La Union Del Pueblo Entero also known as LUPE is a community-based union that serves the low-income neighborhoods of Hidalgo County through community organizing and social services. In 2003, LUPE was established in the Rio Grande Valley by Juanita Valdez-Cox who now is the executive director of the organization, and the speaker at a presentation held at South Texas College on November 11th 2015. This public presentation was open to the general public to raise awareness and educate people about the migrant workers who are often oppressed or forgotten down here in South Texas. Juanita Valdez-Cox elaborates on this in her speech; she talks about how she used to be a migrant worker, and how since LUPE they have been able to increase the benefits of the farmworkers, and are currently working towards installing streetlights in colonia communities. This presentation had many different strengths and weaknesses, Ms. Valdez-Cox is able to establish strong credibility with her own personal history, she is also able to effectively evoke emotion in others with her touching stories of those living in the colonias, but she uses faulty logic because all her numbers are exceedingly outdated.
Juanita Valdez-Cox starts off with by introducing LUPE, she talks about who they are, how the organization works while also informing the audience about the many accomplishments LUPE has had since their founding in 1981. Throughout the presentation all of the victories, the main focus of the entire presentation, were all extremely outdated. These past achievements such as raising migrant works wages from $1.70 to $3.35 and implementing the law that required clean water be available for all field workers were very important. These examples of achievements for LUPE show others that this organization is capable of winning very big cases for migrant workers. The presentation was strong because it was very well thought out and organized, but the numbers were really outdated which was a very big weakness in the logic of this presentation. Although LUPE had won many cases in favor of the migrant workers that was a long time ago, because of this the argument was not very persuasive.
Ms. Valdez-Cox establishes her credibility in her speech when she talks about her past as a migrant worker. Juanita’s past as a migrant worker allows her to have a special insight on the problems others are facing, and gives her an emotional connection to the speech she is giving. This background helps Ms. Valdez-Cox because she has worked her entire life helping migrant works in South Texas. These examples that establish her credibility help persuade others to listen to her when they understand that she went through all this first hand, and it also helps to establish credibility with her migrant worker clients because they can relate with Ms. Valdez-Cox. These examples give Ms. Valdez-Cox strong credibility because she has spent her entire life with field workers therefore she has the credibility to give a presentation over them.
Ms. Valdez-Cox evokes emotion in the audience by informing them about how LUPE is currently working towards installing street lights in the colonia communities of Hidalgo County for child safety. Streetlights have become a necessity to those living in these communities because without them there is a high chance of kids getting injured while playing on the streets, it has become too common for children to be hurt and even killed while playing on the streets because drivers cannot see the roads during the evening. Ms. Valdez-Cox uses these sad stories to create emotions in you so that you will be persuaded to help the LUPE organization. This emotional persuasion was very strong on the audience because they are able to sympathize.
Ms. Valdez-Cox was able to use her strengths in credibility and emotion to persuade her audience about LUPE. Yet her logical arguments were very weak so they were of little use in her presentation. Overall the presentation was able to persuade the audience on how LUPE is very useful to the community.