Delano, California – Carolina Sánchez joined the United Farmer Workers Union in 2016 after the blueberry farm, where he worked changed the daily rate for each pound he chose.
“They said that if you don’t like what they pay you, you can go home,” said Sánchez.
She organized the 500 workers on the farm of Delano to attack with the support of the UFW. Finally, they won a union contract, and Sánchez was chosen as a union representative in their workplace.
This month, Sánchez began to mobilize his co -workers to attend a march he led on Monday, César Chávez’s day.
Sixty years after the historic Delano Grape Strike, who launched the march of 280 miles from Chávez to Sacramento with American Filipino agricultural workers and Mexico, more than 5,000 members of United agricultural workers and other union members met Monday in Delano for a march towards the forty acres site where Chávez maintained their first public progress.
This year’s march focused on the recent immigration policies of the Trump administration, with the hope that the demonstration, called “with these hands” or “with these hands,” reminds people about workers who grow up and choose their food.
Agricultural workers in California, who cultivate a third of the country’s vegetables and three quarters of their fruits and nuts, have informed of growing fear and anxiety for a series of arrests and deportations of immigration and compliance with customs in the central valley. Around half of California’s agricultural workers are undocumented, according to a study by the University of California, Irvine, and according to the United States Department of Agriculture, approximately 42% throughout the country lacks legal immigration status.
The Treasurer of the UFW secretary, Armando Elenes, said that these numbers tend to be reported. “We estimate that it is closer to 60 or 70 percent of undocumented agricultural workers” in California, he said.
Elenes said ICE has arrested and deported around 200 agricultural workers in Kern County. He said that asking for more temporary work visas is not enough and that there is the need for broader labor protections for workers who fear being rounded and separated from their families.
“We need to go back on the federal government. We need state and local laws that provide our workers with the days of illness, heat protection and medical care,” he said.
On the march, representatives of other labor organizations, such as the Federation of Labor Unions of California and Seiu California, went to the crowd, and the Attorney General of California Rob Bonto shared the history of his family.
“Being here is like going home to me: I grew up with my parents who work for United Agricultural Workers, and I know that the fight is not about grapes or lettuce, but that it is people,” said Bonta, who was born in the Philippines and whose mother helped organize Filipino and Mexican agricultural workers.
The march allowed agricultural workers such as Gabriel Leal, to choose grapes and cherries, feel supported by participation. ICE gathered some of his friends during the January raids.
“They were parked along the roads, stopping anyone,” he said. “Even if we are afraid, we have to go to work, without us, who will feed our families? Who will feed our country?”
But not all in the region are not happy with immigration policies and deportation measures of the Trump administration.
Alex Domínguez, a Kern County resident who identifies as a Republican and comes from generations of field workers, said he and his relatives are cautiously optimistic about ice arrests.
“A part of me understands the concerns and concerns of the community in general around a greater police presence,” said Domínguez, a water and agriculture lawyer. “But from what I have seen, they are the bad ones that are being taken, and that makes our Latin families safer.”
Dominguez, who is also the vice president of the Kern County Agriculture Office, said he is listening to the producers, winners of the farm winners, but does not believe that immigration measures have prevented any of them from doing their job.
“These workers have to earn money, so not going to work is not an option,” said Domínguez.
During the march, the son of César Chávez, Paul Chávez, said that the point of mobilization is not to change people’s minds. “We are gathering people who want to face racism and xenophobia to demonstrate that there are people on their side,” he said.
Sánchez was hope that the march sends a message that immigrant workers everywhere receive support.
“All American workers understand what Chavez achieved and will never forget their legacy,” he said.
