One of the unfortunate realities of having limited access to computers and technology is that it often causes those who do not have it to be limited in numerous other aspects of their lives. For example, it may limit their ability to access employment or political involvement.

In a recent conversation with Eva Castillo of the Community Coalition, I was made aware of some of the specific strategies that this south L.A. organization is using to help its residents avoid such pitfalls. Located at 8101 S. Vermont Avenue, the Resource Center of the Community Coalition helps an estimated 4,000 per year learn computer skills that will enhance their academic, employment, political, and personal opportunities.

CM: Could you tell us about your role specifically within the Community Coalition and the program you’re running here?

EC: I work specifically with the resource center, which is a combination of a little library and mainly a computer lab. The Community Coalition felt that it was addressing many of the issues of the residents, but we also felt that they were being left behind, or left out of the technology revolution. And so that’s when they decided to create the resource center that I now work with. We have about 13 computers and we have computer classes for senior citizens, middle school children, high school students and Spanish speakers. It’s a busy resource center. Besides having all of those classes, we also provide specific hours where people who haven’t signed up for classes can also come and use the resource center. And we provide individual assistance to them. We offer that because there were people that cannot commit to come on a regular basis to a class, but yet they do want to have at least some exposure to the computers.

CM: How would you define the "Digital Divide," from your perspective in the work that you do?

EC: It’s funny that the people affected by it don’t even know what it is. And so it’s something for me that is very ugly. And the only way that I think I can define it is by thinking of it as the exclusion of communities from access to computer technology, either by means of them not having money to purchase a computer, or by not having places where they can go and access free. To me, it’s the difference in the computer access that is available here in our area compared to other areas, such as, maybe the West Side or the valley.

CM: What difference does this make, this lack of access as you described it, or this limited access? How do you think that plays out?

EC: It makes a big difference in many areas. Some of the ones that I have thought of are, for example, people can job search using computers. They can fill out applications. So if they don’t have money to go somewhere they could just come to a resource center, such as this one, and they don’t need to dress up if they don’t have money for an interview, or they don’t have money for transportation, they can just do it online. Another very important issue is that most good jobs would probably require you to have some kind of computer skills. If you don’t have those computer skills, most likely you'll end up with a low paying job, such as McDonalds or a fast food restaurant job.

"We went into the web page of Taco Bell and all of the ones [resource center visitors] that had e-mails wrote e-mails to Taco Bell saying, 'I don’t mind paying a little bit more as long as you pay more for the tomatoes.'"

Another issue that is very important is education. If our youth are not exposed to computers how are they going to find out about scholarships? How are they going to find out about other colleges that they can be exposed to through the Internet without having to travel all the way to Riverside, or Santa Barbara, or Santa Cruz for example? Also, when it comes to schoolwork, many other tools are available for students. For example there are dictionaries, encyclopedias, and numerous homework aides available for free on the Internet. If we have a student that doesn’t have access to the Internet or at least tools, he’s probably going to get a D on a paper that someone that does have computer access will not. This doesn’t mean that he’s smarter because he knows how to spell the words, but he has access to the spell check in Microsoft Word. So it could make a big difference in terms of many things like finding a good job, getting a good grade in school.

In terms of political education, people can find a lot of information on what politicians are doing. What is their background? What are the different city departments doing? I believe that there are a lot of offices that offer services and people may not find out about them unless they have computer access. So, I think whether our community has access or not to computers is going to play a very important role.

CM: You mentioned earlier in the interview that the people who are in the divide don’t realize they’re in it. Have you found that it’s difficult to sell people on the idea of coming here?

EC: No. When we first opened the resource center I was asked to do a recruitment plan of how I was going to try to get people to come to the resource center. I spent maybe a week, I don’t remember how long, writing it and it wasn’t necessary. As soon as people found out that there were classes going on we had more than we could handle. People started signing up. We only have 13 computers, but we get 20- 25 people signing up per class. So there is a need. We need to expand because a lot of people know that sooner or later they’re going to need computers. The population that is surprising me the most is the senior citizen population because you would think that they'd think, "What do I need computers for? I’m not looking for a job," but they’re the ones most interested. They e-mail a lot. They have found e-mail to be a very powerful tool for them because many of them have relatives outside of the state. Before they could only communicate by phone. But now they’re sending greeting cards back and forth or pictures. Their relatives send pictures of grandchildren that they didn’t even know about. We have one student from Ecuador and he has a sister there and so until now they’ve been using the phone. So what some of his relatives did is they all pitched in to buy a computer for his sister. And so right now what they do is they communicate through e-mail. Before attending our class, he didn’t have a computer either, but when he found out that he could communicate this way and not pay the high rates of the phone, he said "let’s do it." And he’s one of our best students here. So, that’s a very good example of what computers can really do. When I was hired for this job I never thought that it was going to be such a rewarding experience for me. Seeing them, how grateful they are that we’re open, that we’re here is really exciting for me. Just as exciting has been seeing the ways in which our students have begun to be empowered politically and professionally through their use of the resource center.

I don’t know if you’re aware of a dispute that is going on with Taco Bell and the tomato pickers in Florida. There were two speakers coming from Florida who are farm workers and they told us that Taco Bell doesn’t want to help them in trying to get fairer wages. I believe they only get approximately 20 cents an hour because they only get paid by however many tomatoes they pick. Our members were really touched by those facts. We went into the web page of Taco Bell and all of the ones that had e-mails wrote e-mails to Taco Bell saying, "I don’t mind paying a little bit more as long as you pay more for the tomatoes." That was one empowering tool because they didn’t have to go to a demonstration. They didn’t have to go anywhere else. They didn’t have to go to the post office to get stamps, but yet they were able to contribute to and help out in this campaign. They felt good about it.

I really feel bad when I have to do those phone calls to tell people they can’t get into our classes because they’re full already.

Also, we had a city attorney’s race in LA not too long ago and we had our members from one of our computer classes prepare flyers and mailings. So those are examples of how we don’t want to just teach them how to use the computers. We want to teach them how they can use computers to improve the whole community.

CM: Those are wonderful testimonies. About how many people does the center serve?

EC: We had more than 4,000 people visit the resource center, either on a regular basis because of classes, or people that just came in, last year. Again, our lab only has 13 computers. We really need to expand. I really feel bad when I have to make phone calls to tell people they can’t get into our classes because they’re full already. There are a few resource centers that are opening which offer classes, but they don’t have free access or hours where people can just go on their own and drop in whenever they want. And with the libraries, you have limited time, 20 minutes, and I think they only have about 2 computers.

CM: It sounds like the demand is well beyond the current supply in the community. What do you see as one possible solution?

EC: I feel that we need to pressure the government to have more resource centers like this one. I really think right now it’s hard to see the consequence not having access to computers is going to have. But I think that in the future we are going to see more of the "Digital Divide" and it’s going to affect our communities. Especially in terms of the things that I mentioned to you such as finding jobs, going to higher education and just getting good grades in school. We have to start looking now to prevent what’s going to happen.

:. tcla

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