MSS-136
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Overview of the Collection | |
| Creator: | O'Leary, Jorge, 1940- |
| Creator: | O'Leary, Anna Ochoa |
| Title: | Anna Marie and Jorge O'Leary Papers |
| Inclusive Dates: | 1981-1987 |
| Quantity: | 1 Box (0.5 Linear Feet) |
| Abstract: | The Anna Marie and Jorge O'Leary Papers consist of correspondence, printed matter, and miscellaneous items documenting the Phelps Dodge copper strike of 1983-1986. The collection dates from 1981 to 1987 and has been divided into two series. |
| Identification: | MSS-136 |
| Language: | Material in English and Spanish |
| Repository: | Arizona State University Library. Chicano Research Collection P.O. Box 871006 Tempe, AZ 85287-1006 Phone: (480) 965-4932 E-Mail: archives@asu.edu Questions? Ask An Archivist! |
Anna Marie O'Leary, homemaker and native of Clifton, Arizona and her husband, Jorge O'Leary, physician and native of Sonora, Mexico, were key players in leading a major strike against the Phelps Dodge Corporation in the Clifton-Morenci area from 1983 to 1986. She served as an active member and later as President of the Morenci Miners Women's Auxiliary; he worked as the Phelps Dodge company doctor whose pro-union stance and sympathy for the strikers led him to open his own health care clinic to help them after he was dismissed from his post at Phelps Dodge.
Anna Marie Ochoa O'Leary was born to working-class parents on April 15, 1954 in Clifton, Arizona, where her father earned his living as a shoemaker and her mother was a homemaker. Educated in the Clifton Public Schools, she later attended the University of Arizona, where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1982, a Master of Arts degree in 1994, and a Ph.D. degree in Anthropology in 1999. During the Phelps Dodge copper strike of 1983-1986 in the Clifton-Morenci area, Anna O'Leary was a housewife struggling to raise six children and a member of the Morenci Miners Women's Auxiliary (MMWA), founded in 1946 as a support group for the copper unions. In 1984-85, Anna served the MMWA as the Chairwoman of the Steering, Publicity, and Outreach committees and was elected its President in November of 1985. During her tenure with the MMWA, Anna O'Leary and its members turned the auxiliary into one of the few largely Mexican American working-class women's groups in labor history. They also became formidable adversaries of the Phelps Dodge Corporation, establishing food, clothing, and picket lines; raising funds for strikers' families; going on public speaking "solidarity tours" across the United States speaking to political conventions, teachers' associations, lawyers' associations, human rights groups, and the National Organization for Women, urging support for the strike. Anna O'Leary was one of these public speakers and spoke at the national convention of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW). In July of 1985, she was the recipient of a Ford Foundation scholarship that sponsored her as a delegate to attend "Forum '85", a United Nations Decade for Women Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. In 1986, she ran for and was elected to the Clifton City Council. She now lives in Tucson with her family and her husband, Jorge O'Leary.
Jorge Juan Franco O'Leary was born in 1940 in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico to a Mexican Yaqui Indian mother and an Irish father who ran one of Mexico's largest breweries, Cerveceria Cuauhtemoc. He attended medical school at the University of Mexico in Mexico City, where he earned his medical degree in 1967. Dr. O'Leary came to the United States and completed his residency in surgery at a major hospital in Tucson, Arizona. He was hired by the Phelps Dodge Corporation in 1970 as a company physician at the Morenci Hospital, where he delivered more than twenty-five hundred babies during his tenure. In 1980, Dr. O'Leary became an American citizen.
When 2,300 members of thirteen international unions staged a labor strike against the Phelps Dodge Corporation on July 1, 1983, one of their most ardent supporters was Dr. Jorge O'Leary. He accused the Phelps Dodge Corporation of withdrawing health, medical, and hospital coverage to striking copper workers as a tactic to pressure them to return to their jobs and he offered them free medical care at the company hospital. His fiery speeches and accusations against Phelps Dodge at union rallies brought him a large following of admirers and he quickly caught the attention of the local and national media, who elevated him to "folk-hero" status. His speeches also caught the attention of the Phelps Dodge Corporation. On October 7, 1983, Dr. O'Leary was fired from his position as a company physician at the Morenci Hospital. Dr. O'Leary refused to leave the area and declared his intention to stay and care for the strikers and their families. Using his own money, Dr. O'Leary converted a feed store along Route 66 in Clifton into a free health care facility that he named the "People's Clinic." His patients were the strikers, their families, and others who supported him. Donations to the "People's Clinic" quickly poured in from throughout the United States and Germany and from such individuals as United Farm Workers president Cesar Chavez; rock star Bruce Springsteen; Hollywood actor Edward Asner; local and national labor unions; and so-called radical groups like the Workers League and the Young Socialists. Dr. O'Leary kept his "People's Clinic" open until 1987. He and his family moved to Tucson that same year, where Dr. O'Leary opened and maintains a medical practice at the San Rafael Medical Center.
The Anna Marie and Jorge O'Leary Papers consist of correspondence, printed matter, and miscellaneous items documenting the Phelps Dodge copper strike of 1983-1986. The collection dates from 1981 to 1987 and has been divided into two series.
Series I: People's Clinic consists of incoming and outgoing personal correspondence addressed to Dr. Jorge O'Leary expressing support for his efforts to bring attention to the plight of the copper miners and their families during the Phelps Dodge strike in the Clifton-Morenci, Arizona area. The letters date from 1981 to 1987 and were written by eastern labor union leaders and members, college students, and individuals from Mexico and Germany. Other letters acknowledge the financial support that Dr. O'Leary received from individuals who sympathized with his cause. Anna O'Leary's activities as a member of the Morenci Miners Women's Auxiliary in the Clifton-Morenci area and as a member of the Clifton City Council are also discussed.
Series II: Miscellaneous houses pamphlets, newspaper clippings, magazine articles, and related materials showing the Phelps Dodge strike of 1983 and illustrating the role of women in labor movements in the United States.
To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.
The Arizona Board of Regents retains copyright to this collection for and on behalf of the Arizona State University Library. Requests to publish, display, or redistribute information from this collection must be submitted via our online application.
[Identification of item], Anna Marie and Jorge O'Leary Papers, MSS-136, Arizona State University Library.
Anna Marie Ochoa O'Leary donated these papers to the Chicano Research Collection in 1994 (ACC# 1994-01410).
| Series I: People's Clinic | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 1 | Correspondence, 1982-1983 | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | Correspondence, 1984 | |||||||||
| 1 | 3 | Correspondence, 1985 | |||||||||
| 1 | 4 | Correspondence, 1986-1987 | |||||||||
| Series II: Miscellaneous | |||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||
| 1 | 5 | Phelps Dodge Strike, 1983 | |||||||||
| 1 | 6 | Phelps Dodge Strike, 1983-1984 | |||||||||
| 1 | 7 | Governor Bruce Babbitt, 1984 | |||||||||
| 1 | 8 | Jorge O'Leary: Speeches, 1984 | |||||||||
| 1 | 9 | Dr. O'Leary: License Petition, 1984 | |||||||||
| 1 | 10 | Women on Strike Support Groups, 1985 | |||||||||
| 1 | 11 | Death of a Town?, 1984 | |||||||||
| 1 | 12 | El Corrido de Morenci, 1984 | |||||||||