After Mass was said by Lutheran Pastor Billl Ruth of Livingston, we marched all day Sunday from Modesto to Manteca, accompanied by college students, farm workers and Cesar Chavez’s daughter, four of his grandchildren and two of his great-grandchildren, including our two young granddaughters for whom it was their first march. Two days ago an ironworkers union member spotted us while driving down Hwy. 99, exited the freeway, made a U-turn and came back to ask what was happening and where we were headed. "I’ll be back," he said. Yesterday, he showed up with his girlfriend. He couldn’t march, but brought cases of bottled water. Another woman and her husband, a Teamsters union member, came up to us at St. Jude Catholic Church in Ceres to find out what was going on. They also turned out yesterday. The husband brought several cases of water and she marched with us all day. Democratic Assemblymember Mariko Yamada of Vacaville and her husband, JanLee Wong, also marched on Sunday.
Bringing us lunch during the mid-day break at a park in the little town of Ripon were Gustavo Medina and Yamilet Valladolid with the Latino community group El Concilio of Stockton. The North Valley Labor Federation, the central labor council out of Modesto, fed us dinner at Woodward Community Park in Manteca, where we were joined by local supporters. Among them were local tomato workers from Ace Tomato Co., where workers voted to be represented by the UFW in a 1989 state-conducted election but never won a union contract because the grower refused to negotiate. A tomato worker family from Merced was also there.
Following this morning’s Mass, once again said by Pastor Bill Ruth, we headed north from Manteca to Stockton. At 5 p.m. Monday we pause outside the San Joaquin County Courthouse in Stockton for a moment of silence in honor of Maria Isavel Vasquez Jimenez, the 17-year old pregnant grape worker who died from heat stroke in 2008. Last January, two officials from the now-defunct farm labor contracting firm that employed Maria Isavel escaped jail time for criminal charges in connection with her death during a hearing at this same courthouse. She passed out on May 14, 2008, while laboring in a Farmington vineyard without proper water or shade in violation of California’s 2005 regulation aimed at preventing heat deaths and injuries. Her employer did nothing to help her, failing even to call 911 as required by law. Maria Isavel died two days later, becoming one of at least 16 California farm laborers to suffer heat-related deaths since 2005. Cal-OSHA, the state work safety agency, is investigating two more farm worker deaths from this year, possibly due to the heat. News of a possible third death has also emerged. Members of Maria Isavel’s family are expected to attend today’s remembrance in Stockton. They met with Gov. Brown this year on the anniversary of Maria Isavel’s passing, urging him to sign the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act.
Marching with us all day Monday is Maria Isavel’s uncle, Doroteo Jimenez, his wife, Juana, and their young son, Jose.
Arturo S. Rodriguez, President
United Farm Workers of America