By David Courtland
On Sunday local civil rights activists held an event honoring farmworkers, despite recent shockwaves sent through the country farmworking community by a New York Times article about United Farm Workers founder and civil rights icon Cesar Chavez.
Taking place on the same date as an annual parade through Oxnard’s La Colonia neighborhood that had been held for more than 30 years, the event was instead held at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center on Hobson Way.
At any given time during the event about 400 people were at the center, said Denis O’Leary, a retired teacher and former Oxnard Elementary School District trustee. O’Leary was among organizers of the event along with Javier Gomez of the Inlakech Cultural Arts Center and Leo Martinez of VC Defensa, an immigrant rights advocacy group. Some of the parade regulars remained this year, such as a mariachi band and Aztec dancers.
Two people who are running for elected office attended the event, Ventura City Council candidate K.C. Rodriguez and 26th Congressional District candidate Chris Espinosa. About 300 bags of food were also distributed.
“Turnout was about what we would normally expect,” said to VIDA Newspaper O’Leary, who has been an organizer of the event in the past when it was a parade celebrating Cesar Chavez. But this year people were generally more interested in what they could learn about their rights and how to defend them, said O’Leary.
There was lots of interest in the family preparation forms he was handing out, which gave people a list of things to do in case they or a family member encountered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The (farmworking) community’s being attacked on many fronts right now, noting the federal government’s new H-2A visa program allows U.S. employers to bring foreign nationals to the U.S. for temporary or seasonal agricultural work when there is a shortage of domestic labor. Employers must prove insufficient U.S. workers, offer prevailing wages, and provide housing and transportation. There is no annual limit on visas, which usually last up to one year.
But O’Leary said the program’s workers, which he called “federally backed scabs,” take jobs from farmworkers who are in the United States legally. Meanwhile the H-2A workers have no rights themselves and can be fired if they complain about conditions.
“That was the intent and now with the impact of ICE we were trying to help them, get them proper legal counsel,” said Gomez. “We had to rebrand and refocus, because there were a lot of people canceling out on us, so this year we joined with the resource fair VC Defensa was having.”
Javier Gomez said to VIDA Newspaper, “the main difference in the event this year was that it had to be quickly refocused from celebrating Cesar Chavez to celebrating the farmworking community. The change became necessary after The New York Times published an article about sexual allegations against Chavez”.
The Times story was corroborated by none other than UFW co-founder Delores Huerta, who says she was raped twice by Chavez with both times resulting in a pregnancy. She arranged for the children to be adopted.