Memorial Services for Mario
Savio
The Berkeley Memorial Service
An
overflowing crowd of 1400 mourners crammed Pauley Ballroom for Mario's memorial service at
U.C. Berkeley on December 8, 1996, hardly noticed by the C-SPAN cameras they pushed to the
wall. The speakers included his widow Lynne Hollander, his son Nadav, and his brother Tom;
Truston Davis, his friend since jail; Bettina Aptheker, Anita Levine, Michael Rossman,
Jack Weinberg, and Reggie Zelnik from the FSM and later friendship; Oliver Johns from S.F.
State, where Mario returned to school; Elaine Sundberg and Mette Adams from Sonoma State,
where he taught; Cobie Harris from San Jose State and Hatem Bazian from the UC/B Graduate
Assembly, who worked with him recently in statewide organizing to defend affirmative
action; Genaro Padilla, UC/B's Vice-Chancellor of Undergraduate Affairs; and Grant Harris
and Kevin Zwick from the ASUC, who announced plans to rename Sproul Steps to honor Mario.
The
complex and moving tribute -- organized by Lynne, Michael, Reggie, and Anita -- flowed
briskly for more than two hours, marked by many passages of deep feeling and thought as
people spoke of Mario's personal character and ways; of his commitment to and influence in
social action, before and during the FSM; of his distinguished studenthood in physics and
his career as a teacher; of his recent political engagements; and of his meanings to so
many, to us all. The intensity shifted at intervals, as John Fromer and others of the
Freedom Song Network led the gathering in dear songs; and as Joe McDonald sang the
touching tribute to his father, lately passed, from which the title of our newsletter is
adapted. At the close, we all went outside to gather on the Steps, hold hands, and sing
"We Shall Overcome" -- and then dissolved into a hundred knots of conversation
among old friends who see each other rarely, or walked away in silent feeling, past the
Xplicit Players performing a slow, naked masque in Mario's honor, in silent tribute to the
freedom of expression still nourished in this place.
No
one's speech was more impressive than the whole, and so much was said so well by so many
that no summary will serve; but two seem specially notable. I felt that Bettina Aptheker's eulogy brought to focus the
compassion and wisdom of the whole memorial. As for the Vice-Chancellor's unscheduled
appearance, it brought a complex comic relief, as an audience by then deeply unified
watched Padilla gracefully field reminders of old, unsettled scores. Yet his sincerity and
the meaning of his presence were lost on few. For as the university had had no high
administrators of color in our time, his position was to some degree one fruit of the FSM;
and his speech before national media was a substantive token of the university's
ambivalent commitment to defend affirmative action. Following on Chancellor Tien's
statement to the FSM reunion in 1994, it was also a further, fragile sign that the
university may be preparing to come to honorable terms with this charged episode of its
history. (For more on this, see the sections on the Savio Steps dedication, and upcoming
news about the Library's project.)
By
all accounts, Mario's memorial was an impressive affair, worthy of future reference. Yet
what seemed most impressive and vital to me was not the platform program, but the congress
gathered there to participate. As I am apt to run on about how a collective spirit is
conjured in certain circumstances, I will choke this off; but the objective sociology
remains. Though many young and others who had not been in the FSM were among our 1400, we
were mostly of a certain vintage in both age and nurture; a good half had been involved
directly in the conflict, and most others in ways no less real. We had in common not
simply that experience and the textures of adult life since, but a synergy of these, since
for so many in so many ways, the FSM has been a transformative experience with life-long
consequences still working out. In this circumstance moved deeply to recall, in
remembering Mario we remembered ourselves at our best as social citizens and perhaps more
deeply, and what we had managed to make of this; and remembered ourselves in a larger
sense also, or so I fancy.
One
looked around: there was him, whom you hadn't seen since when, and her,
both looking surprisingly like themselves still, inside wrinkly skin; and then more hims
and hers among the hundreds one had forgotten from the sit-in and the
picket-line, as the remembrance dawned: we are still ourselves, still a community in
life's action, whatever that means. No sociology describes such an entity, a
community of collective cause whose defining event continues to resonate as complexly in
its members as in the world; nor has ours any language to speak to itself as itself, but
at most a mute self-consciousness as such. That our gathering in Mario's memory should
evoke it is hardly surprising, yet what was there to say? Of the thousand stories gathered
in Pauley, dispersed on the Plaza, one could catch fragments of only a few; who can grasp
our tapestry? Yet even in the random scraps one gathered, one could recognize so many
connections and synergies among our varied lives that the sense of larger connection
unfolding in history throbbed in our assembly. We are still ourselves, whatever that
means, whatever we make it mean. From this sense as much as any other, our venture in
the Free Speech Movement Archives has taken form.
-- Michael Rossman
Sonoma State Memorial Activities
One
year after the death of Mario Savio, friends, colleagues and students gathered at Sonoma
State's Inter-Cultural Center on November 5, 1997 to remember Mario and the seven years he
spent here teaching math, philosophy and liberal studies. A display of photographs and
articles about Mario continued until his birthday, December 8. A group of Latino students,
who had studied with Mario and worked with him on the campaigns to defeat Propositions 209
and 187, created a traditional Day of the Dead altar in his memory, including candles,
photographs, incense, "pan dulce", and individual mementos. At this private
remembrance, people shared their special memories of Mario and discussed the impact his
life and death have had on them as individuals.
At
the public memorial service held previously on December 5, faculty, staff, students and
members of the Sonoma State community paid moving tribute to Mario Savio, "husband,
father, son, teacher, friend, mentor, activist, colleague." Over 250 people attended
the memorial held in Person Theater. Among the speakers were Lynne Hollander, Mario's
widow; Professors Elaine Sundberg, Victor Garlin, Bill Barnier, Francisco Vazquez, David
Walls, and Dianne Romain; students Mette Adams, George Schult, and Matthew Morgan; SSU
staff Aswad Allen, Leo Alvillar, and Leslie Hartman; and community activists Judith
Volkart and Michael Smith. The SSU Chorus under the direction of Robert Worth opened the
memorial with South African freedom songs, and the event was interspersed with musical
selections chosen by Lynne Hollander.
Currently
underway at SSU are plans to create a permanent memorial in Mario's honor. A "free
speech" podium is being designed by the Sculpture Club and will be placed in a free
speech area yet to be designated. Its design will incorporate highlights of Mario's life,
speeches, and causes, and will be built by students and funded by the Associated Students
and the Mario E. Savio Memorial Fund. Additional fundraising continues, with the goals of
creating a student internship in the area of human rights and social justice and funding a
lecture series. Donations can be made to "SSU Foundation -- Savio Memorial
Fund," Sonoma State University, 1801 E. Cotati, Rohnert Park, CA 94928.
Finally,
an open forum, "Committing to Diversity in a post-209 World," was held on
December 8, 1997 at SSU. Faculty and student speakers addressed concerns about diversity,
equity and access following the passage of Prop. 209, the initiative Mario Savio was
fighting against in the final weeks of his life. Mario Savio's memory and legacy continue
at Sonoma State. For those of us who worked beside him, studied with him, and enjoyed his
conversation, his intelligence, his wit, and his passionate engagement with life continue
to miss him deeply and try to move forward in his spirit.
--
Elaine Sundberg
New York Memorial Activities
An
informal memorial for Mario took place in Manhattan last December, organized by Art Gatti.
About fifty people attended, including many who had known Mario in his youth, and others
transplanted from the West Coast. Among the deep sentiments expressed there, one thread
brought Gil Faggiani to recall how he had been freed from a sense of shame in his heritage
by hearing Mario speak about how his Italian cultural background had nourished his
politics. This led Gil to organize a panel on Mario as part of the May conference on
"The Lost World of Italian-American Radicalism", sponsored jointly by the CUNY
Graduate School of History and the John D. Calendra Italian-American Institute of Queens
College. On this panel, Gil and Art were joined by Lucia Ciavola Birnbaum, whose
presentation on the "Black Madonna" figure in Sicilian culture linked it to a
local history of inter-racial tensions, and to Mario's involvement in the Civil Rights
movement. Art's own presentation will be published in the Radical History Review.
Remembrances at San Francisco
State
Mario's
time at San Francisco State University was quite different from his time at U.C. Berkeley
or even Sonoma State, in that his focus as SF State was personal and philosophical rather
than political. He came to SF State as a re-entry student in Physics, a subject he had
loved and then had to interrupt some twenty years earlier. He was an outstanding student,
getting his Bachelor's degree Summa cum Laude, and later being selected as the
outstanding Master's degree graduate in the School of Science. Thus we remember Mario as a
seeker, a probing intellect, a man touched by genius of a different order from his
political one. The remembrances of Mario at SF State were therefore quiet and personal,
rather than large and political. The department of Physics and Astronomy had speeches of
remembrance at its colloquium and a moment of silence. Mario's picture and obituary were
posted on the door of the Department office; the School of Science newsletter had a
special section of remembrance. Small things, but deeply felt, by a faculty and student
group that remembered and remembers him with respect and love.