the conversation. He is thinking of his young son, who cried inconsolably at night before his death. He remembers his child's awful fevers and the tears of his wife, Gabriela. He recalls that other children had been ill, too. A mangy dog drinking from the nearby town well catches his eye. A wall should be built to keep the animals away from the community's only source of potable water, reflects Ignacio, "But who is going to take care of that?" He shrugs and tries to think of something else. The town meeting begins with Isidro—a prominent citizen and an associate of Teyo, a landowner who is also present—addressing those gathered. The well-spoken Isidro recounts his efforts to obtain government support for a new park for the town. It was difficult, but he had secured funds for the park's construction on land to be generously donated by Teyo. It occurs to Ignacio that providing many other basic necessities would better serve the town than creating a park: "He suddenly feels the impulse to stand up and to begin to speak. He would say that the park was a good idea, but as a future project. There were more urgent problems in the community ... for example, dogs drinking from the public well and the fevers and the children dying." But fear silences Ignacio. What right did he have to challenge Isidro? Only later, after the park has been finished and Ignacio hears Isidro telling a neighbor that a public health official informed him that the town's well was contaminated, does Ignacio profoundly regret his inaction. Returning home, he encounters Gabriela, now pregnant, who cradles a bundle of kindling. "In that moment a sudden decision awakened his sleeping will. 'The same thing is not going to happen to this child that happened to the other. I swear it!,' he said out loud." But when Ignacio finally speaks there is no one there to hear him. The story ends without catharsis or confrontation, but with the possibility of inner transformation and the deferred promise of social action.

"La Voluntad que Ignacio no Tuvo" was paired with a second short story in the 1953 booklet Los Casos de Ignacio y Santiago. The other narrative is about Santiago, who, unlike Ignacio, saves his child's life because he was able to overcome his passivity and help solve the problem of tainted communal water. As was DIVEDCO's practice, the agency not only produced and distributed the booklet, but it also conducted a study of the booklet's reception in the communities where it was read. Contrary to the agency's expectations, its survey found that the vast majority of readers favored and identified with the "pessimistic" story of Ignacio's "failure of will" rather than the supposedly inspirational tale of Santiago. Only traces of Santiago remained three years later when DIVEDCO produced the thirty-four-minute film Ignacio for community screenings. Responding to the readers' comments, the filmmakers cut the second narrative, emphasizing instead the oppressive paternalism of local elites, the apparently passive hope for rescue by government projects, and, above all, Ignacio's inner struggle to overcome his sense of resignation and powerlessness. A new ending, however, nudges Ignacio's inchoate social consciousness toward civic action. The scene shows a community meeting with amateur actors and people from the rural town in which the film was shot. This time Ignacio stands and addresses his neighbors. His voice is still tentative, but he has gathered his courage to speak publicly: "I don't know how it's to be done, but I do know the community should consult with someone who knows [how to make sure that we have clean water]. Something has to be done about this water problem that has made everyone suffer so much." A concluding voice-over informs the audience that "little by little, everyone began to talk. The problem had been hidden in everyone's mind. But now, Ignacio, the illiterate one, had made it clear and urgent with his words." Ignacio thus personifies the aims of community development in practice, first recognizing his feeling of inadequacy and then overcoming it to...