(Part 1 of the The RFC at 25 and Ethel Rosenberg at 100 series)

What was the cultural context of Ethel’s trial and execution? The era of the 1950's was captivated by the idea of the housewife in her kitchen. This image was used to sell a multitude of products, to remind women of their proper place, and to reassure the war-weary populace that everything was back to normal and “cooking” again.

If she were still living, my grandmother, Ethel Rosenberg, would turn 100 on September 28th of this year.

The RFC staff was in a meeting on December 17th, 2014 when our phone rang. One of my co-workers stepped into an office to answer the call. The remaining staff continued talking until we heard her surprised, excited response to the caller, our Board chair, Rafael Rodríguez Cruz. He was on his way to Cuba for an educational trip and was calling from Miami to let us know that President Obama had announced plans to normalize relations with Cuba and release the remaining incarcerated members of the Cuban 5.

Happy New Year to the entire RFC community! I hope you all are enjoying a good start to 2015 despite the dismal weather and even more depressing national and international news.

This fall marks the RFC’s 25th anniversary. We are planning to honor this milestone in a variety of ways as 2015 unfolds, culminating in a celebration near our office in western Massachusetts in October or November (we’ll share information about our plans a little later this year).

We just completed awarding our last grants of 2014 at the RFC. In all, seven new grantees joined the RFC community this fall (five families and two targeted activist youth). I described some of these families in an earlier post here). The additional new grantees include: