One year ago, on May 16, 2008, 17 year old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez died working in the fields from the heat and lack of water. Six California farm workers died last summer from the heat.
August 2, 2008: Maria de Jesus Alvarez
July 31, 2008: Jorge Herrera
July 9, 2008: Ramiro Carrillo Rodriguez
July 9, 2008: Abdon Felix Garcia
June 20, 2008: Jose Macrena Hernandez
May 17, 2008: Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez
Fifteen farm workers have died of heat-related complications since July 2004.
Doroteo Jimenez, an uncle of Maria Isabel, spoke at a Los Angeles area vigil commemorating Maria's life this week:
Maria was a beautiful human being who came to this country with a lot of dreams and the desire to work hard and help her mom and younger siblings, but her dreams were cut short. A year after her passing, the best way to honor her is by making sure farm workers are protected and treated with dignity and respect."
We can help prevent more deaths this year by passing the California EFCA for farmworkers. A strong union can make the laws on the books become the laws in the fields. No more deaths in the fields.
Earlier this week, the United Farm Workers and many others marked the one year anniversary of when 17-year old Maria Isabel collapsed of heat stroke. Maria's uncle Doroteo Jimenez spoke:
Maria collapsed while working for Merced Farm Labor in a vineyard owned by West Coast Grape Farming outside of Stockton, CA. Maria worked for nine hours in temperatures that reached 101 degrees. There was no water nearby. There was no shade.
After about 2 hours of delays, Maria was finally taken to a clinic. Her temperature upon arrival was 108.4 degrees. Maria's heart stopped six times in the next two days before she passed away. Doctors said if emergency medical help had been summoned or she had been taken to the hospital sooner, she might have survived.
This short documentary was made late last summer and is excellent. It's about 15 or 20 minutes long, but well worth watching now or later, or even just in parts. California’s Harvest of Shame is narrated by Speaker Emeritus Nunez, himself the son of a migrant farm worker, and includes a prologue and epilogue by actor and activist Martin Sheen. California farmworkers are not receiving the protections they need and deserve under current laws. Nunez traveled to the fields of California’s Central Valley and documented the devastating and sometimes fatal conditions farmworkers face everyday as they harvest the food that feeds America.
If you don't watch it now, please save it for later and check it out. And skip to the rest, because there is something YOU can do to help prevent loss of lofe this year.
California's Harvest of Shame from California Assembly Access on Vimeo.
The state has finally filed charges in Maria's case. This is good, but it's not enough. Violations of the heat laws occur every day and little is done. Last year five other farm workers died of heat-related causes after Maria's death.
This is why SB789, CA Employee Free Choice Act for Farm Workers (Steinberg) must be passsed and signed by the Governor. The bill will make it easier for farm workers to organize and help enforce the laws that California's government cannot enforce. Where the union is strong, water is available and the legally mandated heat breaks happen. It literally is a matter of life and death.
SB789 passed the California state senate and will next be heard in the state assembly and then go to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Let's stop the deaths in the fields and help those who earn their bread by the literal sweat of their brow not just live a more decent life, but LIVE.
Please take action today and tell the California Assembly to pass SB789, a bill that will give farm workers the power to protect themselves.
Please sign the letter:
Take action on the anniversary of Maria Isabel's heat death
Having laws on the books that often are not enforced is not enough. Please pass SB789, a bill that will give farm workers the power to protect themselves
Si, Se Puede! Yes, we can! (The slogan was borrowed from the UFW.)
Please sign the letter.
Take action on the anniversary of Maria Isabel's heat death
For more background, check out these diaries from last year:
Yesterday we mourned, Today we act, Tomorrow we will gain justice. Sí se puede!
Sixth Farm Worker Dies from the Heat this Summer in California. A Call for Action.
Another Farm Worker dies. Does anyone give a damn? The Netroots Do.
United Farm Workers Calls for Manslaughter Charges Against Company in Death of 17 Year Old
How many Farmworkers must die before someone cares??
Please Tell Fallen Farm Worker's Family We Care
"How much is the life of a farm worker worth? Is it less than the life of any other human being?"
Please help save lives and Sign the letter:
Take action on the anniversary of Maria Isabel's heat death