Category Archives: 2025 Articles

This month, the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida features excerpts from a 2021 interview with Dr. Paul Ortiz [O], a UF professor and the director of the SPOHP at the time. Currently a professor of labor history at Cornell University, he has a personal and academic background in African American history, Latinx studies, and oral history. He was interviewed by George Topalidis [T]. Excerpt edited by Beth Grobman. For the full interview go to tinyurl.com/Iguana2149

T: What level of support did you find for the Oral History Program when you came to UF? 

O: We’re in a world class facility which was built with our needs in mind. We have space for production, recording suites. It’s a really nice piece of real estate for an oral history program to thrive. When I first met Sam Proctor in the mid-nineties, the UF Oral History was in the basement of Anderson Hall and the offices leaked … you could see the rain coming down the side of the walls; we’re in a much better space than we were back then. 

by Melanie Barr

The buildings in the 100 block of N. Main Street are threatened with demolition even though they are significant in terms of age, history and architecture. 

The two former houses were built in 1879. One was later used by the Wine and Cheese Gallery for 43 years, and the other was a law office for over 100 years. Destroying them is an odd way to celebrate Alachua County’s 200th anniversary this year.

The people who occupied the historic houses are significant. James B. Brown, who purchased a lot in 1873, was one of only two people who was the Mayor of Gainesville three times. He was Mayor in 1871, 1885 and 1888, and maneuvered the City through the aftermath of the fire that destroyed much of downtown. The population also doubled in the ten years from 1880 to 1890.

by Carmen Ward, President, ACEA, and Jason Bellamy-Fults, Recording Secretary, IBEW Local 1205, both proud members of the North Central Florida Central Labor Council

Unfortunately, working people in our community are currently facing formidable labor struggles at the local, state, and national levels.  Below are some updates and ways that you can be of support.

Support our Alachua County teachers! 

When it comes to bargaining in the public school system, things are very complicated. Most employees are represented by the union, Alachua County Education Association (ACEA), if they are education support professionals (e.g., food service workers, bus drivers, facilities staff, and paraprofessionals) or instructional employees (i.e., teachers). The ACEA negotiates with the School Board’s appointed district team for both units within ACEA. 

by Voices for Common Ground members Tanya Mickler, Michele Gutierrez, Tamara Martin, Betsy Williams, and Lisa Wolcott

On a hot Gainesville day in July 2024, one of our founders sent out an email with deep resonance for many of us. She shared her thoughts on an alternative to the growing habit of “doomscrolling” — the act of mindlessly consuming negative news online, which had begun to feel like a futile attempt to make sense of the chaos around us. 

But doomscrolling wasn’t working because our feeds didn’t have the answer to the question we were grappling with: where is our country headed? Conversations with friends, family, and co-workers often seemed to lack common ground. The constant churn of divisive politics deepened the sense of helplessness. Was there a way to break the cycle of despair and paralysis?

by Sarah Goff, Co-Founder and Executive Director of The Repurpose Project

The dust has barely settled at Renovator Reuse (the third and newest thrift store), but The Repurpose Project is planning to expand again. This time, the goal is a bulk clearance store and donation processing center. Imagine clothing by-the-pound, electronics by-the-pound, and fill a bag or bucket deals. It will be one last chance for items. 

The Repurpose Project hopes it will be a material supply source for artists and innovators to help us exponentially expand the local circular economy. It’s dreamy, we know. Want to help us? Buy used! Tell your friends! Hang up a flyer! Share our social media posts! We need to raise funds to afford the electrical work and permitting required to occupy the 5,000 sq ft back building (that we own!) nestled behind the newly acquired Renovator Reuse building.

by Mary Savage

The Trump-Musk-DOGE unholy trinity is sabotaging Social Security. Have you looked at the current Social Security Administration web site? Have you tried to set up your own account? What a confusing mess of cerebral-techno gibberish. How about a soon-to-be-retiree or a disabled person being able to speak to a live human being over the phone or in person instead of suffering through a confusing web site? The Trump-Musk-DOGE regime has made it difficult for seniors, the disabled and others to access their earned benefits and the services of the Social Security Administration. Watchdog groups and the still-free media are warning that Social Security is targeted for dismantling and privatization to Wall Street. But have you checked the stock market recently? Have you checked your 401(k)? The Trump economy has caused markets to tumble down. Wall Street keeps its fees while nest eggs decline in value. Do you want your Social Security dollars to go to a place of risky business called Wall Street? The answer is simple: NO YOU DO NOT.

Alachua County is expanding its free legal assistance program to better support tenants facing legal challenges.

Funded through the federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), this initiative provides no-cost legal aid to county residents dealing with evictions or legal barriers that threaten their housing stability. The program will be sunset in September 2025.

Previously, eligibility for assistance was limited to tenants within a specific area median income (AMI) threshold.

by Janice Garry, President, League of Women Voters of Alachua County

Hear ye, hear ye (bells ringing vigorously!) The League of Women Voters of Alachua County is standing up and speaking out! We are answering the daunting question “What can I do?” in response to the current avalanche of information and the despair of having our country and democracy ransacked.

What can you do? Be a member of the What You Can Do Campaign created by your local League! We survey information, digest it (belch), and put it into succinct, scripted messages for our readers. In ten minutes or less you can read and act. Lots of recommended phone calls to legislators about specific topics. Also, info about local protests or issues. Whatever rises to the surface as useful and actionable.

This is an excerpt of a speech by Kendra Vincent, who spoke representing National Women’s Liberation, given on March 8 at the Democratic Women’s Club Luncheon at the Best Western in Gainesville. NWL was asked to speak about Amendment 4 and abortion. Representative Angie Nixon was the keynote speaker and Representative Yvonne Hayes Hinson also spoke. 

National Women’s Liberation is a feminist group for cis and trans women and trans people who do not benefit from male supremacy who want to fight back and build a mass movement for our liberation. 

We believe the inequalities and injustices we face due to male supremacy, white supremacy, and capitalism are political problems requiring a collective solution. We believe that change comes from the actions of everyday people. And this is one of the many reasons we organized a coalition and helped lead on Amendment 4 in Gainesville. 

by Joe Courter

And here we still are: in a rapidly unfolding coup bent on overturning what has taken so long to build. I won’t repeat what I wrote last month, but here is a link to it: tinyurl.com/Iguana2174 … it holds up well.

What are our tools? How do we connect enough of us to focus our dissatisfaction in a meaningful way? How do we overcome our fears and seeming helplessness? We need to be able to communicate, to organize resistance. This has made me think about how we used to do that. Go back in history to the nation’s founding, there were letters, pamphlets and newspapers, but principally oration at meetings or churches. Yet they got organized and got stuff done. The twentieth century had its first major change in organizing with amplified sound and then radio, words from one individual could be heard by thousands, even millions at the same time. 

by Joe Courter

Whether in hot sunny Florida, a rainy wet new York City, the cold of Burlington, Vermont, or whatever other weather across the country, and even in Europe, the turn outs at the Hands Off! rally on April 5 were huge. In cities big and small, the call was out to reign in and reverse the cut backs being imposed by the now rogue Trump/Musk et al. regime. An estimated 5 million people participated in Hands Off! rallies that day. 

In Gainesville, well over 1,000 people turned out for the rally near the Cade Museum at the large roundabout intersection of South Main Street and Depot Avenue.  

by Jenn Powell

There is something to be said about Bernie Sanders attracting a crowd of 34,000 in Denver last month. That is a record, and he’s not even running for anything. 

WE need to pay attention, we need to stop challenging and gate keeping, we need to follow his lead. I had the pleasure of leading the local grassroots campaign for Bernie Sanders in 2015 and assisted organizers in 2020. I was elected as a delegate in 2016 and appointed in 2020. What we accomplished in 2016 was amazing, with no help from the Dem party, with no money from the official campaign, we only lost Alachua County by 45 votes. We accomplished this with the PEOPLE, not any PACs, but with small dollar grassroots donations. We paid for all our printing, our yard signs, our events, even rented an office fully funded by local Bernie supporters. The energy behind this was nothing I had ever seen. I long to feel that level of HOPE for the future again. 

The April issue of the Iguana is now available, and you can access it here! If you want to get your hands on a hard copy, check out our distro locations here.