TOLEDO, Ohio — Seventy-seven-year-old Baldemar Velasquez grew up as a farm worker in south Texas, traveling to other states for seasonal work, before eventually settling in Ohio.
“Throughout the Midwest and Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, picking every crop that you can think of,” Velasquez said. “Cherries, strawberries, apples, tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, peaches.”
Velasquez said he’s organized on behalf of agricultural workers for more than half a century, founding the Farm Labor Organizing Committee in 1967. He said the group has overcome barriers and made history, including the eight-year Campbell Soup Strike in the 1980s.
Roughly half of hired crop farmworkers are of undocumented status, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This means Donald Trumps plan to deport millions of undocumented people could have a significant impact on the farm industry.
“The 2000 workers, I'd say about 25% of those workers were undocumented, but they joined us anyway, and we won the rights for them because we had collective bargaining agreements to give them certain labor rights,” Velasquez said.
“Hasta la Victoria,” or, “Until Victory” became their rallying cry, which they now repeat today as farm workers continue to face a wage gap and new challenges brought on by the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
“Farmers are shying away from hiring undocumented people,” he said. “The next wave of people that have come in are the recent H-2A workers, the temporary, agricultural work visa, and that's growing, tremendously in Ohio right now. So we've had to start organizing those workers.”
Linda Alvadrado-Arce is an educator, activist and long-time Northwest Ohio resident, with roots in South Texas and Northern Mexico
Alvarado-Arce said she grew up going to the field camps with her mom and other migrants.
“This is just in my blood,” she said. “This is all I know. This is everything that I do.”
She’s dedicated most of her life to researching and documenting the experiences of the immigrant community, which Alvarado said plays a critical role in the economy.
“If Americans all wanted to do this, then we wouldn't have farms, agricultural workers, migrant workers,” Alvarado-Arce said. “We have this because there's a need and a demand.”
Velasquez said, in the past, the committee’s actions helped propel political action toward supporting farm workers’ rights.
Through the committee’s efforts, Velasquez said, they’re hoping to push for reform in the immigration system and out in the field.
“There's a lot of innocent people who are just trying to survive serving our country,” Baldemar said. “…And they're honest, good working people trying to live the the American principle of fairness: pay for a fair day of work.”
