Cameron Park #2

Their roads. Ten years ago, they didn't even have the dirt pack that they have now. When it rained, the roads became so muddy that cars couldn't make it through. Children wouldn't go school: buses couldn't enter the barrio and the children weren't able to wade through knee-deep mud. For years, nobody did anything about it.

Eight years ago, Father Mike Seifert and Brother Albert Phillip arrived at the local church, San Felipe de Jesus. Slowly, things began to change. Father Mike organized the community into nucleated social groups, Freirian-style (comunidades de base), and worked to develop their social and religious consciousness. Both he and Brother Albert pushed el voto, shaping an active political arm to the network. That arm pounded away. Before Father Mike and Brother Albert came, few voted. In the last series of elections, over eight hundred people voted. The result was an impowered citizenry with a voice--local politicians could no longer ignore the unicorporated areas of Cameron Park. Now, Cameron Park's votes were important. Now, they would bring in water and electric utilities. Now, Cameron Park would have roads.