ARIZONA REPUBLIC

July 26, 2006

Migrant farm workers' legacy lives on

Latinos helped create public service groups

Dianna M. Náñez
The Arizona Republic

 

Amparo Rendon remembers a time when local services for migrant farm workers were difficult to find.

Rendon has seen that change during her more than three decades living in El Mirage.

More importantly, she said, she was part of a movement that helped force positive changes for the once overlooked families living in the area.

Surprise and El Mirage migrant farm workers helped build many of the Northwest Valley's community service organizations, some which are still going strong today. Surprise's Clinica Adelante, for example, has grown from a farm workers' health clinic into a community health institution.

"We picked lettuce, citrus, roses, onion, everything," Rendon, 72, said. "But we had little support until the union came to help organize farm workers."

Rendon said after the United Farm Workers union and other local labor organizers came to their aid, the focus on farm workers' rights became important to more people.

She also credits the strikes of the late 1960s and 1970s with propelling a wave of local community action.

"I'd never been to school," Rendon said. "I couldn't read or write. But sacrificing for the strike, and later winning, made us feel like we could make a difference."

Surprise resident Jose Ojeda, an early farm worker, remembered his days as a local labor organizer as some of the proudest and most difficult times of his life.

"There was so much suffering," Ojeda said. "But in the end, we won the highest raises our people had ever received."

Ojeda said the victories were the impetus for many of the local community service organizations. Local farm workers aiming to serve their own needs founded Centro Adelante Campesino, or Center for the Advancement of Farm Workers, of which Ojeda was president for years.

"I stood by so many farm worker women as they advocated for their families," Ojeda said. "I'm still amazed by the strength and courage of these women."

Ojeda said many of those same ladies still visit him at the El Mirage Senior Center, where he works. It is a tradition for them to make their morning trip to church and then stop by the center to share coffee and memories, he said.

Although, Centro Adelante closed its doors this year for financial reasons, Centro Director Richard Miranda said that the facility was vital to the community.

Surprise Councilman Danny Arismendez said people counted on Centro's services, which included translating, legal referrals, food and other donations and children's tutoring. Arismendez said he hopes another community non-profit will come to Surprise to fill the void that Centro left.

Ojeda is proud to see other organizations still going strong. One such facility is Clinica Adelante, a community health clinic that was founded to serve migrant farm worker families.

"We started Clinica when we saw undocumented farm workers were being turned away from hospitals," Ojeda said. "Clinica is a success, and now helps serve all of the people."

While many of the crops are no longer raised in the area, needy families are still a part of the community. Some remain field workers, while some farm worker descendants now work in construction or house cleaning, Ojeda said.

Chicanos Por La Causa, a community development organization, also joined in the area's struggle to ensure migrant worker families are served. They started an Early Childhood Development Head Start program in Surprise about six years ago to help ready migrant workers' children for kindergarten, said Head Start manager Ana Torres.