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Photo by JESSICA HAVENS
Sylvia Orduno (in foreground) listens to the speakers at the Detroit forum. |
Sylvia Orduno is a 36-year-old Ph.D. student at the University of Michigan who is active in the Ann Arbor and Detroit communities.
She is currently residing in Ann Arbor until she completes her dissertation concerning welfare rights in Detroit. Afterward, she hopes to move back to her home state of California in order to teach and participate in community activism.
Every week, Orduno speaks with women at the Welfare Rights Organization office about such issues as poverty, abuse and housing – issues that concern them and the people around them. She has participated in welfare rights marches and trips to New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago and Washington, D.C., as well as attended various meetings and training sessions.
Last June, Orduno also helped plan a large poor people’s march in Detroit for the birthday of the National Welfare Rights Union.
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Photo by JESSICA HAVENS
Sylvia Orduno (in foreground) listens to the speakers at the Detroit forum. |
Orduno acknowledges that has a busy life. She mentions that she doesn’t have much free time, but she enjoys reading political news magazines, organizing people around important issues, playing softball and watching foreign films.
Orduno feels the sacrifice is well worth it, though. She says it is a rewarding experience for her to sit with these women, talk about their issues and help work out their problems
Orduno mentions that many welfare rights activists are concerned that some of the problems in the last legislation won’t be fixed – such as not enough credit for education to count towards work requirement – and new bills are presenting additional burdens to poor people.
Orduno helps guide the women’s momentum with people in the welfare rights office. She talks about housing issues with women who are generally from a low-income population.
"I have worked on some interesting cases," Orduno says.
She says that sometimes it is difficult to get to some of the woman, but she her best.
Orduno also serves as the program assistant and concentration advisor for the Latino Studies Program at the University of Michigan.
The Latinos Studies Program holds weekly meetings, which Orduno attends. She helps coordinate academic, cultural and social events.
"I enjoy every bit of what I do," Orduno says. "For me to know that I can help and communicate with other people is a rewarding experience."
Orduno comes from a Mexican-American, working-class family. Her dad is a truck driver and her mom a homemaker. She has two sisters and a brother, all younger then her.
In her hometown of Los Angeles, Orduno experienced many interesting and frightening events, including the 1992 King riot.
"I was working at a gasoline distribution plant at the time, and everyone was fearful that these tankers full of gasoline would be targeted by the angry crowd since the company made daily deliveries to gas stations in South Central L.A.," Orduno says.
Many Mexican-American communities were also fearful that the riots would spread to East L.A. Orduno remembers Edward James Olmos going on air at many local television stations, asking people to keep calm and not let the violence spread into other communities.
"Fires were already breaking out everywhere, and the police and fire departments were reluctant to respond to anything anywhere," she explains.
Orduno loves Detroit but says she is eager to move back to her hometown because she enjoys California life.
"I like a big crowd of people," Orduno says.