08 Apr Farmworker Advocacy and Legacy Take Center Stage at Pittsburg Celebration

People marched in Pittsburg on March 29 to honor farmworkers and Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and their legacies.

Story and photos by Finn Atkin

As a high school student and farmworker in the 1970s, Paul Ramirez saw his fellow workers standing up to their foreman because they weren’t being paid what they had been promised. Other times, the growers would call immigration services once the job was done instead of paying their workers. These experiences ultimately led Ramirez to become an investigator for the U.S Department of Labor, focusing on the Farmworker Protection Act.

He took part in a celebration March 29 in Pittsburg honoring farmworkers and the legacies of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta. Following a rally at City Hall, participants marched to the Dolores Huerta Community Center.

Ramirez told the Pulse he and his nine siblings all started working in the fields to help the family out.

“It was 10 kids in the family — we all stepped up because the cost for school clothes was [a lot],” he said. “We picked cucumbers, onions, cherries, apricots, peaches and prunes out there.”

He recalled seeing farmworkers and a foreman arguing. When the laborers had gone to collect their paychecks, they were lower than expected. They were supposed to be paid according to how much produce they picked, so, Ramirez said, it was common for those in charge to undercount the items to pay them less than they had earned.

When they had complaints about what the foreman was doing, the workers would also go to Ramirez’s parents because they were both bilingual.

“My mom was my teacher,” he said. “She taught me everything about organizing and activism. I learned everything from her.”

Her lessons stuck with him.

“I’ve always been an activist for farmworkers, that’s my roots,” Ramirez said.

During his time with Department of Labor, Ramirez, now retired, said he witnessed many human rights violations, including violations of child labor laws, a problem he said continues today, referencing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent efforts to weaken such laws to make it easier to put children to work, particularly in the fields.

With his state losing many workers to deportation, DeSantis has said teens and college students should step in and fill those jobs. A proposed bill now in the Florida Legislature would legalize longer hours for underage workers. Among other things, children “as young as 14 could soon be allowed to work overnight shifts without a break – even on school nights,” according to the Guardian.

Ramirez’s last case as a Labor investigator, six years ago in Brentwood, resulted in “$143,000 for about 56 farmworkers who had been cheated. They were taking their money,” he said.

Fernando Sandoval, another former farmworker, told the Pulse the March 29 event brought back memories of his time in the fields, picking berries after waking up at 4 a.m. each morning.

“It’s a great event because it pays tribute to the spirit of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta and what they were about: helping people, helping kids, helping families,” he said.

The event’s flyer said it was “honoring the true essential workers.” Back in 2020, farmworkers were designated essential workers during the pandemic.

“So ICE was not allowed to go in and take farmworkers out of the farms because they’re considered essential workers — and they’re still essential,” Sandoval said. “They put all the food on our table continually.”

Sandoval also gave a speech at the event, in which he urged the community to come together to fight President Trump’s push for mass deportation and the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion policies in schools.

“We shouldn’t be afraid,” he said. “We’ve got to be proud to go forward and disrupt the bad things that are happening.”

Sarita Davalos of Diablo Valley College marched alongside other students, holding banners honoring Chavez and Huerta and calling for unity. She was also among the students who addressed the crowd.

“I think with how things are looking right now, it’s important for us to be in a community, supporting each other,” said Davalos, also a United Latino Voices intern. “Education is the power that we all can have. It is the power that we can give the young children right now to educate our youth is what no one can take away from them and what can bring us closer together.”