Oldest Latino credit union still has accounts from its inception By SARAH DE CRESCENZO for The Porterville Recorder | 08-Feb-2010
Oldest Latino credit union still has accounts from its inception By SARAH DE CRESCENZO 2010-01-29 18:16:31
As farmworkers in California fought for living wages, better working conditions and a political voice as the sixties drew to a close, a small organization in Porterville known as El Futuro - The Future - decided to form a credit union so agricultural laborers would have access to financial management services. El Futuro began as a small community action group in Porterville educating the Hispanic community about the importance of political participation in order to gain governmental representation through the creation of local leaders. As the members of El Futuro spoke with Porterville area farm laborers, they became part of a widespread movement to open credit unions and bring financial services to under-served populations. On Oct. 31, 1966, seven individuals - Lydia Garcia, Maria Yolanda Barrera, Guadalupe Ileana Guerra, Jesus Marin Barrera, Mary Plata, Mary G. Ramos and Vincente Alvarado - signed a document incorporating El Futuro Credit Union with an initial collection of $38. "They saw that here was a great need and a great movement to open credit unions for underserved farmworkers," Isabel Olmos, one of the business' first employees, said. Olmos, who worked at El Futuro for 27 years and for three directors, began working for its first director Jose Avila, when she was 13. Avila, who was blind, was known as an intelligent, personable man who accomplished great things, notwithstanding his blindness, Olmos said. His daughter, Mary Avila, functioned as his "eyes" and remained at El Futuro until she married in 1970. The impetus for the credit union's birth was a program called Grass Roots, run by the Visalia branch of Proteus, that looked for community members to work with to open credit unions, Avila said. Reaching out to the public, Avila said, was a central aspect to the credit union's development. "My father would talk to the public over the radio - KTIP - and tell them to come to rallies in the park," she recalled. Avila said she and her father worked to educate local farmworkers about the importance of credit unions. "They had a lot of questions,"she said. "We also went door-to-door, inviting the people to come out and listen." A peer of Jose Avila - Pablo Espinoza - also worked to organize the growing Hispanic community into a viable political entity before he left Porterville to join the United Farmworkers Association. Until El Futuro arrived, Espinoza said he kept his money under his mattress. With the credit union, he and his family opened savings accounts and got loans - something farmworkers had a difficult time doing at local banks. Espinoza said farmworkers were drawn to El Futuro also because it offered a death benefit of $1,000 - a necessity for those working in an oftentimes dangerous job. Another daughter of Jose's, Esther Avila, said the family held "town hall" meetings to explain the benefits of savings accounts, credit and loans to crowds gathered in parks, the Porterville VFW building and churches, among other locations. "Will my money be safe?" is the question Esther Avila said she remembers hearing over and over again as a little girl. Olmos said she also recalls working to convince farmworkers that their hard earned monies would be safer in the financial institution. "They didn't understand the concept of saving money, because they didn't trust anyplace but their own bed room or hiding place," she said. "They didn't know about putting it in a bank." The credit union's shares were sold for only $5 each; savings accounts could be opened with much lower amount of money then required by mainstream institutions. Yolanda Barrera, one of the original signatories of the El Futuro Articles of Incorporation, said the very first members were allowed to join for the "incredible" amount of $1. Barrera still retains her account at El Futuro - number 19. After Avila, Elvira Reini and Albert Carrizales, respectively, took the managerial position at El Futuro. Olmos, who was working under a Proteus-like program that paid her salary, was kept on after it ended as a full-time employee. According to Barrera, financial trouble hit the credit union around that time, sending it into the red. Her father, man-about-town Marin Barrera, became the third director in 1972 and returned it to profitability before he exited in 1993. "[Barrera] had a wonderful way with people, so he could bring them in," Olmos said. She said his personable and trustworthy nature made new members comfortable. His history as a farmworker, Olmos said, also helped him relate to the anxieties and hopes of his clientele. "He would be up in the front, and he knew everybody by name," she said. "He had the passion to engage them and empower them about what they could do with their money." Barrera said her father would go to dances on Saturday nights and urge individuals to make payments on their loans with El Futuro. "Eventually, my father was successful in getting sufficient loans so the credit union could function again as it was designed to do," she said, "to help the farmworkers and other poor individuals to get loans which they would not have qualified to get at a bank." One of El Futuro's loan beneficiaries was present-day Porterville landmark El Tapatio. The current owner of the popular Mexican eatery, George Gutierrez, said he and his wife have had personal accounts with El Futuro since its inception as well. Gutierrez said his father, Aniceto Gutierrez, was "very active in the community"during the 1960s and participated in the organization of El Futuro Credit Union. Julian Flores headed up the growing business next, prior to current CEO Raul Pickett. The beginnings of the credit union are rooted in the civil rights movement that swept the nation during the 1960s, Pickett said. He recalls Barrera meeting with the late legendary civil rights activist Cesar Chavez during his tenure. Olmos, who worked at the credit union until 1999, said the assistance provided at the credit union - tailored specifically to the needs of agricultural laborers - kept customers returning and bringing those closest to them. "We were all bilingual; we had the culture, the sensitivity and the respect to treat people appropriately" - no matter how much money they had in their pocket, Olmos said. In January 2009, the credit union merged with Community Trust Credit Union, as did many other similar institutions in California hit hard by the economic downturn and resulting rise in unemployment. It's membership - which includes families spanning generations - can now access their funds from a growing number of outlets throughout California as El Futuro continues business under the Community Trust Credit Union name.
