Farmworkers call for action against heat deaths

Oaxacan festival honors those killed by heat

By CLAUDIA MELÉNDEZ SALINAS
Herald Salinas Bureau

In the wake of California's third farmworker death of the year caused by heat, the United Farm Workers union has announced a caravan to Sacramento to demand stronger enforcement of laws aimed at curbing heat-related casualties.

During Greenfield's third annual Cultural Celebration of Oaxacan Culture, UFW President Arturo Rodriguez said the union will bus 700 to 800 farmworkers from all over California to protest lack of shade and drinking water for field harvesters.

In Sacramento, "they are the ones making the decisions ... but there's not enough money or enough people to do the enforcement," Rodriguez said. "The farmworkers are the forgotten people."

State officials are investigating the death of 42-year-old Abdon Felix, who died Wednesday after laboring in the fields at Sunview Vineyards near Delano. The coroner's office said his body temperature was 108 degrees when he arrived at the hospital.

Although it's the third casualty recognized by state officials as caused by heat stroke, the UFW is also saying the death of Ramiro Carrillo Rodriguez was caused by heat.

Carrillo Rodriguez, 46, of Selma was driven home from his job at a Reedley packing plant at noon Thursday after he developed a headache, a Fresno County coroner's spokeswoman said Saturday.

Shortly before 6 p.m., Carrillo Rodriguez was found slumped in a chair outside his home. The coroner's office said an autopsy done Friday failed to determine the cause of death, but more tests are pending.

Added to the death of Maria Isabel Vazquez Jimenez, a 17-year-old fieldworker who died in May after working in a vineyard, and 64-year-old Jose Macarena Hernandez, who died June 20 during record-breaking heat after harvesting butternut squash in Santa Maria, Carrillo Rodriguez was the fourth farmworker death of the year and the 12th since 2004.

Hundreds of Oaxacan immigrants who attended Sunday's event waved their UFW flags and promised to ride buses to Sacramento on Aug. 18.

Greenfield, home to thousands of Oaxacan immigrants who have long been involved in organizing their community, has become a hub of union activism. Efren Barajas, vice president of the UFW, said the union has hired local activists Andres Cruz and Eulogio Solano to step up their organizing efforts and train other Oaxacan communities throughout the state.

Cruz, a Triqui Indian, and Solano, a Mixteco, have lived in Greenfield since the early 1990s and are known as translators, organizers and community leaders.

Also at the event were UFW co-founder Dolores Huerta, Greenfield Police Chief Joe Grebmeier, Monterey County Sheriff Mike Kanalakis, Supervisor Lou Calcagno, various Greenfield City Council members and representatives of Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, and Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salinas.

Besides remembering the farmworkers who died of heat stroke, Oaxacan leaders asked for a minute of silence for slain local activist Martin Macareno, who was bludgeoned to death July 5, 2007. Macareno made it his mission to work with the indigenous community, and copies of his picture dotted Sunday's event.

"He was a great man to us," Andres Cruz said. "He was a great friend and he helped us a lot."