Today’s march is just as relevant as were the many marches Chavez himself led, according to Carlos Marentes, the director of the region’s farmworker center, Sin Fronteras:

"The conditions of agricultural workers in our border area continue to deteriorate. Their average annual income amounts to only $6,000, falling far below the Federal Poverty Income Guidelines. Farmworkers are the poorest of the poor in our nation."

Marentes says that six of every ten farmworker families are homeless. During the winter, most of those families are also hungry due to lack of employment.

The wave of intense violence that batters this border area adds to that precarious situation locally. Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, is the gateway through which many migrant workers arrive. Juarez, widely considered the most dangerous city in the world, suffers a murder rate that outstrips that of Afghanistan or Iraq.

In the context of that violence, the seriousness of the migrant farmworker’s plight becomes intensely clear. Marentes says the farmworkers’ living conditions are "an embarrassment to the border."

Thus, the farmworkers must continue to march. Bearing signs, wielding banners, waving logo flags in red, black and white, the marchers sing and chant throughout the route that winds through downtown streets. The long tone of the conch shell punctuates the blocks, floating above all the marchers. The El Paso winds cooperate, making marchers’ pennants fly. [photo]

Today’s colorful annual event includes marching groups of costumed traditional dancers, folklorico dancers, matachine dancers, and the reverberating rhythm of drumming that echos from the multistoried buildings lining the downtown streets. El Paso police escort the marchers through temporarily-halted traffic. [photo] Many local organizations and university students join the agricultural workers, lending their support.

Dressed in their identifying colors of red and black, the group will gather at the Farmworkers’ Center, marching from that location directly on the U.S.-Mexico border to the heart of central downtown El Paso and back. The return includes a brief stop at Sacred Heart Church where the workers will listen to a speakers who knew and worked with Chavez. There they also receive a blessing at the church which has historically been a mainstay of the Segundo Barrio neighborhood of El Paso. Many of the farmworker participants have physical challenges after years of labor-intensive toil, so efforts along the route will accommodate those special needs. [photo]

A social featuring food, beverages and music at the Farmworkers’ Center will follow the march.