This week I am sharing a set of fieldnotes I took in my qualitative methods course. This fieldnotes were taken as part of a larger project to understand civic engagement and activism in support of the

7:10 a.m. I arrive at the restaurant in Anaheim. From the street, the restaurant doesn’t look like much, it appears to be a relic of old Orange County. It’s located in a strip mall and it has faded blue wood and brick façade. When I enter, I head to the right of the restaurant to sit in on a meeting to take a solidarity bus to Arizona. When I arrive, 3 members of Latino Political Action Club of Orange County are already sitting at a table chatting and drinking coffee. I take a seat next to Richard. As I am sitting down, Alberto asks me, “Did you hear the good news?” I respond, “About Loretta?” Alberto says, “Yes!” I respond, “I just got a text from Jenny this morning letting me know.” Alberto asks me, “Has Loretta done a press release?” I said, “I don’t know. I just heard that she decided to sponsor it.” Edelmira and Richard, the two other Latino Political Action Club members present look a little confused. Alberto then says, “Loretta finally decided to co-sponsor the DREAM Act. This is great news!” Edelmira and Richard both smile. Richard is in his 70’s [I am guessing this age]. Richard has a full head of gray hair and dark brown skin. He is wearing a black shirt; a black leather jacket and a pair of jeans. Richard is a member of Latinos Unidos, an organization that I don’t know very much about. Sitting to Richard’s right is Alberto, candidate for the mayor Santa Ana and an attorney. Alberto is also an older man, maybe in his 60’s, and he is wearing a suit and tie. To the right of Alberto is Edelmira. Edelmira is considerably younger than Alberto and Richard. Edelmira has long black curly hair and works for a bank. Alberto lets me know that they are just waiting for Juan to get back so that we can start the meeting. Juan returns to the table and sits to my left. Juan is also an older man [I can’t really guess his age, but many of the Latino Political Action Club members are in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.] As Juan takes his seat, the group starts to talk about the plans for the solidarity bus trip to Arizona. Latino Political Action Club has chartered a bus to go to Arizona for the day on Sunday, June 13th. The bus will hold 54 passengers and the planning committee which consists of Juan, Alberto, Edelmira, Richard, Rolando [not at the meeting] and Jenny[also not at the meeting] have committed to have 18 youth take the trip with them. Rolando, Jenny and I represent the youth/student contingent. Alberto asks Edelmira, “Have you found a church yet?” Edelmira responds, “I think we should attend mass at St. Mary’s Basilica. It’s about half a mile from the City Hall.” Alberto then asks, “Have you been in touch with them yet?” Edelmira says, “Yes, I talked to the Parishioner Director and I just have to let them know how many are coming.” Juan asks, “Is it an English mass?” and Edelmira responds, “Yes, it’s an English mass at 11 am.” Alberto then says, “So if it’s at 11 am, then if we leave at 4 am, that should be plenty of time to get there.” Edelmira then says jokingly, “We might even have time to get breakfast.” Everyone at the table laughs and then we continue with the planning. At this point in the meeting, Rolando walks in. He grabs a chair and says, “I didn’t even know you guys were sitting over here.” Alberto says, “We were just talking about the agenda for the day.” Rolando and Alberto start to talk about the youth contingent. Rolando works directly with youth in his job with the Orange County Community Outreach office. Alberto asks Rolando if he thinks that they can fill the 18 spots on the bus with youth. Rolando says, “Yes, I am thinking some of the youth, who are over 18, and they’ve gone to Sacramento, to come along.” Rolando adds, “I am going to have to take another staff member.” Alberto says, “Sure, sure. That’s fine.” During this exchange, I check my text messages and I received a text message from Jenny asking me to put DREAMers Group on the Latino Political Action Club agenda. I excuse myself from the table and go to put DREAMers Group on the agenda. When I get back, the pre-meeting is wrapping up and the committee is getting ready to attend the general body meeting.

7:34 am:

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