Centro Campesino

Phrases of Hope

Centro Campesino, located in downtown Owatonna, Minnesota, is a non-profit, membership organization formed by migrant farmworkers in response to problems they face in their working and living conditions. A conversation with Centro Campesino organizers is sprinkled with poetic phrases, phrases of hope — Hasta la Victoria — until the victory. Through:

* organizing,
* advocacy and
* service,

Centro Campesino works to improve the lives of agricultural workers and rural Latinas and Latinos in southern Minnesota.

How many American consumers, when they purchase a simple can of green beans, are aware of the story behind that product? For more than sixty years, campesinos (farmworkers) have traveled the 1476 miles from southern Texas and the Mexican border region to live, April through October, in southern Minnesota’s migrant camps. Tens of thousands of workers pick vegetables or fruits, work in food-processing factories, earn low salaries, and live, during these months, in migrant camps where sub-standard housing is typical. Campesinos encompass a demographic group that suffers a disease rate six times higher than the norm and an average life span of 49 years.

Doing the Impossible

Imagine producing 6300 cans of vegetables per pallet times 100 or 120 pallets per 12-hour shift. Imagine returning to your camp at six a.m. only to switch places with your spouse who will work the next 12-hour shift. Imagine trying to rest while caring for your children, then returning once again to your own 12-hour shift, belts running at higher speeds if a profit margin or incoming crop is pushing the system. Imagine this seven days a week for 15 or more weeks during the peak-processing season. On-the-job accident rates are as high as 25 percent. As Jaime Duran remembers, “A two-person job was reduced to one. The machine kept going, and I was doing the impossible. I never dreamed the machine would pick me up and put me through it — but it did.”

Controlled by contratistas, or crew leaders, the workers had not, until the late 1990s, organized locally in response to this situation. As one leader put it, “a spirit had not awakened in the people to dispute these conditions.” In 1997, Campesino leaders, with support from the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of Minnesota, conducted a detailed survey of all farmworkers in the region. A majority of the families participated and revealed facts and opinions that later set the tone and mission for Centro Campesino.

After a 30 to 40 hour drive from southern Texas, only 4 percent of those surveyed describe the migrant camps in which they arrived as “comfortable.” Seventy-eight percent mentioned problems with restrooms in the camps; 27n percent were concerned with the quality of the water. Fifty-three percent explained that transportation to and from the jobs was the biggest problem they faced, and with 65 percent Spanish speakers, more than half surveyed wanted interpreters available to facilitate communication with their bosses.

At the end of the 1999 harvest season, committee members developed a strategic plan for the organization under the training and guidance of Baldemar Velasquez. A small group of farmworkers then stayed in Minnesota during the winter of 1999-2000 to build the organization and raise money. Community meetings were held, and farmworker families began to see that this effort, self-organized by their own people, offered hope. By the summer of 2001, 80 percent of campesinos had joined Centro as members.

Careful Organization

Leaders of Centro Campesino work steadily and incrementally for such things as:

* storm shelters,
* hot water in the camps or
* remodeled day care facilities.

They also speak of the whole system saying, “people want to be respected. There is a feeling of waking up, of wanting to know their rights. We focus on the truth of the truth.”

Organizing is done carefully. If an employer is pressed too hard, they may simply move the production elsewhere. These are global companies looking for the cheapest labor, and campesinos promised work. A food-production system that demands this profit orientation is a justice issue of the biggest scale. “This is not just one issue,” says one of the leaders, “we all have a responsibility to make the entire system more just. I hope that Minnesotans understand the faith that we have, and that they support us in making change.”

Stories of Hope

One energizing story surrounds the Willow Creek Intermediate School in Owatonna, benefiting for the first year from Latino/Latina liaisons. Teachers at the school have been trained to see the full cycle of the lives of farmworker families, to see the full scope of the situation. Liaisons help improve the reading ability of migrant children, assisting staff over a language barrier. In the spring of 2001, the entire school focused on Mexican culture and history, ending the school year with a fiesta that included all students.

Organizers take pride in their logo, designed by a 14-year old migrant worker. Rooted in Mexico with “fe” or faith, the stalk of the corn plant travels up the map on the route of Highway 35, through “esperanza” or hope in Texas and to “justicia” or justice in Minnesota. Four corn leaves represent the four states traveled through on the journey north. Minnesota’s arrowhead region forms the beak of an eagle, and a raised fist standing for solidarity or “Union” forms the tassel of the corn and the crown of the state. Campesinos who travel north with hope in their hearts, and who bring their muscle and determination to the food system in Minnesota, are working to find justice — decent working and living conditions — at the far end of the journey.

By joining together, the campesinos in Minnesota believe they can bring about change. El pueblo unido jamas séra vencido — the people united will never be defeated!