11 a.m. Jan. 22, 2002 in Phoenix with farm workers
UFW to endorse Gutierrez for Arizona governor
Thirty years after its legendary founder fasted for 25 days in Phoenix to protest Arizona’s farm labor law, the United Farm Workers on Tuesday will endorse Alfredo Gutierrez’s gubernatorial candidacy in hopes that "the injustices of the past can be expunged" and the state’s farm workers and other immigrant workers can win relief from decades of abuse.
Among those joining Gutierrez and area farm workers at a 11 a.m. news conference in Phoenix will be UFW National Vice President Rosalinda Guillen, Arizona UFW activists and the general manager of La Campesina (88.3 FM), the area’s most popular Spanish-language radio station.
"It is fitting that the United Farm Workers endorses Alfredo Gutierrez’s candidacy for governor because our movement and its founder, Cesar Chavez, have deep and abiding roots in Arizona, and because farm workers in this state still cry out for relief from the suffering they have endured for generations," says the UFW’s Guillen.
Chavez was born on March 31, 1927 on the small farm his grandfather homesteaded in the Gila River Valley outside Yuma in the 1880s. He died a short distance away on April 23, 1993, while defending the union against a grower’s civil lawsuit.
The UFW founder conducted his second long public fast, of 25 days in Phoenix in 1972, in response to enactment of Arizona’s Farm Bureau-sponsored agricultural labor law that severely limits the right of farm workers to strike and boycott. That law, which has hampered farm worker organizing in Arizona for 30 years, is still on the books.
Gutierrez’s campaign "is a symbol of hope for a better day by Arizona farm workers and immigrants, too many of whom have perished crossing the Arizona-Mexico border," Guillen says. "It offers promise that the injustices of the past can be expunged and that farm workers and their communities can enjoy a new day of dignity and freedom in Arizona."
Who: Gubernatorial candidate Alfredo Gutierrez, UFW National Vice President Rosalinda Guillen, UFW Arizona Director of Membership Cecilia Hidalgo, Michael Nowakowski, general manager of the La Campesina radio station, and area farm workers.
What: The UFW’s endorsement of Gutierrez’s campaign for governor in the Sept. 10 Democratic primary.
When: 11 a.m., Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2002.
Where: UFW’s Phoenix office, 3602 W. Thomas Rd. (northwest corner of 35th Ave. and Thomas Rd.), Phoenix.
– end –