This week, on March 31, we celebrated the day of Cesar Chavez. This holiday—celebrated throughout California, Colorado, and Texas on his birthday—, serves to remember the contribution of Chavez’s activism for the right of farmworkers in the U.S. In this Hispanic Highlight and inspired in Cesar Chavez’s life, we want to recognize all the unsung Latino heroes who are working to feed the U.S. from the farms during this pandemic.
You may have read some of their names in recent articles published; The New York Times cites two: Nancy Silva and Maura Fabian. However, there are hundreds of thousands of Hispanic farmworkers, most of whom are undocumented.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, “direct on-farm employment accounted for about 2.6 million jobs, or 1.3 percent of U.S. employment” in 2018. Furthermore, The New York Times reports that, according to the Agriculture Department, “about half of all crop hands in the United States, more than one million, are undocumented immigrants.” Yet, “growers and labor contractors estimate that the share is closer to 75 percent.” In terms of demographics, the USDA ERS reported that, in 2017, 63% of farm laborers, graders, and sorters were Hispanics.
There is a long history of Latino farmworkers in the U.S. For one, Cesar Chavez’s family was among those who lost their homes in the Great Depression and moved to Northern California to work in farms. In 1942, amid World War II, the U.S. signed the Mexican Farm Labor Agreement with Mexico to fill the agriculture labor shortage caused by the war. The program, which did not meet the necessary protections and rights promised to the workers, employed over 5 million braceros (manual laborers) in 24 states over 22 years.
Eladio Bobadilla reported in The Washington Post that, in 1965, Congress passed legislation that limited legal migration from Western Hemisphere countries. However, the farming industry continued to recruit laborers who, all of a sudden, came to the U.S. illegally. Bobadilla writes on The Post,”A new class of cheap labor with limited legal rights and little power to demand better working conditions or higher wages came to dominate farm work: undocumented immigrants.“
In recent years, undocumented farmworkers have increasingly feared deportation. However, since the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., they have been recognized as “essential” to the food supply chain of the country. Now, they carry letters emitted by their employers, which state that the Department of Homeland Security considers their work critical and have permission to disobey the “stay-at-home” order to go to work. And although these letters are not a guarantee against deportation, they feel more secure knowing they won’t get arrested for going to work.
Farmworkers should be guaranteed working conditions that reduce their risk of contracting the virus since many of them do not have health insurance and do not get sick pay. Some of them are already working reduced hours and days that adjust to the market, which creates financial stress on them. Keep in mind that those undocumented won’t receive assistance from the $2 trillion aid package.
On behalf of IQLatino, we thank all the farmworkers, but especially the members of our Latino community who are working hard to provide food security to all of us during this uncertain time. We also reaffirm our commitment to highlighting and fighting for the recognition of their contribution to the country and consequent rights and benefits deserved. Farmworkers will continue to be essential after the virus outbreak, and we invite all our readers to remember them and demand justice for them.