Celebrating Moms

It's been nine years since my mom died and not a day goes by that I don't miss her.

I celebrate the memory of my mother by posting the A. Magazine article I wrote shortly after her death highlighting her achievements as an Asian American Union activist.

When the paramedics brought my mother to University of California Medical Center on October 2 with a brain aneurysm, the doctors said she wouldn't make it through the night. They didn't know my mother. She hung on while my sister Tami and I rushed from New York to the hospital, and we were able to hold her hands when she finally slipped away. That was our mom, Beverly Umehara--a woman warrior holding court even in the last hours of her 53 years of life.

Born in San Francisco on December 18, 1945, Bev--as her friends called her--grew up in Chinatown. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about her was that her calling came late in life at 47, when she made the sudden transformation from a humble hard working secretary and mother of four into a labor activist, a respected union leader and a role model for rank-and-file workers, women of color and for all Asian Americans.

I was fortunate enough to sit down with my mother in 1998, to hear her share the roots of her activist drive. "In 1992, as secretary and assistant to the head of the Calfornia Labor Federation, I attended a reception announcing the first organization of Asian American trade unionists--the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO," she said. "There was a steering committee composed of over 40 Asian Americans of different unions from all over the nation--some rank-and-file, and some in leadership positions within their unions. APALA's mission was to increase the number of Asian American leaders in the labor movement, advance the rights of immigrants and help Asian American workers who were trying to organize and gain a voice in the workplace. I didn't know anything like this existed and was impressed. I'd waited over 20 years for direction like this, I knew I had to be at APALA's founding convention in Washington, D.C."

Against all odds she made her way to that convention. She described how enthralling it was for her to be with so many Asian American union activists, like steering committee chair Katie Quan, a leading organizer of garment workers, Ken Wong, a brilliant young labor activist at UCLA, Guy Fujimura, Secretary-Treasurer of the powerful International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local in Hawaii, and Gloria Caoile, a leading Filipina activist and assistant to the head of AFSCME, a million member union of government workers.

Bev returned to the Bay Area committed to APALA's agenda, and helped establish the San Francisco chapter of APALA where she was elected Chapter Secretary. She told me her knees were knocking when she made her first speech to the Calfornia Workers Assistance Program, but her passion drove her on, pushing her to continue to take on leadership roles.

In 1995, she was elected to APALA's National Executive Board, and was appointed as president of the San Francisco Chapter. As president, she led the San Francisco chapter of APALA in forming lasting community-labor coalitions that worked against anti-labor, anti-affirmative action and anti-immigrant ballot initiatives. Under her leadership, the chapter recruited new organizers, assisted workers seeking to form unions, participated in a local community struggles and engaged in non-partisan voter registration and "get out the vote" efforts.

Her colleagues on the National Executive Board were aware of Bev's powerful work and her evolution as a leader. At the APALA national convention this August, she was awarded the Art Takei Leadership Award, named after the pioneering Nisei activist who first became a union organizer in the 1950's after learning about injustice in the internment camps.

As she stepped up to the podium to accept the award, she held the audience spellbound as she spoke from the heart saying, "I believe that I am currently living a vision. While growing up as a third-generation Chinese American, Chinese daughters were not taught to have visions. This award is proof that progress has been made. Not only am I a woman--but I am an Asian American woman activist , and proud of it!"

Chatting with Congresswoman Patsy Mink at the end of the evening, the congresswoman told my mother she should run for office--that she had what it took to be a true leader. I believe that Congresswoman Mink was right. Whatever the future would have held for my mother, it have been bright. And it would have involved workers, especially immigrants, that are exploited in the workplace.

We have established the Beverly Umehara Memorial APALA Scholarship Fund to nurture future woman warriors. To make a memorial contribution to the Beverly Umehara Memorial APALA Scholarship Fund, checks can be sent c/o Ed Yee, APALA, SF Chapter, 100 Cole Street. San Francisco, CA 94117.

This article was originally published in the February/March 2000 issue of A Magazine