George and Sheila Cram – Excerpts from an interview conducted in Toronto, 2014

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We were in Venezuela for two years with the Anglican Church. But we refused to go until we had some language training, which we did in Mexico at Ivan Illych’s school. So we had language training and those that didn’t couldn’t communicate with people,  couldn’t do the work. The project had even published a pamphlet about the Venezuelan team going down and had written it in Portuguese, so that’s how hopeless people were about Latin America at that time.

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When we left Canada, it was ’68, which I remember because it was election year. We went through the States and it was Lyndon Johnson and real right-wing politics. And that was our introduction when we went to Latin America, the swirl of where the world was in that period.

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Anyway, we had a great time. And there was this big meeting called about the future of work in Venezuela and the Anglican Church wanted to pull us out and we said, “Well, we have all this training now and we’ve got the language. Have you got some place else we can go?” And the Dominican Episcopal Church said, “Well, from what we know of the Cram’s we’d like you to send them to us, if you’re willing.” And so they worked up a job description to lend us to an ecumenical institute in Santo Domingo called CEPAE and we were seconded to them by the Anglican Church of Canada.

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In the meantime, between Venezuela and the DR we came back to Canada and we re-connected with people, except we were a little more educated by the time we came back and had a real concern about it. All the stuff with ULAJE and Norm and the work camp in the Dominican Republic was already underway when we got to the Dominican Republic…. I would say, of the formation of LAWG, it was already underway by the time we got back to Canada between the two positions. While we were waiting to go to the DR, and having a sort-of furlough period in Canada, I went to a meeting of LAWG in formation at a, like a farm house.

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After we came back there were regular meetings of LAWG, and Hugh and Judy Miller played a pivotal role in preparing materials and I remember one of the first LAWG publications that I can remember was a picture of 3 mice walking on the map from Toronto to Latin America and right on down. And I don’t know why they printed so many but we had those posters around for … ten years I think. It was a critique of the governmental report, with a delegation which had gone to South America on a rapid wind tour touching in Brazil and Peru and couple others, made a loop, and they issued this report and the outstanding part of it was how LONG it had taken to fly between Toronto and Rio de Janeiro! And LAWG’s position was, “As far as we know, the distance hasn’t changed recently”! Just to show the ignorance of Canada with regard to Latin America.

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While we were in the Dominican Republic our house became sort of a crossroads. We had visits from Norm quite often,. And we had Louise with us for a while. And so we were in touch with the group, even though we were away. And  the connection with Faisal and the singing group, Expresion Joven.

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When our house was being used – we came back here for our annual holiday – and the DR was seething with intrigue and political muckedy muck. And Balaguer, who had been right-hand man of Trujillo, became imposed by the American invasion, and he hired groups of thugs which became known as La Banda, largely unknown outside of the Dominican Republic. When we were coming on furlough, we brought back a collection of clippings which LAWG published at that point, which was a big job to get ready for printing.

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The intent was to publish this material so people would know what was going on. Because it was largely unknown and while we were in the Dominican Republic, Camaño, the revolutionary leader who had defected from the army, went to Cuba, landed on the south shore, and the country went on full military alert for several weeks while we were there. Sheila even got shot at on at one point because she was being given a lift to an American priest who was visiting. They were driving along in a car and Sheila heard the shots and the guy said, “Oh that’s just a back-fire.” And kept going and eventually they got out and were interrogated. Luckily, they didn’t shoot them dead. It was a close encounter.

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We left the Dominican Republic with our papers in order for ’73. We stopped in New York overnight and entered on New Year’s day, January 1st 1974, just about the time that the first arrivals from Chile took place. We were some of the few people who spoke Spanish so we got pressed into service.When we got back we were right in the thick of it, right from the beginning.