New Haven Independent

However, the previous night he was wearing another hat, joining other volunteer leaders at St. Rose of Lima Church in Fair Haven to participate in a phone bank whose aim was to help calm the community’s high anxiety in the wake of the ICE raids. Before the evening’s main event, the screening of a movie on the life of baseball hero and humanitarian, Roberto Clemente, Fernandez-Chevaro had a chance to chat with a reporter about that experience:

NHI: What was precisely the purpose of the calls you were making at St. Rose?
F-C: Well, basically we were calling telling people simply to remain calm, answering their questions if we could.
NHI: What kinds of questions were being asked?
F-C: People wanted to know if they should go outside. They wanted to know if they should send their kids to school. There are obviously still many people worried about being picked up.
NHI: And how did you answer such questions?
F-C: Well, we explained the situation as it has evolved, but you tell people they have the right to stay inside and not send their kid to school, of course, if they feel safer that way. Our role is to explain their rights to them, and that’s what I did. There’s a lot of fear. Still, people have a right to make their own choices.
NHI: Tell me a little about the St. Rose organization. What kinds of lists were you calling from, for example?
F-C: St. Rose is amazing. It’s highly organized, and yet highly decentralized. There are many leaders, some sixty-five people involved, who are paired with people in the community, and have the names. All prepared from lists. Father Jim Manship, it turns out, had to be at some occasion out of town, and the question was whether he should go given the situation in the city. Everyone said, Go, Jim. Go. Indeed, it’s well organized. That’s the way it’s set up, so leadership, and one-on-one encounters among people, are making the outreach really work, among a lot of grassroots leaders. That’s the atmosphere, and the tactic.
NHI- As an officer with the GNHCF, is there anything you and the foundation are doing to address what’s going on in the city?
F-C: Well, I’m personally involved with it, of course, through St. Rose as I’ve said. As to the foundation, we’re following the situation with serious concern, of course.
NHI: Is any specific action or step planned by the foundation? I mean it’s a charged issue and the foundation, at least from my perspective, is seen as a neutral kind of ground. It might be able to make a contribution.
F-C: Yes, absolutely. The foundation is seen as neutral. That’s a great plus. However, one of the drawbacks of “neutrality,” as it were, is that the foundation moves but with great deliberateness.
NHI: Well, what I had in mind was something like a kind of town meeting on immigration. It’s such an emotional issue, and with the right moderator, for example, all sides might have a chance to express themselves in a way that’s not ad hominem.
F-C: Yes, that’s right. That’s interesting. Thank you for bringing it up. I’ll let you know.